Christmas travel.

With the Christmas just around the corner it's always a time of traditional celebrations but also a time for a review of the year that it is about to leave us. The other day at the office we were asked to decorate our desks with traditional but also international Christmas themes. Being in transport, I couldn't choose anything else than the old Greek Christmas tradition of decorating a miniature boat.

Way before the tradition of decorating a Christmas tree, children in Greek islands used to decorate a miniature ship with small miniature flags and other ornaments, usually a replica of the ones that they saw every day in their islands . They took these miniatures boats out in their Christmas carol runs and they served as trays for the gifts they received from the houses they visit. Mandarins, oranges, nuts and almonds, traditional sweets like loukoumia, kourambiedes or melomakarona were their reward for singing the carols and their decorated boats were filled with them.

Children in Naxos island, Greece singing carols with tzabouna and doubaki, magazine “NAXIAKA” 16, 1987, p. 18 (photo Ν. Kefalliniadis)

It seems that it is not accurate that these decorated boat was the centre of the  Christmas house decoration even though the modern Christmas tree was not known in Greece before 1833 that King Otto brought this tradition from western Europe. The houses were decorated during Christmas with different things like green branches as a symbol of hope for the upcoming spring or a big wild onion as a symbol of  fertility and euphoria. But the symbolism behind the decorated boat was different: It was not just a welcome and an homage to their sailor fathers that returned home for the holidays but also a symbol of a float to a new and better life.

This symbolic ship symbolises for me and my family our transition to Australia and the start of a new more promising life. And this first year was exactly that: promising and full of adventures, challenges and simple every day life pleasures. I hope that this Christmas boat is also symbolic for my place of birth: It will show the way out of the economic and social crisis and into a bright future that Greek people deserve.

Nikiphoros Lytras (1832–1904) 

I wish all my friends, colleagues at work and readers of this blog merry Christmas and happy new year. May you find in life your decorated little boat that will travel you in friendly water and safely to the desired destination.

Peace and freedom to you all.

Top Ten. Transport and Traffic Best photographs of 2012.

It's the time of the year that different top ten lists are published in an attempt to review this year that soon is coming to an end. Best songs, best movies, best shows and the lists go on. My favourite is lists of best photographs because as the Chinese proverb, quoted later (1911) by newspaper editor Arthur Brisbane say: "Use a picture. It's worth a thousand words." The web is filled with amazing photographs but I always give greater attention to the ones that involve transport and traffic. Browsing through such sites I realised that a significant percentage of these pictures involve transport and traffic on one way or another.

So here is my top ten list of the most spectacular transport and traffic photographs of 2012. I took the liberty to put my own titles on them as most of them were not published under the photographers original title. Apart from the title,  I list the country that the picture was taken, the photographers name and the news agency that published it. I kept the last spot in the list for one of my own photographs, because of it's special meaning. Is the photograph from the most popular blog post for 2012 and also is the photograph that reflects my pleasure for living and working in such a great city.

10. Bus rapid transit. Australia. KYRIAKOS TYROLOGOS.

9. Space Travel. USA, AFP

 8. Cruise Safety. Italy. PAUL HANNA. Reuters 

7. Highway Land Resume. China. CHINA DAILY. Reuters

 6. Alternative mobility. Colombia. FREDY BUILES. Reuters

5. Public Transport Overcrowd. Bangladesh.  ANDREW BIRAJ, Reuters 

thanks to fellow blogger Prafull for correcting me

4.Cost of fuel. Italy. ALESSANDRO BIANCHI. Reuters

 3. Freight Overload.Pakistan. MIAN KHURSHEED. Reuters

   2. School Active Travel.Indonesia. BEAWIHARTA. Reuters

  1. Storm Traffic Halt. United States. LUCAS JACKSON. Reuters

Discussing countdown timers on Linkedin

Linkedin is a professional network on the Internet with more than 187 million members in over 200 countries and territories. It is like the Facebook of professionals. One interesting aspect of Linkedin is the groups which are a forum that some very interesting discussions take place. It is also a valuable source of information. I posted my previous blog entry on countdown timers at pedestrian traffic signals on Traffic Engineer and Transportation Planner Network group with a question whether this is an idea worth investing on or should we look for a totally different approach when it comes to pedestrian traffic in busy CBD intersections. I was very pleased to see that this topic sparkled a very interesting conversation. Traffic and transport professionals from around the world posted their comments on the issue. Some of them shared links to study reports on countdown timers’ trials on different countries. The majority of the responses were in favour of installing such devices on traffic lights. Here are some of the comments:

