ECONOMIA DOS TRANSPORTES

Panorama des Transports n° 52 19/01/12 Panorama inédit du Centre d'analyse stratégique sur les transports par Christine Raynard, Chargée de mission au Département Développement durable (DDD) 1) Le constructeur britannique Rolls-Royce présentera les résultats de son tour du monde en limousine électrique (Munich, Paris, Madrid, Singapour, Pékin, Dubai, Los Angeles, New York et Genève), au cours du premier trimestre 2012. Ce prototype électrique reprenant le châssis de la Phantom, est équipé d'une batterie lithium-ion  contenant du nickel, du cobalt et du manganèse, et de deux moteurs électriques. Le chargement de la batterie, d'une capacité totale de 71 kWh, s'effectue en 20 heures sur du courant monophasé ou en 8 heures sur du courant triphasé. Trois unités de chargement sont associéesà la batterie, auquel s'ajoute un quatrième chargeur à induction pour permettre un rechargement sans fil. La batterie est conçue pour une durée minimum de trois ans en usage quotidien et dispose d'une autonomie de 200 km. Ce prototype Rolls-Royce électrique démarre par un simple interrupteur, permettant également d'interrompre le chargement et atteint une vitesse maximale de 160 km/h. 2) Après le lancement en septembre 2009 d'un service gratuit de covoiturage dans les gares franciliennes (hors Paris), SNCF Transilien, associée à Green Cove, expérimente maintenant le covoiturage dynamique en gare de Houdan (Yvelines). Des bornes équipées d'écrans d'affichage ont été installées sur le quai et sur le parking. Les offres et les demandes sont ainsi consultables en temps réel, par les usagers inscrits sur le site, soit aujourd'hui plus de mille personnes. L'utilisateur équipé d'un smartphone peut scanner sur la borne le « flashcode » de l'offre qui correspond à ses besoins. Il accède ensuite à toutes les informations utiles à son trajet : rappel de la destination, tarif, heure de départ et coordonnées du covoitureu

Le club écomobilité scolaire Un club écomobilité scolaire, pourquoi ? Le « Mille pattes » de Saint-Léger-du-Bourg-Denis. Pour provoquer un changement de comportement, créer un climat favorable à l'émergence d'une mobilité soutenable et susciter des projets, l'Arehn -soutenue par la Région Haute-Normandie et les Départements de l'Eure et de Seine-Maritime - et l'Ademe ont lancé en 2010 un réseau d'animation « Club écomobilité scolaire » pour accompagner et fédérer les acteurs de terrain de l'écomobilité scolaire en Haute-Normandie - établissements scolaires, parents d'élèves, collectivités locales, associations. Les objectifs sont de mettre à la disposition des membres des supports pédagogiques et méthodologiques, des outils éducatifs et de communication (vidéos, plaquettes), une aide à la création de projet, d'organiser des ateliers d'échanges et des visites de terrain. Une co-animation Arehn/Ademe est mise en place pour ce réseau. Atelier d'échanges du 24 juin 2011 Atelier d'échanges du 7 octobre 2011

APPEL À CONTRIBUTION Mercredi 29 février 2012 Les conditions de production d'un transport durable : nouvelles interventions publiques, nouveaux référentiels ? The conditions for producing sustainable transport: new public interventions, and new referentials Publié le lundi 16 janvier 2012 par Loïc Le Pape RÉSUMÉ La revue « Développement durable et territoires » lance un appel à contributions qui pose la question des conditions de production d'un transport durable. De nouvelles options d'interventions publiques ou de nouveaux référentiels pourront alors être discutés. Les propositions de résumé, attendues pour le 29 février 2012, devront s'inscrire dans une des 3 directions suivantes : - comment analyser les déterminants de la demande de transport pour différencier les leviers d'interventions publiques ? - comment mieux intégrer la dimension servicielle du système de transport ? - comment renouveler les conditions de production des politiques publiques de transport ? ANNONCE Appel à contributions pour la revue Développement durable et territoires : Les conditions de production d'un transport durable : nouvelles interventions publiques, nouveaux référentiels ? Corinne Blanquart, Frédéric Héran, Thomas Zéroual Argumentaire  La nécessité de modifier ou de compléter l'action publique en matière de transport apparaît dans les discours à différentes échelles, notamment au regard des problèmes environnemen­taux. Selon la Commission Européenne, en effet, la réalisation d'une poli­tique durable des transports passe par « l'adoption d'une panoplie plus vaste, et plus souple d'instruments d'ac­tion » (CCE, 2006). Toutefois, cette diversification souhaitée est peu effective, et les change­ments dans les interventions publiques demeurent limités. Pourtant, les résultats médiocres des politiques conduites plaident en faveur d'une évolution plus marquée. Ainsi, en 2009, une Communication de

