AV pilot project running in U.S. rapid transit corridor
NFI in automated bus driver’s seat
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/nfi-in-automated-bus-drivers-sea…
ON Friday, NFI Group officially launched North America’s first fully
operational automated transit bus, once again staking its claim as the
industry leader.
The bus maker has been working for more than a year with Maryland-based
Robotic Research LLC to fit out its Xcelsior battery-electric model with
all the technology that allows it to navigate autonomously through city
streets as well as expertly dock three inches from the curb and deploy
accessibility ramps for passengers.
The bus is currently operating in a pilot project with the Connecticut
Department of Transportation on the CTFastrak, a dedicated nine-mile-long
bus rapid transit corridor that runs between downtown Hartford and downtown
New Britain.
The bus uses sensors, radar, LIDAR (sometimes referred to as laser radar)
and cameras to create a 360-degree digital 3D modelling of the environment.
It can digitally communicate with other vehicles and infrastructure like
traffic lights and the technology will work day or night and with or
without satellite GPS.
It has integrated so-called advanced driver-assistance systems achieving
level four certification with the Society of Automotive Engineers.
In a virtual presentation on Friday, Chris Stoddart, president of New
Flyer, referenced recent comments made by General Motors CEO Mary Barra,
about creating a world with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero
congestion.
“I could not have said it better myself,” he said. “What we are unveiling today
will help fulfil that vision.”
Industry proponents believe autonomous vehicles will reduce accidents — 94
per cent of the most serious ones are caused by human error — reduce travel
time and be more efficient because of reduced maintenance.
While New Flyer currently has its hands full managing delayed orders and a
disrupted order book caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the company hopes to
be fully on top of automated bus technology when the time comes.
Company officials were clear that regulations are a long way from
catching up to autonomous technology which is not currently able to be
deployed in public transit on shared roadways except in controlled environments
like the one in Connecticut.
But Stoddart said, “In the coming decades we anticipate fleets of automated
buses improving road safety and potentially improving commute times,
increasing energy efficiency and reducing congestion.” But before that
becomes a reality, North American cities have to make some significant
commitments to getting people out of their cars and redesigning streets. “First
of all, cities need to dedicate resources to urban redesign,” said Jennifer
McNeill, New Flyer’s vice president of sales and marketing. “Cities have to
dedicate laneways for buses. Transit buses have to be privileged over, or
in tandem with, vehicles. Once that starts to happen, AV (autonomous
vehicles) can happen.”
In a panel discussion with industry experts at NFI Group’s virtual investor
day held earlier this month, Josipa Petrunic, the president and CEO of the
Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium, said although
there has been plenty of talk and development of autonomous vehicle
technology, it won’t happen until a couple of things take place.
“Cities (need to) dedicate time and effort to urban redesign,” she said.
“And the second thing that has to happen is that cities have to set a gold
standard or target for why they’re deploying AV shuttles or buses. And the
target has to be: move more people and kill cars. It has to be that. If
it’s anything else, there’s no point in deploying AV technology.”
New Flyer has already started the process of encouraging cities in that
direction. In March it’s holding a free virtual session on workforce
development and training related to the Xcelsior autonomous vehicle.
martin.cash(a)freepress.mb.ca
*Councillor takes aim at surface parking lots *
* Allard wants council to have more say in how land used*
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/councillor-takes-aim-at-surface-par…
A WINNIPEG councillor is calling for the city to find ways to prevent
street-level parking lots from being set up after commercial and industrial
buildings get torn down.
“I’m looking at ways to essentially curb this and ensure we end up with at
least a say, as a council, on how much of our urban form is surface parking
lots, as opposed to buildings,” said St. Boniface Coun. Matt Allard.
“Buildings… generate more property values and lead to a more sustainable
city than a city full of surface parking lots, which I think Winnipeg has a
lot of.”
Since commercial and industrial demolitions that lack new building permits
aren’t subject to a public hearing process, despite the fact similar
applications for residential homes require such as hearing, Allard said the
city should try to increase oversight.
If Allard’s motion is approved by council’s property and development
committee, a public service report will check out how other cities address
the issue.
The councillor said he was inspired to take action after a commercial
building at 384 Tache Ave. was torn down in 2018 and replaced with a
surface parking lot. Allard said his new motion isn’t meant to criticize
the owners of that particular lot, but aims to see council get more control
over future property changes.
