Do Lines and Signs Make Roads Safe? - AND - How Will US Eliminate All Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2050?

These are the topics from?Drive Sweden's Smart Mobility Newsletter, Jan 26,?Subscribe here

Do Lines and Signs Make Roads Safe?

Raising and old debate a?recent article?asks whether traffic control regulations really make roads safer for vulnerable road users. Quite simply, it’s complicated.

We might take it for granted that white and yellow paint is splashed down the middle roads, and often along the sides, giving us clear boundaries within which to keep our vehicles. But it started somewhere and sometime, and that place and time was Michigan in 1911. The intention was to bring some order to the rather chaotic situation at the time, where people drove wherever and however, they wanted. There seems little doubt that lines and signs have helped in many ways. The argument in a nutshell is that lines and signs manage and harmonize the flow of traffic. But it hasn’t been quite so straightforward, and even from the beginning some of been critical of this approach.

The early days of road markings were eventually codified, in the US at least, into the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) in 1935. This standardized traffic markings and infrastructure across the US, but from the critics pointed out that rather than improving safety such a system tends to increase driving speeds, and consequently increase the likelihood of serious injury or death for vulnerable road users.

On the most extreme side of detractors sits Hans Monderman, a Dutch traffic engineer who founded the Shared Space movement. His idea is that completely removing signs, lines, and lights will lead to the safest situation. A small city in Germany tried this out, and for at least the first month after the change car accidents plummet to zero. Other examples include a street in London that removed the centre line on a street which led to reduced speed and incidents. “The reason these approaches work, Shared Space proponents theorize, is because motorists instinctively behave more safely when they feel?less?protected by the comforting similarity of the roads around them”.

Personal Comment:

What is the purpose of a road? A road is a complex artefact, which includes physical structures overlayed with symbols that relate to laws, which in turn are embedded in culture. Part of the debate, it seems to me, is about the purpose of the road. One purpose is transportation, both of people and goods. It is also a space where many social interactions take place, where people exercise, socialize, run marathons, and more. This aspect is clearly captured by the ‘Shared Space’ name of the movement started by Monderman. Safety is important from both angles, but it looks a bit different depending on which purpose you prioritize in how you think about roads.

If the road is seen as first and foremost a public gathering space for pedestrians, then it is pedestrian safety that is primary. This might be called the ‘public-square’ approach to roads. However, if roads are seen as infrastructure dedicated to the transportation of goods and people then vehicle movement efficiency and safety takes centre stage.

Whichever way one goes it seems to me that both sides need to be taken seriously. One way to do that would be to have a more nuanced version of MUTCD, where some roads, or areas, are seen as pedestrian centric and some are transport centric. But there is a further issue, the difference between perceived and actual safety. That issue is beyond this small post, but one worth considering and shows just how complex the issues are when it comes to roads.

Written by?Joshua Bronson, RISE Mobility & Systems?

How Will US Eliminate All Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2050?

Several U.S. agencies have recently published a?blueprint for decarbonizing?the U.S. transport sector.?In order to address the climate crises, we must eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector by 2050, while creating holistic approaches to make the mobility systems clean, safe, accessible, and affordable.

Achieving a net-zero emissions economy by 2050 involves aggressively restraining emissions from all sectors including transportation, which is the largest source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. It is crucial to make meaningful reductions in emissions during every decade along the way to 2050. To achieve this the blueprint focuses on three categories: increasing convenience, efficiency improvements, and transitioning to clean options.?

Increasing convenience entails supporting community designs and land-use planning that ensure job centres, shopping, schools, and other essential services are located nearer to where people live, thereby reducing commute times and improving walkability and bikeability. The design of our cities, towns, and suburbs heavily impact travel behaviour and mode choices, which in turn impact total miles travelled and the resulting emissions.?

Efficiency improvements focus on the incorporation of highly efficient travel options, while also improving the energy efficiency of all vehicles. The use of more efficient transportation modes might also result in the reduction of vehicles on the road and congestion, improving travel time and traffic flow.

Increasing convenience and efficiency are the foundation for the deploying clean vehicles and fuels. With renewable electricity and sustainable fuels becoming available and affordable, there are more ways to transition from petroleum fuels (95% of transportation energy use) to zero-carbon technologies. The cornerstone of the new transportation will be highly efficient zero-emission EVs that can leverage clean electricity. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can complement battery EVs for cases requiring longer ranges and faster refuelling times, for example in long-haul trucking. To archive the 2050 goals, most new vehicle sales will need to be zero-emissions by the mid-2030s and the legacy stock of fossil-based vehicles must be transitioned to EVs. To enable this transition, there must be support for technology development and cost reduction across different stakeholders. Moreover, the replacement of older vehicles must be accelerated. However, some applications such as long-haul aviation have range and power requirements that are beyond the limits of current electric technologies. In this case, sustainable fuels will be necessary.

Finally, for the success of these strategies they must apply across all transportation options. Light-duty vehicles produce about 49% of current transportation emissions, medium and heavy-duty trucks and buses are the second largest category with 21%, and aviation is in third place with 11%.?Each of these travel modes presents unique technological challenges for the transition to clean technologies.

Personal Comment:

Let’s look at the decarbonization pathway of Europe and compare it with the strategies of the U.S. The largest source of the greenhouse gas emissions in the EU is also transportation, which accounts for 28%. The emphasis of the EU’s strategy for reducing emissions falls mainly on?the adoption of EVs. Their main argument is that it will take ten more years to set up supply chains to support a transition to 100 percent EV sales. Urban buses are the first transport mode where electrification is having a significant impact today. Another part of this strategy is to decrease the use of legacy combustion energy vehicles before 2035 and ban them completely by 2050.?

It seems to me that one missing, or at least under emphasized, part of the puzzle is shared mobility. Achieving carbon-free city travel depends a lot on the availability and acceptance of shared mobility options, as well as new transportation modes like micromobility and mini-vehicles. Well-functioning and integrated shared mobility can limit the excessive use of private vehicles. However, the transition from private cars to shared mobility requires significant changes in travel habits and behaviours. These are behaviours that people have had for decades and which our infrastructure is built to support. Making this transition, I think, is a more difficult challenge than the transition to the EVs, but it is also a critical step.

Written by?Kateryna Melnyk, RISE Mobility & Systems