Ray Guarino, Transportation Planner at Old Colony Planning Council, Brockton, Massachusetts: “Yes, they are worth the investment. In busy urban areas these countdown timers work great. If you want to see them in action at busy intersections, and you are the USA, go to the corner of Boylston and Tremont in Boston, Massachusetts.
                                                                                                                
Jim Lizzi, Senior Transportation Engineer at City of Irvine, Orange County, California: “I support the use of countdown timers simply because the information transmitted to pedestrians is of value.” and “With countdown timers, at least pedestrians know for sure when they should definitely NOT start crossing. The bottom line for me is that safety--of all kinds--is enhanced through understanding.”

Jakob Helmboldt, Pedestrian, Bicycle & Trails Coordinator at City of Richmond, Virginia: “In the US countdowns will soon be mandatory (end of 2013 is the current compliance date). Countdowns do have benefits, and FHWA wouldn't be requiring their use if the experimental use showed significant impaired safety. More information is always better than less when it can be conveyed with ease which is the case with a countdown signal. That said, there are always negative externalities possible, but on balance they are an improvement.”

Jeff McMullen, Chief Engineering Technician ITS/TOC at City of Fresno, California: “I agree that the countdown timers are great for pedestrians however, although I have no data to back this up other than observation, motorists are using the countdown timers also. When they see that the time is about to expire they (the aggressive drivers) tend to speed up to ensure they can make it through the signal.”  

Chuck Weaver, Senior Designer at Brudis & Associates, Baltimore, Maryland: “I've been designing intersection in MD for years....we are upgrading to APS/CPS almost everywhere”

Tony Earl, Head of Network Performance at Transport for London, Redhill, United Kingdom: “I am currently rolling out Pedestrian Countdown at Traffic Signals (PCaTS) to 200 signals with all red to traffic Pedestrian Stages in London following a study undertaken on behalf of Transport for London by TRL. This is now approved for use in the whole of England. You may find the study report of interest.”

Martin Huang, Traffic Engineer at Tauranga City Council, New Zealand: “We have also installed some countdown timers at one of our signalised intersections in our city. From my observations and previous research undertaken in New Zealand, it appears that the benefits from the device are more qualitative than quantitative. About 90% of the interviewees are positive about the installation while only several percentages of crash and compliance rate have changed. To me personally, I see it as enabling to provide clear messages for pedestrians to make an informed decision. Teenagers can dash across the road with less than 10 seconds but the elderly would be safely to wait for next cycle even if it is 15+ seconds left.” and “Just for your information, there are 2 research reports about trials of countdown timers application in Auckland and Wellington and their links are shown below.
http://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/research/reports/428/
http://www.ipenz.org.nz/ipenztg/papers/2007/C4a_HooperVencatTse.pdf

Pravin Dayaram, Director at Traffic and Transportation Engineers Ltd, New Zealand: “n Auckland, the countdown timers seem to have been implemented only at (or in conjunction with the change to) what we term locally as 'Barnes Dances' (all traffic stopped pedestrian movements cross at the same time and named after the developer). My observations indicate that there is significantly less non-compliance (crossing during the short flashing-red man phase)…”

 District Department of Transportation Columbia

Glenn Cole, Manager, Technical Information Programs at Transportation Association of Canada, Ottawa, Canada: “The Transportation Association of Canada (Traffic Operation and Management Standing Committee) put together a small study: Informational Report on Pedestrian Countdown Signals. It's available on line at
http://wiki.tac-atc.ca/twiki/pub/ChiefEngineers/PedestrianCountdown/Project_253_-_Optional_Use_of_Pedestrian_Countdown_Timers.PDF

The story Rob Klug, Traffic Signal Engineer at Clark County Public Works Portland, Oregon shared with the group was very interesting: “My favorite citizen interaction was with an elderly person who approached me at an intersection we just installed the countdown timers at, where I was working on the cabinet. She told me that she really appreciated all the extra time that she was given by these new countdown heads. She never got across the street within the flashing don't walk, but all the extra time we gave her with the new heads made it so that she could get across the street with 4 or 5 seconds to spare. I explained that we did not change any settings on the control equipment, but she was probably adjusting her walk speed based on the time she saw was left on the countdown.  She crossed her arms, and said in a very stern voice "I know you changed the timing. I never was able to cross within the time, now I can". I told her the only thing that made sense. "You are welcome", and went back to work.”