“It just brought forward the policy issue that commercial buildings can go
down, industrial buildings can go down and there’s no public hearing. (With)
residential, you do have that public hearing and, in some cases, the area
councillor and the community committee can turn them down and the end
result is you have a building and not a surface parking lot,” said Allard.
While some Winnipeg drivers might find them convenient, Allard said he
believes surface parking lots aren’t the best use of space, since they
prevent density and impede the city’s climate change goals.
“The more surface parking lots there are, the more Winnipeggers will be
choosing the single-passenger vehicle trip (to reach their destinations),”
said Allard.
Winnipegger Stephane Dorge said he believes that while some surface parking
lots may be required, the city should address an “excessive” amount of them
in and around downtown.
“I definitely think there’s a better use of land than surface parking… To
me, it creates dead zones instead of having neighbourhood activity or
resources or storefronts that residents could access,” said Dorge.
The city has attempted to reduce the number of downtown surface parking
lots for several years. As of 2018, 150 surface parking lots took up about
20 per cent of Winnipeg’s downtown real estate.
A development permit is required to legally set up a surface parking lot in
Winnipeg. Land owners who skip that step can face an enforcement process,
the city noted in an emailed statement.
If the property and development committee approves Allard’s motion next
month, the report would be expected in four months.
joyanne.pursaga(a)freepress.mb <joyanne.pursaga(a)freepress.mb.ca>.ca
Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga
*Parking minimums stifle development *
*https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/analysis/parking-minimums-stifle-development-573655122.html*
<https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/analysis/parking-minimums-stifle-…>
FOR the next few weeks, the City of Winnipeg is seeking public feedback on
the Winnipeg Parking Strategy, a five-year vision to manage vehicle parking
across the city. It may not sound glamorous, but parking is quietly one of
the most powerful forces shaping our cities, having a fundamental influence
on cost of living, neighbourhood form and character, and building design.
Six months ago, Edmonton became the first major Canadian city to eliminate
parking minimums for new development. The new strategy presents an
opportunity for Winnipeg to follow this lead.
Parking minimums are municipal-government regulations that dictate the
number of parking stalls a new development must include on its property.
The ratio is derived from a decades-old formula based on building size and
whether it’s a new house, apartment block, commercial building or other
use. In Winnipeg, outside of downtown, 1.5 parking stalls are required for
every residential unit, reduced to 1.2 in some inner-city areas.
An important shortcoming of these blanket ratios is that they do not
account for variables influencing the amount of parking actually required,
such as vehicle ownership in the neighbourhood, adjacent amenities, transit
access, suite sizes, demographics and evolving mobility trends. Mandated
parking levels have resulted in significantly more parking being built than
is required.
Studies have found in the United States, there are as many as eight parking
stalls for every vehicle, which is likely similar in car-dominant Canadian
cities such as Winnipeg. Before Edmonton implemented its new policy, a
thorough study was undertaken that found only seven per cent of parking
lots city-wide are full at peak times and, overall, parking lots are
typically no more than 40 per cent occupied.
It was concluded that Edmonton has 50 per cent more parking than is needed.
A 2018 study in metro Vancouver found that the rate of unused parking
stalls in the region’s apartment buildings was between 35 and 40 per cent.
The impact of this over-built parking is significant. The simple
construction costs for parking can range from about $7,000 for a single
surface stall to $40,000 for an above-ground parkade stall, and $60,000 or
more for an underground stall. Knowing that range in cost, it is easy to
understand why developers prefer suburban projects, surrounded by oceans of
asphalt, over infill development with expensive enclosed parking.
When parking minimums are required, it is effectively an incentive for
urban sprawl.
This high cost of parking is passed down to consumers, baked into rents and
real-estate prices, the groceries we buy and the services we use. It can
have a significant impact on housing affordability in a city. As an
example, the little brick apartment buildings familiar to many inner-city
Winnipeg neighbourhoods were often built with little or no parking. They
provide valuable affordable housing opportunities in these neighbourhoods
and are typically well leased.
If one of those buildings burns down, it is impossible to replace because
of mandatory parking requirements. For most of these buildings, filling the
entire property with parking alone would not meet the requirements,and if
parking is located underground, affordability is lost.