Private car-sharing company ZipCar given exclusive use of public street parking Could selling street spaces be Permit Parking by Inside-Booster & News-Star on Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at 9:11pm by Peter von Buol   ZipCar, a private car-sharing company which rents vehicles to its members by-the-hour, has quietly been given exclusive free use of specially-designated on-street parking spaces throughout the city, including some on residential streets.   When a ZipCar sign recently popped up alongside a building on the 1300 block of W. Wellington, a local resident contacted Inside Booster and said she was annoyed the city has started setting aside on-street public parking spaces for the exclusive use of people who drive vehicles owned by ZipCars.    "One parking spot at the Northwest corner of Wellington and Lakewood now has signs put up by the city saying no one can park here except ZipCars. It is a public street and has always been a public parking spot, but now anyone not in a ZipCar will be ticketed and fined for parking there," wrote Betty Geilen.   Indeed, if this is now city policy how long will it be before the city sees the revenue-generating potential in leasing these parking spots to ZipCar or other car-sharing companies?  Or on an even bigger scale by leasing public street parking spaces on city streets to private parties and citizens?   "When I drive back from work at about six o'clock, all the parking spaces are usually already gone [which means] I usually have to park two blocks away. We chose not to put a garage in our back yard because we have an apple tree, which produces oxygen and is therefore 'green' and environmentally-friendly," continued Geilen.   Geilen also complained the signs installed by the city to mark the spot have given the company free city-sponsored advertising.   "They have a prominent spot where there is a lot of foot-traffic right by the bar at Wellington and Lakewood," she said. "It would be impossible fo

Zipcar and Flexcar Driven Together Zipcar (AP) Network News X PROFILE View More Activity TOOLBOX Resize Print E-mail Reprints   By Thomas Heath Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, October 31, 2007 Flexcar and Zipcar, two companies seeking to change American habits by renting cars by the hour, plan to merge in a deal that would reshape the nascent car-sharing industry. [an error occurred while processing this directive] After years of losses for both companies, Flexcar, based in Seattle and controlled by America Online founder Steve Case, said it will merge with the larger Zipcar, based near Boston, in hopes of achieving profitability within the year. "We just wanted to rapidly expand in new markets and rapidly expand the fleets," said Case, whose Revolution LLC bought Flexcar in 2005. "They're both in turbo-growth mode. We think the companies combined will be on a path to profitability in the next year or so, and with rapid and significant expansion will be ready" for an initial public offering of stock. The two companies, the nation's largest car-sharing firms, are owned by private investors. They did not disclose the merger's financial terms. Both companies were founded in 1999 with the intent of serving environmentally minded city dwellers and university students who could be weaned from the expense and other complications of automobile ownership. Zipcar, for instance, rents cars for $7.75 to $15 per hour on top of an annual fee. Together, the two companies helped popularize an industry that now includes more than two dozen competitors. "It's a niche that wasn't exploited by the larger traditional car-rental companies," said Chris Brown, managing editor of Auto Rental News. "I don't think it will ever eat into a huge percentage of the $20 billion U.S. car-rental market. It's kind of like this little cult of users that are all in it together in this cool new system." Even so, sensing profit or as a defensive measure, car-rental giants like Hert

ready to hop on board? Join Zipcar Cars by the hour or day are ready when you are. Find a Zipcar

