We’re joined by Professor Ralph Buehler of Virginia Tech, who talks with us about the German transport concept of Verkehrsverbund. The word translated to English means “transport network.” We discuss where the first Verkehrsverbund was formed and how more integrated systems could make transport in the United States more efficient and connected. There’s also a discussion about docked bike share as well as how we can think about mobility as a service platforms in the future and their relationship to existing transport systems.
Jeff Wood (JW): So before you started, perhaps you could tell us a little bit about yourself.
Ralph Buehler (RB): I’m an associate professor in urban affairs and planning at Virginia Tech’s Alexandria Center, so we’re located right outside of Washington DC, and my research is mainly on travel behavior, transport planning, transport policy and transport systems, so how people get around for their daily trips–if they walk, ride a bike, ride public transport or drive by car, and determinants of that and outcomes related to sustainability, to the economy, but also to public health. And as my accent may already give away, I’m from Germany originally, and so a lot of my work is international comparative–typically looking at either Canada, the United States, and western European countries because I think these countries can learn a lot from each other and and get ideas on how to improve, or how to implement new policies that have worked elsewhere.
JW: What got you interested in transportation research?
RB: What got me interested in transportation research was being an exchange student in the US coming from Germany. And I had already been interested in transport a little bit but not as a research topic, and so then being here in the US. I suddenly realized that things that I took for granted like riding my bike if I wanted to go to a shop or go to work or go to university was not possible in many places. Similarly, getting on on public transport, which was a usual occurrence for me, proved to be very burdensome and very difficult to figure out where the buses run and when they run, etcetera, and so I got interested in the question: Why these differences? What makes the differences? What are the benefits? What are the costs? What can be learned there? So I think that’s what really triggered my interest in transportation research.
JW: Was it frustrating to come here and not have the same mobility options that you did when you were in Germany?
RB: I wouldn’t say frustrating… It was very interesting, it was… you’re taking things away that you are not even thinking about. It’s just – I took my bike to go places when the bicycle made sense and for other trips I would ride public transport, and that wasn’t possible here. And another interesting thing that happened here was that just because I rode my bike, suddenly people refer to me as a cyclist. And I’ve never thought of myself as a cyclist– I’m a person that takes a bike for some trips! But then here in the US the fact that I rode my bike for some trips made me a cyclist. This was all very intriguing.