Overbuilt parking pushes buildings farther apart, which has the cumulative
effect of reducing urban density, increasing infrastructure needs and
diminishing the walkability of a neighbourhood. The impacts of parking on
the pedestrian quality of a street can be seen side-by-side on Winnipeg’s
Corydon Avenue, where older buildings built to the property line with active
storefronts along the sidewalk have created an attractive street to walk
down. New developments have been set back from the sidewalk behind parking
lots, increasing walking distances, reducing visual interest, and making
the street feel less safe and less attractive to shoppers and residents.
Eliminating parking minimums does not mean eliminating parking; it instead
allows developers to build what they need. Developers have a strong
incentive to find the balance between building as little parking as
possible and building so little that their investment becomes impossible to
lease. When the market, rather than government, decides how much parking
should be built, developers can be more targeted, flexible and able to
incorporate less impactful solutions, which generally results in more
appropriate parking amounts being built.
Parking minimums were established in the 1960s out of a fear from
neighbourhood residents that new development would cause an increase in
street parking. This is still a primary source of opposition to new
development today. Cities that are eliminating minimums are dealing with
this by taking a proactive approach to managing on-street parking.
Requiring the purchase of neighbourhood parking permits, as an example,
allows the city to control who is parking on the streets, ensuring that new
development is not freeloading, as well as signalling to homeowners that
on-street car storage does not come free with the purchase of their
property.
Cities that can balance strong parking management policies with elimination
of parking minimums for new development will see more appropriate amounts
of parking built in the future, resulting in higher levels of investment
and development, greater housing affordability, higher density and more
sustainable infill growth, as well as more vibrant and beautiful streets
and neighbourhoods.
*Brent Bellamy is senior design architect for Number Ten Architectural
Group.*
*EPC puts brakes on speed limit plebiscite *
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/epc-puts-brakes-on-speed-limit-pleb…
WINNIPEGGERS will not get to vote on whether they support lowering the
default 50 km/h speed limit on residential streets.
Coun. Shawn Nason’s call for the city to hold a plebiscite during the 2022
municipal election, or a mayoral byelection, was rejected by the executive
policy committee Wednesday.
Council’s most powerful committee decided to receive the idea as
information, which means no action will be taken on it, a decision only
Coun. Jeff Browaty opposed.
Mayor Brian Bowman, along with councillors Matt Allard, Scott Gillingham,
Cindy Gilroy, Brian Mayes and Sherri Rollins voted not to pursue the change.
Nason argued a plebiscite would be a fair way to seek feedback from all
residents before deciding if a major change should take place.
“My (request)… is to engage our community on a question that touches, I
believe, every member of this city,” Nason told EPC members.
Several Winnipeggers spoke out against a plebiscite at the committee
hearing, arguing that lower speed limits would reduce the risk of a serious
or fatal injury in a crash, making the matter a safety issue that should be
guided by research.
“The issue of safety should not be up for debate... these things should not
be in the realm of, nor be swayed by, the public opinion of the day.
Instead, decisions on such issues must remain firmly in the hands of those
with the knowledge and expertise to make those decisions,” said Kira
Coulter, who spoke on behalf of the advocacy group Safe Speeds Winnipeg.
Prior to the decision, Rollins argued that letting Winnipeggers vote on the
topic would amount to shifting responsibility for what should be a policy
decision made by elected officials.
The mayor said he rejected the motion because it would tie city council’s
hands and prevent it from taking any action on the file.
“I think city hall needs to be open to the topic of lowering speed limits.
We’re doing some policy work right now and I’m looking forward to reviewing
that work… I’m trying to be guided by the input of road safety engineers
and I’m trying to look at it through that lens,” said Bowman.
The mayor noted the city has not decided whether to lower the default speed
limit.
In July, council approved a pilot project to test a 30 km/h speed limit on
five residential streets in a one-year period. It’s not clear when that
will begin.
For many months, advocates have repeatedly lobbied the city to reduce the
default residential speed limit to 30 km/h.
However, an online petition against that proposal has gathered almost 9,000
signatures.
Winnipegger Ray Hignell said he’s among those who don’t think a reduced
speed limit is justified. He said he’s disappointed the plebiscite won’t
occur.
Hignell said he believes crashes that kill pedestrians tend to happen on
busier streets, not residential ones, so he’s not convinced a speed limit
reduction is warranted.
