Transport data and decision-making don't just under-represent women. In many cases they trivialise or ignore their needs completely.

The Orange Line [BRT] carries more than 20,000 people every weekday. But setting this route aside, bus ridership has gone off a cliff, here and nationwide. Some 2,300 buses run around LA every day — 165 routes covering almost 1,500 square miles, for a total of 73 million miles a year. Ridership is down 36 percent this decade, and most cities in the US have seen similar declines. Last year, the number of people using transit fell in most of the biggest metro systems — and that was an ...

Streetcar, bus, and metro systems have been ignoring one lesson for 100 years: Service drives demand. One hundred years ago, the United States had a public transportation system that was the envy of the world. Today, outside a few major urban centers, it is barely on life support. Even in New York City, subway ridership is well below its 1946 peak. Annual per capita transit trips in the U.S. plummeted from 115.8 in 1950 to 36.1 in 1970, where they have roughly remained since, even as population ...

Welcome to Reconnections’ Friday Reads: • Map of London’s 1947 tram & trolleybus routes (MappingLondon) • Will new larger Thames Clipper increase ridership? (BBC) • Thames Path opens between Woolwich & Charlton (FromTheMurkyDepths) • Pay your subway fare with recyclables in Istanbul (NextCity) • Underground and Metro signage (SmashingMag) • Looking for Manhattan’s Cow Tunnels (99%Invisible) • Durham’s plan to nudge drivers out of cars (CityLab) • ...

As TfL makes plans to reduce bus network capacity, one of the people in charge of running the capital’s bus services gives a rare interview. John Trayner is managing director of Go-Ahead London, the capital’s biggest bus service operator. We met last Friday at the company’s Waterloo garage, the most centrally-located in the capital and currently home to an all-electric fleet. The outcome of Transport for London’s review of bus services, which proposes a seven per cent cut in network ...

When transportation planners drool over the Emerald City’s transit successes, they shouldn’t overlook the decades of investments in this legacy asset. In transportation circles, the word “trolley” can sometimes come with decades-old reputational baggage. Getting around on one might seem antique and quaint, best suited for tourists taking in local attractions at a leisurely pace, not daily commuters trying to get from Point A to Point B. But that’s not the case in the Pacific ...

Bus redesigns aren’t a new idea. When Seoul – a city pursuing a car-first approach to surface transportation to satisfy the dreams of an increasingly wealthy population – faced plummeting bus ridership in the early 2000s, the city decided to act. Thanks to bus route redesigns and an extensive network of dedicated lanes, transit ridership surged, helping Seoul return space to people, overcome the seductive status-setting appeal of car ownership, and restore a stunning downtown creek (that ...

Welcome to Reconnections’ Friday Reads. • Why has non-London bus funding been halved? (TheConversation) • London’s goal to become world’s most walkable city (ThisIsPlace) • No toilets, no seats, no way to leave – no help for wheelchair users (HuffPost) • R.34 airship’s trans-Atlantic centenary (Eastern Daily Press) • Rome’s Metro extension uncovers ancient artifacts (NPR) • US National links – Footpaths to the future (TheOverheadWire) • ...

Have you ever waited for your bus at a bus stop for a very long time – only to be greeted by two or more buses arriving together? This phenomenon, known as “bus bunching,” is a problem that bus transit systems around the world have been trying to solve for decades. During this time, researchers have used mathematical models to study the behavior of bus transit systems to better understand why this happens. The mathematics identify what causes this problem – and also suggests that ...

Welcome to Reconnections’ Friday Reads. • Cost comparison of London’s cycle commuting options (Urban/Rural) • Did the Blitz enhance London’s economy? (SpatialEconomics) • Network visualisations of a different kind (Aeon) • Impact of the World Cup on worldwide productivity (Tableau Public) • Romanian railway tunnel of love (AtlasObscura) • Uber, Lyft decimating NYC taxis & increasing traffic (Bloomberg) • LIRR pilot program slashes Brooklyn-Queens fares ...

Transport for London started a three-month trial to test new methods of counting bus passengers on June 8. The aim is to find the most accurate real-time automatic passenger counting method. TfL believes that this could lead to improved real-time passenger information about bus services and available accessible space, more effective network management in case of disruption, and better forecasting and planning. The trial will run on seven buses on routes 55, 47, 222, 507 and 521. The following ...

The reviews are in for the Twin Cities’ first enhanced bus route — the A Line — and riders want more. Metro Transit calls the service arterial Bus Rapid Transit, or “aBRT,” but the A Line has no dedicated right of way as it runs along Snelling Avenue. Instead, the A Line has features that should be common on most bus routes. Riders pay before boarding and can get on the bus at any door. Peak service runs at least every 10 minutes. Buses do not have to merge back into traffic after ...

Problems plague push for electric buses When Chinese battery maker BYD Ltd. approached Southern California officials in 2008 touting ambitious plans to build electric cars, local politicians jumped at the promise of thousands of jobs and cleaner air. In the nine years since, agencies have awarded BYD grants, subsidies and public contracts worth more than $330 million for its battery-powered buses, forklifts and trucks. The company is positioned to be a prime supplier of electric buses to the ...

In just eight years, Shenzhen became the first city to electrify 100 percent of its public buses—16,359, to be exact. Between the gleaming towers of the Chinese city of Shenzhen, some 16,000 buses shuttle commuters to and from their destinations. But they’re not like the diesel-guzzling behemoths that run the streets of most cities. They’re quieter, and they run entirely on electricity. Back in 1980, Shenzhen was just a modest fishing village of 30,000. Now a megalopolis of some 12 ...

Electric buses were seen as a joke at an industry conference in Belgium seven years ago when the Chinese manufacturer BYD Co. showed an early model. “Everyone was laughing at BYD for making a toy,” recalled Isbrand Ho, the Shenzhen-based company’s managing director in Europe. “And look now. Everyone has one.” Suddenly, buses with battery-powered motors are a serious matter with the potential to revolutionize city transport—and add to the forces reshaping the energy industry. With ...