Image from 7 News video

We are living in a new era of professional and scientific communication and dialogue. The duty of mobility practitioners is to make an effort to be part of this new world, use the available means in a responsible way and share knowledge and experience.

The online mobility management toolbox goes on a ride.

The Australian Institute of Traffic Planning and Management (AITPM) is an organization that aims mainly to promote the positive aspects of traffic & transport planning and management for the benefit of the whole community and to increase members' knowledge within the field. Since I came to Australia, more than a year ago, and being member of The Hellenic Institute of Transportation Engineers (HITE – ΣΕΣ), I became also member of AITPM.

 

The AITPM 2012 annual national conference was held in Sydney from 9 to 12 October at a fantastic venue Luna Park and it was a great honour for me to be selected to present my work on the on line mobility management toolbox.

Presentation Part 1

 Presentation Part 2: Conclusions

Camera Director: Pam Andritsakis.(thank you Pam).

Overall it was a great conference with many very interesting papers presented. I found most interesting the presentations on alternative and sustainable modes of travel like walking and cycling. In the same session as me, there were two colleagues that I think they are very good ambassadors of Brisbane transport professionals. Rachel Smith was passionate as always, suggesting that we should trial the closure of some CBD streets for a couple of hours at lunchtimes to experiment with giving pedestrians priority and creating new economic opportunities. Michael Roth  commented on ways that we can convince more drivers to drive ecologically improving this way both their environmental impact and their weekly spending on fuel.  Both presentations were within the philosophy of mobility management and sustainable mobility. 

On the second day of the conference there were also quite interesting presentations and at times it was difficult to choose between the two different sessions taking place in different halls. Matthew Harridge presented the work on a carpooling system implemented at Tally Ho Business Centre, Victoria. Again carpooling is a solution that can reduce congestion and air pollution in cities with intense problems as Melbourne. Matt Tilly's work on Improving the walkability of Brisbane's City Centre was also very interesting. This work on the Brisbane City Centre Active Transport Study was part of the new Brisbane City Council Master Plan.

The last day of the conference I participated in the official multi modal tour of Sydney. Even though the weather that day was not so good the participants had a chance to learn about the new transport projects that are planned for North and West Sydney. But Sydney's transportation system is a very interesting story of it's own and something tells me that in the near future I will have the chance to share it.

Pedestrian signals countdown timers. Time to move on.

Just a few weeks ago Brisbane City Council installed pedestrian signal countdown timers at five CBD sites for a trial period until 26 October 2012.

 Adelaide Street and Edward Street

• Adelaide Street and Albert Street pedestrian crossing
• Eagle Street and Wharf Street and Queen Street
• George Street at Queen Street pedestrian crossing
• Charlotte Street and Edward Street

All these intersections are located in Brisbane's CBD and have a high number of pedestrians using them. 

The countdown works during the Flashing Don’t Walk interval. This is a time between the Green Man and the Red Man when the Red Man is flashing.  That interval is not used in Greece and most European countries. Under Australian and Queensland road rules (231) the pedestrian is not allowed to start crossing during the Flashing Don’t Walk interval. 

The operation of the countdown timers during the flashing red interval raised a lot of questions and especially whether this actually results to pedestrians crossing illegally. This same choice was made in a similar trial case in Sydney in 2010 where the specific choice was made simply because this type of countdown was most compatible with adaptive traffic control, used in Sydney (SCATS traffic control). I don't know exactly why the same choice was made in Brisbane but I guess that the fact that SCATS is also used here, played some role in this choice.

The basic conclusions of the Sydney trial research were:

• Safety: There was no net change in pedestrian safety–while late starters were more successful finishing crossing (prior to the start of the SDW interval) where PCTs were installed, the late starters were offset by a reduction in pedestrians starting during the Walk interval.
• Compliance: The level of compliance by pedestrians appears to have decreased at wider crossings where PCTs were installed. There was an increase in late starters that started crossing during the FDW interval, although non-compliant vehicles may have contributed tothis effect.
• Amenity: Results suggested that pedestrian amenity may have been improved due to the reduction in the number of pedestrians required to wait until the next Walk interval to cross.