Zipcar and fair prices for public spaces By Mike DeBonis Zipcar is about to have some competition. (Flickr user Andrew Currie/CC BY 2.0 ) For years now, Zipcar had the local car-sharing industry pretty much to itself, turning it from a curiosity into a crucial service relied on by a significant and rising number of city residents not interested in owning cars of their own. But as the appeal and profitability of car-sharing grows, the more appealing it has become to potential Zipcar competitors - it merged with its only previous D.C. competitor, Flexcar, in 2007 - and the more unfair it seems for the city to treat Zipcar as a monopoly. So earlier this year, the city announced it would hold an auction for use of the more than 80 on-street parking spaces currently reserved for use by Zipcar. The benefits were twofold: The car-sharing market would open up, and the District would get paid a market rate for use of its public space. But Zipcar is ticked. Where it once had 86 spaces for its use, it now, after the auction, says it will have only about a dozen on-street spaces. That's prompted John Williams, a Seattle public relations consultant working with Zipcar, to get in touch with local reporters to take issue with the way the city transportation department handled things. (TBD's John Hendel covered the issue Friday.) Williams says that Zipcar has no problem with competition, but it is upset with the auction process, which essentially handed individual spots to the highest bidder (which, of course, is the way auctions tend to work). Zipcar would have preferred a "more strategic approach" in which its experience in the business and its existing large customer base were taken into account. And, Williams is not shy to point out, the auction could very well mean higher costs for its users. Good points in there. Zipcar turned car-sharing into a viable business in this town, and right now, everyone who wants a shared car wants a Zipcar - arguments both f

Carsharing Year in Review - 2011 2011 has been a landmark year for carsharing in the US and worldwide. Here's my annual review of developments in carsharing for 2011. Before getting into specific developments, I'd like to make two general observations: Are we seeing a demographic tipping point? - This was the year when the mainstream marketers admitted that many in Gen Y ("the Millennials") weren't thinking about cars the same way their parents were - they'd rather have their iPhone than a car. Car registrations and VMT are down; significantly fewer teenagers waiting before getting their driver's licenses; and especially an explosion of bicycle use in cities (even those without bike-friendly reputations). I've always thought this 2009 headline in the Globe and Mail (Toronto) newspaper captured this shift in thinking about cars very nicely - "Object of desire or necessary evil?" Parking is fundamental - Parking is a fundamental but often under appreciated aspect of car use. It wasn't until Donald Shoup layed the cards on the table in his landmark "The High Cost of Free Parking" that most of us realized just how fundamental parking really is. And carsharing operators also know how fundamental parking is to the success of their business. That's why designated parking on public streets has been such a holy grail - convenient access and great marketing exposure. And, as you'll see in several items below, some carsharing companies are slicing the parking issue in new ways - car2go and Zebramobil, as well as RelayRides in San Francisco are opting for floating parking (among other things). And while on the topic of parking, I can't ignore the really goofy decisions that led to a bidding war for dedicated on-street parking spaces for carsharing companies in Washington DC during 2011.  DC has had a troubled history with carsharing parking, almost from the start in 2001 on-street parking seemed to generate more negative publicity than I've heard in any other city.  

United States Transportation Facts and Figures Find state-by-state transportation facts, comparisons and rankings on these topics: Infrastructure Fatalities and Injuries Distracted Driving and Safety Equipment Freight Volumes and Values Passenger Travel Economy and Finance Energy and Environment

Carsharing.US Information, issues and ideas for U.S. and North American carsharing services and partners.

CALL FOR PAPERS                                                                                   7th Workshop on Agents in Traffic and Transportation @AAMAS 2012 4 or 5 June 2012 - Valencia, Spain Website: http://www.ia.urjc.es/att2012   Post-proceedings will be published in a special issue of the  SCI-indexed Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems (Impact factor 2010: 1.273, 9th out of 26 in category Transportation  Science & Technology)                *************************************************************************** Building effective and user-friendly transportation systems is one of the big challenges for engineers in the 21st century. The rapid change of location, enabled by plane, high-speed rail, sea and road travel, has constantly become easier and more natural.  These days we travel without any of the difficulties that accompanied taking a trip less than a century ago. All we have to do is to organize and to pick up the transport mode that comes closest to our objectives. In much the same way, many new opportunities for the delivery of goods are being explored and commercially exploited. The purpose of this workshop is to bring researchers and practitioners together in order to set up visions on how agent technology can be and is used for today's isolated IT-tools so as to model, simulate, and manage large-scale complex transportation systems.  Therefore, we are interested in research papers, case studies and practitioners' reports on the implementation and use of Autonomous Agents in all areas related to transportation, traffic and logistics. Besides running real-world applications, we are also interested in papers concerning demonstrators or testbed that are still under development.  Conceptual papers and those reporting on particular components of transportation systems are also welcome. This is the seventh of a well established series of workshops since  2000. Post-pro

