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Can You Trust the Data Running Your Network?

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Messy, fragmented, incomplete data leads to poor decisions and missed opportunities for service improvements.

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At Intermoda (formerly NetBI and Bridj), we help transport agencies and operators become 'data fit', building confidence in the information that drives transport forward.

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Ready to find out if your data is up to the challenge?

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Cycling

Don't Do Free Buses, Do Free Bikes Instead

Free bike schemes provide bicycles and wraparound support (equipment, maintenance, lessons, cycling groups), usually to disadvantaged communities. This report has evaluated free bike schemes in the UK.

Key Takeaways

• With over 12,000 bikes provided to date, the report estimates that the return on investment (ROI) is £11.80 for every £1 invested.
• Free bikes prevent 16% of new cases of disease and 6% of expected deaths per year in participants, saving the health system up to £1 million per year.
• Well-being drives 80% of the benefits of the schemes due to improved mental health and life satisfaction.
• Other benefits include improved access to opportunities, strengthening communities, creating sustainable active places and achieving net zero.
• To achieve the best outcomes, a free bike scheme needs to have a combination of wraparound support, a strong community movement, as well as a free bike.
• To get the most out of free bike schemes, the report recommends:
  • Greater collaboration with the health system.
  • Improved cycle infrastructure.
  • Appoint cycle champions to motivate people to participate.
  • Improve scheme awareness.
  • Provide specialised training for specific groups.
  • Include a health tracker app.
  • Offer young people an alternative to the standard bike.
  • Make the case to roll out a national free bikes network.

Comment

Free bikes appear to have an exceedingly high ROI. Even if it is half the level reported, it is significantly higher than the vast majority of transport investments and so should be a priority to progress, even if only at a small scale to begin with.

Given that e-bike lending libraries are growing in popularity, I wonder how a free bike scheme would interact with an e-bike lending library.

What Next?

Should you consider implementing a free bike scheme, perhaps in partnership with the healthcare system?

Strategy

From Congestion to Calm: Lessons from Pontevedra’s Urban Transformation

Pontevedra, a town of 80,000 people in northwest Spain, has become a poster child for moving to a people-oriented city. How has it achieved its success? To create this piece, I drew heavily from these two articles: here and here.

Key Takeaways

• Pontevedra began its transformation in 1999 when a new Mayor, Miguel Anxo Fernandez Lores, was elected. He is still the Mayor.
• The Mayor's philosophy can be summed up in the phrase: Owning a car does not give you the right to take up public space.
• Within one month in office, Lores pedestrianised 300,000 square metres of the city centre and on-street car parking was removed on a large scale.
• Surface-level car parks and traffic lights were removed. Traffic calming measures helped to slow the traffic down to 30 km/h.
• The city’s pedestrian-centric ‘metrominuto’ model shows walking distances between key points of the city.
• Since the changes were introduced, the city has seen a reduction in CO2 emissions of over 70%. No fatal traffic accidents have been recorded since 2011.
• The city has gained 12,000 new inhabitants who were drawn to the city’s newly restored and thriving centre.
• Pontevedra’s approach differs from other ‘car-free’ cities in that it still provides adequate parking for all vehicles coming from outside of the city on the outer rings with no cost or time limits to encourage people to ‘park and walk’.
• Experimentation has been crucial for testing new ideas in urban space management.
• 2021 modal distribution in the city centre:
  • 84.3% of trips are made on foot or by bicycle
  • 14.7% of trips are made in private motor vehicles
  • 1% of trips are made by other means of transportation

Comment

Pontevedra is a good example of a transport transformation, thanks to a bold reforming politician. Most politicians are not naturally bold reformers, so if we are to see significantly more people-oriented transport systems, we need to find ways of getting a broader church of politicians to implement reforms.

What next?

I've been compiling a list of proven policies and approaches for transforming car-oriented into people-oriented transport systems, with demonstrated success in building both community and political support.

Now I’m sharing these insights in a free, one-hour webinar.

Over 150 transport leaders have already signed up.

There are two sessions available, so you can choose the time that best fits your location:

• Session A (Asia-Pacific / Europe friendly time) → [Register here]
• Session B (Americas / Europe friendly time) → [Register here]

Strategy

What Denmark Can Teach Us About Transport Trade-offs

An expert committee in Denmark has been making recommendations for the future of local public transport. The report (in Danish) can be found here.

Key Takeaways

• Vision: Public transport must be for everyone – regardless of who you are and where you are.
• Public transport must be an integrated element in the Danish welfare model and contribute to ensuring development opportunities, social communities and quality of life across geographies and population groups.
• The public transport system must be expanded to include and integrate new flexible solutions, shared bicycles and other shared micromobility, buses on demand, carpooling schemes, etc.
• It must be easy for customers to find and understand the price – and it must be easy and intuitive to buy the ticket.
• Three dilemmas are highlighted that require political resolution:

1. Efficiency versus geographical proximity in the strategic core network. A balance must be made between high-frequency and attractive travel times on the main network and the network's reach into geographies with low passenger numbers.
2. Growth in the use of public transport versus social considerations. A balance must be made between the desire to increase the use of public transport and the desire to offer a lower price for shorter journeys to citizens.
3. Fewer and more efficient mobility companies versus local anchoring of solutions. A balance must be struck between the strengths of a more central or decentralised location of tasks.

• There are six recommendations:

1. A coherent high-frequency strategic main network of buses and trains must be established across cities and geographies with clear quality standards.
2. Public transport in rural areas must be made more attractive and economically sustainable through a transition from route-based transport solutions to more flexible demand-driven public transport.
3. The public transport system must be transformed so that it is coherent and easily accessible to citizens, even when switching between multiple transport solutions.
4. It must be easier to understand and find the price of a journey by public transport, and the competitiveness of public transport in comparison to cars must be strengthened.
5. The opportunities in innovation and systematic data collection must be exploited to renew public transport.
6. The framework conditions must be changed so that mobility companies are given an incentive to make long-term investments.

Comment

It is good to see the three dilemmas discussed in the report. These are trade-offs that are made every day in transport systems around the world, yet are rarely discussed. More transport strategies would benefit from thinking deeply about these trade-offs.

The recommendation for rural services to become flexible, demand-driven solutions is one that I suspect will become more common around the world in the years ahead, especially as autonomous vehicles present an opportunity to reduce the costs of operating these services.

What Next?

Do you know what the dilemmas are in your transport system? Have you discussed these dilemmas with decision-makers?

Quick Adventures in Transport Wonderland

Here is what else I came across this week:

• ​Electric vehicle charging dissonance: Exploring how renters and multi-unit dwelling residents navigate limited charging access​
• ​Access Surplus: Valuing Accessibility by Integrating Opportunity Supply and Willingness to Pay​
• ​The Secret To Thriving Communities​

Blog

Beyond Electric Vehicles: Why Mode Shift Is Key to Net Zero Transport

This week, in my blog, I discussed the problems with being overly reliant on just switching to electric vehicles to reach land transport net-zero goals.

Innovation

Maryland DOT launches new rewards program to encourage transit use

The Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) has launched The Ride Together Rewards Transit Incentives Program. See here.

Tool

Atlas for Sustainable Transport

The ITDP has launched an Atlas for sustainable transport. It contains measurements of nine indicators for cities all around the world. It includes over 40,000 localities in over 1,000 urban areas, calculated from open-source data.