Probably the results of the trial period in Brisbane would not be much different and this may result in Brisbane CC not going through with the full programmed installation.

But the evolution for pedestrian traffic in cities and especially in the CBD areas has just started. And traffic signal countdown timers is only a small part of it. The plethora of different solutions for counters across the world is amazing. There are even some that are animated as this one in Auckland.

But the real issue is to prioritize pedestrian traffic over to vehicle traffic in the CBD areas. After all, the research has shown that after a period of 30 to 45 seconds of waiting, pedestrians become more risky, impatient and were more likely to cross whenever they could regardless of the pedestrian signal displays.

So we have to start thinking for pedestrian traffic similarly to how we think for cars when we programming traffic signal operations. How about green waves for pedestrians across roads linking major railway or metro stations to the core of CBD for example? Or even restricting vehicle turning movements at intersections during pedestrian traffic peak hours. We have to be more brave and pilot projects and trial periods are tools that allow us to.

Car free day

 Last Saturday, 22 September 2012 was the world car-free day. People, communities, cities and countries from around the world organise events to celebrate and promote sustainable mobility.

Gratz, Austria

 While the idea of restricting car access to specific streets or parts of the city even for just a few hours of a single day per year is pretty old, it was back at 1994 that a formal world day started to be organised. In 2000 the European Commission adopted the idea and funded the whole project under the title “In town without my car”. The campaign was a huge success not only in Europe but also in other countries. Since 2002 cities in Europe celebrate the “European Mobility Week” an annual event in September around the "In town without my car!" day. By 2008 more than 2100 local governments from 39 countries participated either in the single day celebration or the whole mobility week.

The first Australian Car Free Day was held in the City of Fremantle on 29 November 2000. Fremantle tried again on 2001 and 2002 organising the “Shed your car day”. Other cities in Australia tried to organise similar events but without coordination amongst them and not much success.

Pedestrians, bicycles, public transit and other forms of sustainable transportation are encouraged on these days. People have tolerated too long congestion, air pollution and all other side effects of car traffic in the cities.

As the theme and logo of this year’s European Mobility Week says “Do the right mix”.

At the same time that neoliberal policies and austerity measures deepen the economic crisis in Europe, 

extending it into a social crisis, there are still a few lessons that we can learn from their practices towards a new culture in urban mobility.

Texting while driving. OMG not LOL!

While I was driving to get to a site inspection today I stopped at a  intersection with traffic lights. When I turned my head to my right, I noticed that all three vehicle drivers waiting at the lights at the lane next to me where texting. Heads down looking at their mobile phone which they were all holding with both their hands were clearly typing SMS text messages or using any other keyboard related application. Especially with the new smart phones there is a big number of very popular mobile phone applications like email, internet browsers, facebook, twitter, etch that you can use. 

http://wordproverb.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/texting-while-driving.html

I was puzzled at first that all three drivers were doing the same thing. I thought that it was a rare coincidence and it had to do with the traffic lights. Stopping on a red light may make people thing that they have the time to send a quick message or check if that email they have been waiting has come through. But then when the signals turned to green at least two of them that I managed to follow as we were driving parallel at the same direction kept the mobile phone on their hand and were driving with the other. One of them kept typing and occasionally looking at his phone. 

http://www.intomobile.com/2010/07/02/michigan-bans-texting-while-driving/

This is outrageous. People buy smart phones but they are not so smart themselves. Texting while driving is not only illegal in Queensland (300$ fine and 3 demerit points) and whole of Australia but is also considered more dangerous than drunk driving. Driver distraction and inattention have a detrimental impact on road safety.

http://www.themotorreport.com.au/38509/texting-while-driving-increases-crash-risk-by-23-times-study

And while numerous road safety campaigns focus on this issue, the numbers of drivers texting while driving increase. Even though that last year stories of drivers’crashing while texting messages like "I need to quit texting, because I could die in a car accident" made the news. Different solutions with the help of technology were proposed, such as mobile phone deactivation or voice control texting. 

But the question still remains: Do we need someone else to take care of us? Why can't we just do the right thing and don’t use the mobile phone while we are driving?  Why do we prefer OMG rather than LOL?

Bruce highway road trip

 A few days ago we made our first Australian road trip. From Brisbane to Airlie Beach on a total distance of more than 1200 kilometres if you include the deviations to other beach side locations like Hervey Bay or Emu Park. And that’s just the one direction total distance. The trip was very interesting through the most beautiful landscape of central Queensland. 

