Welcome to the latest issue of The Transportist, especially to our new readers.  As always you can follow along at the  transportist.org or on Twitter. For those keeping track, the fires are basically out in Australia, we got massive amounts of rain this month, and the reservoirs around Sydney are refilling. The armageddon this month is biologic rather than pyrophoric in nature.

I declined my first Elsevier-owned journal peer review request for lack of payment. I wrote to the editor: “Elsevier is a very profitable for-profit corporation. They should pay reviewers. I am happy to do the review if paid. My rate is $1/100 words + $10/figure + $10/table + $10/equation.” Strangely, lack of payment is not one of the automatic options for declining reviews at the publishers that allow you to decline at a click of a button. I wonder why? So long as the existing for-profit journal structure remains, (with either excessive journal subscription charges or excessive author publication charges) reviewers should insist on payment from those journals. Journals that are both non-profit and open access are the only ones deserving of volunteer hours. (This of course follows up on the implied threats from Elsevier editors in December: Elsevier and the Quid Pro Quo)

Talks and Conferences

• I was in Auckland, New Zealand for the IAEE – International Association of Energy Economics conference 12-15 February 2020.
• I was on ABC Radio Hobart at 7:30 pm AEDT Feb 25 with Louise Saunders talking safety and road rules. The full 3h show is here, I had about 15 min.
• I was on the Talking Headways podcast twice!
  • Complicated Measures and Public Policy (Part 1)
  • Unnecessary Literature Reviews (Part 2)

WalkSydney

• What can we do about drink (drunk) drivers
  • Related to 4 Children Killed in Oatlands Crash

Research

• Published reports
  • Access Across New Zealand

Transport Findings

• Should I bike or should I drive? Comparative analysis of travel speeds in Montreal

Research Highlights

• Science confirms it: Pedestrians on their phones walk slower: A new study examines how the pace of urban life has changed in the smartphone era. by Eric Jaffe in Medium. Our research is highlighted.

Transportist Blog

• To get our cities moving again, we need a new kind of urban professional – published in Foreground
• On MOOCs and Moats at the Modern University
• An S-Curve of the Corona Virus (As expected, the S-curve prediction was too low for China, but the rate of infection is still slowing down there, we’ll see if other countries keep it contained.)
• Should Australia Ban Petrol Cars?

News & Opinion

• Transit and Microtransit
  • $4.3 Billion Cost Blowout in Sydney Metro
  • Public transport growth surges past NSW government predictions
  • Meet REM: Sydney Metro’s Canadian twin
  • 99% Invisible 388- Missing the Bus
  • How a Clash of Egos Became Bigger Than Fixing the Subway
• Human-Driven Vehicles, Signs, Signals, Sensors, and Markings, and Roads
  • Federation Shire engineering chief says too many little used roads sealed decades ago and now council was struggling to hold them all together
  • The killer(s) on the road: reducing your risk of automotive death
• Vehicle Automation
  • U.S. agency suspends self-driving shuttle EasyMile in 10 U.S. states
  • Driverless [sic] Waymo van involved in Tempe crash. “Barela said the driver of the Waymo van was taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and the passenger was not injured.”
• Electrification, Energy
  • The Importance of Decarbonizing Transport
  • Sharp jump in electric vehicle sales underscores ‘untapped potential’
  • Top Seventeen Surprises From The First Year Of Driving A Tesla EV
• Walking, Biking, Micromobility
  • The old road rules no longer apply: how e-scooters challenge outdated assumptions
  • At least 29 people have died in electric scooter crashes since 2018
• Land Use
  • Every Street In Paris To Be Cycle-Friendly By 2024, Promises Mayor (City of 15 Minutes … or, Ville Du Quart D’Heure)
  • Sydney High-Density Planning by Tony Recsei
  • Abolish stamp duty – impose a proper land tax instead
• History
  • Neural Networking Upscales 01895 Short Film Lumière Brothers’ 01895 short “Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat”

Interesting Research (by others)

• The Australian Road Lobby: Bitumen Mafia or Bogeyman?
• Does owning a car hurt your health?
• Moral Crumple Zones: Cautionary Tales in Human-Robot Interaction (pre-print)
• Cities have a negative impact on navigation ability: evidence from 38 countries
• Examining the Viability of Planting Trees to Help Mitigate Climate Change
• Top 5 Urban Scenario Planning Mistakes
• Across the Globe, Urban Sprawl Is Spreading
• Hazard reduction burning had little to no effect in slowing extreme bushfires

Australian phrase of the month

• “Congestion-busting”

Books

• The 30-Minute City: Designing for Access. (2019) By David M. Levinson (Book 5 in the Access Quintet)
• A Political Economy of Access. (2019) By David M. Levinson and David A. King (Book 4 in the Access Quintet)
• Elements of Access: Transport Planning for Engineers, Transport Engineering for Planners. (2018) By David M. Levinson, Wes Marshall, Kay Axhausen. (Book 3 in the Access Quintet)
• Spontaneous Access: Reflexions on Designing Cities and Transport (2016) by David Levinson. (Book 2 in the Access Quintet)
• The End of Traffic and the Future of Access: A Roadmap to the New Transport Landscape (3rd edition). (2017) By David M. Levinson and Kevin J. Krizek. (Book 1 in the Access Quintet)
• Metropolitan Transport and Land Use: Planning for Place and Plexus (2018) by David M. Levinson and Kevin J. Krizek.
• The Transportation Experience: Second Edition Garrison, William and Levinson, David (2014)