CALL FOR PAPERS RETHINKING URBAN INCLUSION: SPACES, MOBILISATIONS, INTERVENTIONS to be held in Coimbra, Portugal, 28-30 June 2012 With almost half the world's population living in cities, questioning the urban dimension of social inclusion and exclusion is imperative. Urban inclusion is increasingly influenced - and often constrained - by intertwined processes of economic globalization, state re-articulation, polarization and diversification of (local) populations and the political practices they add to the city. Educational, health and environmental inequalities, segregation, unemployment, lack of political participation, discrimination and the inability to deal with different forms of participation are all phenomena of exclusion with a local dimension but a multi-scalar nature. At the same time, acting towards social inclusion is developed around ideas, knowledge(s), experiences, resources and capacities which are (dis)located across an array of arenas and distributed among different actors. While traditional concepts and practices of urban inclusion centered on institutions and top-down decision-making seem inadequate to tackle this complexity, new ones are often in their infancy and may be in tension with more established policies. Contesting the centrality of the state and market pervasiveness, a new variety of counter-hegemonic positions and projects, and alternative visions of urban democracy and justice that inform bottom-up and participatory approaches to urban inclusion, have become popular in the Global South, while their transposition to cities in the Global North have met resistance or hardly gone beyond theorization.  The Conference aims to understand and ultimately rethink social inclusion at the urban scale, as the product of broader dynamics and the interaction of different actors and languages. How can we trace, define, and challenge the new subtle forms of social and territorial exclusion, trying to reinvent urban in

Reinventing Parking    Demand-responsive parking prices: a key element of Adaptive Parking Posted: 13 Jan 2012 05:25 PM PST If your town or city wants a parking system that is fair and efficient and which adapts itself easily to changing conditions then you will also need parking prices that adapt to changing conditions.  Pricing parking is controversial but there is no getting away from its importance for improving parking outcomes.   So a shift towards performance pricing for parking is a key part of the Adaptive Parking agenda. The barriers are political, not practical. We have the technology.  SFPark's performance pricing uses smart parking meters like this one. One key reason to make parking pricing more responsive to demand has been well explained by Donald Shoup. It is to reduce cruising for parking. In districts with saturated on-street parking an alarming percentage of traffic consists of motorists searching for a local parking spot. This is totally unnecessary traffic caused by mismanaged parking! In the Adaptive Parking agenda I would extend this reason a bit further and take aim at ALL queuing for parking (including queues outside parking lots and even invisible queues, like waiting lists for permits).   Why extend performance pricing to minimizing all queuing for parking? Because a second reason to want responsive parking prices is to better reveal market prices for parking in each neighbourhood. Even private sector parking prices can be unresponsive. There is an adage in the parking industry that many operators set their prices by simply 'looking across the street'. Many organizations have long waiting lists for employee parking permits. A broader approach to performance pricing might seek ways to reduce such queues and make parking prices more responsive and less sticky so that they more accurately reflect current conditions.   This post is the third in a series explaining the basics of Adaptive Parking.

NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide The purpose of the NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide (part of the Cities for Cycling initiative) is to provide cities with state-of-the-practice solutions that can help create complete streets that are safe and enjoyable for bicyclists. Bike Lanes Cycle Tracks Intersections Signals Signs & Markings The NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide is based on the experience of the best cycling cities in the world. The designs in this document were developed by cities for cities, since unique urban streets require innovative solutions. Most of these treatments are not directly referenced in the current versions of the AASHTO Guide to Bikeway Facilities or the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), although many of the elements are found within these documents. The Federal Highway Administration has recently posted information regarding approval status of various bicycle related treatments not covered in the MUTCD, including many of the treatments provided in the NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide. All of the NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide treatments are in use internationally and in many cities around the US. To create the Guide, the authors have conducted an extensive worldwide literature search from design guidelines and real-life experience. They have worked closely with a panel of urban bikeway planning professionals from NACTO member cities, as well as traffic engineers, planners, and academics with deep experience in urban bikeway applications. A complete list of participating professionals is included here. Additional information has been gathered from numerous other cities worldwide. The intent of the Guide is to offer substantive guidance for cities seeking to improve bicycle transportation in places where competing demands for the use of the right of way present unique challenges.  Each of the treatments addressed in the Guide offers three levels of guidance: Required: elements for which there is a strong consensus t

Science of Pedestrian Movements posted by jason king on january 05, 2012 Books, Cities, Modeling, Pedestrians, Public Space, Research, Resources, Transportation An interesting article from the Economist on 'The Wisdom of Crowds' echoes much of the seminal research of William Whyte (City), Edward T. Hall (The Hidden Dimension), and others that have closely studied the behavior of pedestrians and other users of public spaces.   The interplay of cultural habits that tells us to step right or left to avoid collisions on a busy street can lead to a certain inherent poetic 'choreography' when viewed.  There are different theories on how these actions are coordinated, and the article focuses on new scientific methods for predicting and studying pedestrian movements.  As Jane Jacobs mentioned in The Death and Life of Great American Cities this urban realm is likened to a ballet: "It is a complex order. Its essence is intricacy of sidewalk use, bringing with it a constant succession of eyes. This order is all composed of movement and change, and although it is life, not art, we may fancifully call it the art form of the city and liken it to the dance - not to a simple-minded precision dance with everyone kicking up at the same time, twirling in unison and bowing off en masse, but to an intricate ballet in which the individual dancers and ensembles all have distinctive parts which miraculously reinforce each other and compose an orderly whole. The ballet of the good city sidewalk never repeats itself from place to place, and in any once place is always replete with new improvisations." It was interesting, in this context, to remember my recent travels to Europe, namely London, where traffic on the roads occupies the left lane, but as mentioned in the article, there is not a correlation between this and pedestrian movement.  While they mention that London follows pedestrians on the right, that is an oversimplification, as it doesn't necessarily follow,

The deadline for abstracts has been postponed to 14 November. See "papers submission" page for more details.   Due to the non-existence of a specific conference focused on safety and usability of vehicle information and communication technologies, the HUMANIST NoE decided in 2008 to set up a European conference on Human Centred Design for Intelligent Transport Systems. The aim is to gather the community of Human Factors researchers, to offer an overview of the current developments and trends and to create an area for discussions and debates on these topics. The first conference was held on 3 and 4 April 2008 in Lyon, France. It was successful with 120 participants from Europe but also from Japan, Australia, Canada, USA. The second European conference on Human Centred Design for Intelligent Transport Systems was held in Berlin on 29 and 30 April 2010. The conference was highly successful and led the HUMANIST VCE to organise its third European conference on Human Centred Design for ITS. 2012 conference will be held in Valencia, Spain on 14 and 15 June.

Making the case for investment in the walking environment Living Streets is pleased to present its new report, Making the Case for Investment in the Walking Environment. Researched by a multi-disciplinary team of experts from the University of the West of England and Cavill Associates, the report brings together and evaluates the multiple health, economic, social and environmental benefits of investment in walking friendly public spaces. It draws on inspiring case studies of schemes which have resulted in safer and more attractive public places in neighbourhoods and city centres in the UK and elsewhere. Key findings include: Investing in walking environments can support local economies by increasing footfall, improving accessibility and attracting new business and events Investment in the walking environment is likely to be of equal or better value for money than other transport projects Retailers and residents express a willingness to pay for improvements to the walking environment, while good quality public realm increases the value of both residential and commercial property Residents of walking friendly neighbourhoods are less likely to be depressed or to have poor mental or physical health People walk more when they feel their neighbourhood is safe, well maintained and lively, while increased walking in a neighbourhood is associated with better perceptions of safety and greater social interaction.