“This city seems determined to slow down traffic, impede people’s progress
and there’s no facts that I have seen... that suggest there really is a
problem,” he said.
joyanne.pursaga(a)freepress.mb <joyanne.pursaga(a)freepress.mb.ca>.ca Twitter:
@joyanne_pursaga
PSU Study Evaluates Impact of Speed Limit Reductions in Portland, OR on
Driver Speeds
In 2015 the City of Portland adopted a Vision Zero plan. Crash data
revealed that speed was a contributing factor in 47% of fatal crashes in
Portland. In 2018, the City Council reduced the speed limit on all
residential streets to 20 mph. Funded by the Portland Bureau of
Transportation and conducted at PSU by Monsere, Kothuri and Jason Anderson,
this study looked at the before and after the speed limit changes at 58
locations and found that the change likely reduced driving speeds by small
but significant amounts. The speed reduction in the percentage of vehicles
faster than 30 mph and 35 mph on residential streets are larger in
magnitude than other observed impacts.
https://trec.pdx.edu/news/effect-residential-street-speed-limit-reduction-2…
City drops plan for bike-share program
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/city-drops-plan-for-bike-share-prog…
THE city has hit the brakes on a bikeshare pilot project after a request
for expressions of interest failed to find anyone willing to operate the
program.
Winnipeg had planned to spend $80,000 on a trial project that would allow
traditional and electric bikes to be shared as a transportation
alternative. Instead, it will back out of that option after officials
concluded it would cost too much for the city to run the project on its own.
While the effort began as an innovation project in 2019, it was cancelled
before the city spent any money on it.
“It would be a nice thing to have but it’s just not one of those
super-feasible things to do without a large amount of public or private
funding,” said innovation committee chair Coun. Jeff Browaty.
A civic report noted there had been one expression of interest, but the
company asked the city to purchase bikes and other equipment and, as a
result, was rejected.
Browaty (North Kildonan) said he expects the program would simply cost too
much to pursue alone.
However, a local cycling group is continuing to explore the option.
Mark Cohoe, the executive director of Bike Winnipeg, said his organization
is conducting a feasibility study on bike-share programs.
“People are looking for less reliance on private automobiles… (Bike
shares) create a more equitable transportation system and you’re also
creating something that involves a lot more climate-friendly options,” said
Cohoe.
He believes the city would benefit from the change, since bicycle travel
could place less wear and tear on local roads and help Winnipeggers connect
to Winnipeg Transit routes.
Cohoe said bike-share programs can allow members to rent bikes for short
periods or lease them on a monthly basis. He said that could include
traditional and electric bikes. Cohoe said the city might be asked to
invest in any program proposed by his group.
Meanwhile, the city has also opted against expanding a solar
trash-compacting pilot project after it deemed an initial test with 15
“Bigbelly” trash receptacles too limited to prove effective.
Jim Berezowsky, the city’s public works director, said it would cost $1
million to install enough of the containers to cover one high-volume trash
collection route. The innovation committee instead opted to let the current
solar-powered bins remain in use until they need to be replaced.
joyanne.pursaga(a)freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga
STUDYING SLIPPERY SIDEWALKS
OPTIONS to make sidewalks easier to travel on during winter will be
considered by city council.
Council’s public works committee has ordered city staff to provide
recommendations on how to make sidewalks and active transportation routes
less slippery, despite our often lengthy season of ice and snow.
The report is expected to study the health costs and outcomes linked to
slips and falls on sidewalks. It’s also expected to consider how
snow-clearing changes, ice treatments and other changes could improve the
surfaces.
Finally, it will also explore ways to improve walking conditions on
roadsides where sidewalks aren’t available. The report is expected back in
about six months.
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Elliot Siemiatycki <Elliot(a)rideshark.com>
Date: Tue, Jan 12, 2021 at 9:49 AM
We are excited to start 2021 with a great free webinar on January 21st. We
will have Dr. Steve Farber, a leading transportation researcher from the
University of Toronto discussing equity and accessibility issues.
*You can register **HERE*
<https://rideshark.webex.com/rideshark/onstage/g.php?MTID=e1ff93dca6405a0d5a…>
and
feel free to share with any colleagues that might be interested.
Best regards,
Elliot
Elliot Siemiatycki, PhD
Vice President of Innovation and Strategic Initiatives
Email: Elliot(a)RideShark.com
www.RideShark.com <http://www.rideshark.com/>
------------------------------