The basic route from Brisbane up north is through the (in)famous Bruce highway. When I first heard of Bruce highway I though of Bruce Almighty and in certain parts of the trip I wished that I had Bruce Nolan’s abilities to transform things around me.

The thing I wanted to transform the most was the road itself. Bruce highway, named after the former Queensland and federal politician Henry Adam Bruce who was the state Minister for Works when the highway was named after him, in the mid 1930s. And in some parts Bruce highway seems to have remained in 1930’s.

The first part of Bruce highway, from Brisbane to Noosa Heads is a dual carriageway and at that point is that the good news for motorists ends. That is the same point that the good news for Queensland wildlife ends as well. I haven’t seen so many dead animals, mainly kangaroos in the side of the road, ever before. It seems that the “respect for our wildlife” signs don’t do much help here. The highway is a regular deathtrap for so many wildlife animals and it is very strange that it lucks protective fencing especially at some parts that passes through the forest.

Unfortunately Bruce highway raises serious safety issues to drivers and the innovative fatigue – trivia signs don’t seem to help so much. They are really interesting and they provide some trivia knowledge about Queensland but they can’t be considered a safety measure.

 

On the contrary safety measure can be considered the median treatment on some parts of the highway on the road from Curra to Cooroy. 

 

Safety measures are also the overtaking lanes. Especially these were a lot of help when I had a B-double truck tailgating me at a speed of more than 100 km/h. 

 

The Bruce highway is used by up to 170,000 vehicles a day. While it is just 32% of the total length of Queensland highways it is accounting for the 51% of casualty crashes during 2003-2007 and 59% of deaths. These statistics are only second worst to the Pacific Highway that links Brisbane with Gold Cost. 

Queensland Government is working with Australian Government to upgrade Bruce Highway. Together they have developed Bruce Highway Upgrade Strategy, which identifies priority investments for the Bruce Highway. Over the next 20 years Bruce Highway will see 340 kilometres of highway duplication, bridge replacements, intersection upgrades and other safety improvements. 

I am afraid that in a state that railroad is not much developed, these upgrades are not enough and the level of service that Bruce highway provides will keep undermining growth in Queensland and will keep putting people and animals in great danger.

Olympic Games traffic

I am watching the Olympic Games 2012  opening ceremony and as always my mind goes to transport and traffic. 

The Games being such a huge event, involving thousands of participating athletes, coaches and spectators are such a great challenge for the transportation planners and traffic engineers of each hosting city. 

Even in the hosting city selection procedure, transport and traffic is the second most important aspect of the candidate cities’ proposal after venues. Cities are struggling to persuade the “immortals” that they can manage traffic during the Olympic games in a way that not only will be effective but also sustainable. The games provide the opportunity for the cities to build new transportation system like the Athens Metro and tram. 

But even big transport infrastructure projects like public transportation systems and construction of new motorways and arterials are not enough to ensure that athletes would not need two or three hours of travel to get to their Olympic venue. Transport planning, traffic management and mobility management plays a big role in this task. After all, transportation network capacity is not designed to support all this additional demand for travel. 

One of the traffic management measures used, is sending a significant percentage of the Olympic city’s residents away from the city or having them stay at home. Usually this is achieved by giving civil servants mandatory leave and generally by making it so much more difficult for people to travel to their usual every day destination, so they will prefer to go on holidays or stay home. Again Athens was an example for this with so many Athenians spending their days during the Olympic Games in the islands.

The objective is to enable athletes and officials to get to their events on time. This is accomplished by installing Olympic lanes. Roads or traffic lanes reserved for accredited Games vehicles – athletes, officials and of course sponsors – as well as emergency vehicles. In London there are 30 miles of Olympic Lanes installed mainly on some of the city’s main arterial roads, marked by white Olympic rings painted on to the road. 

No one else is allowed in these lanes, not even black taxis or bicycles and this raises discomfort, protests and even extreme police actions that don't exactly promote the Olympic spirit.  

Trying to achieve optimum traffic management is not an easy task as some of London’s biggest traffic engineering gaffes show. 

Olympic Games have blown out of proportion during the last decades thanks to the commercialization spirit. The sponsors and the often greedy national Olympic committees push to include more sports and more athletes to the Olympic Games and finally cities that host the games do not benefit from them overall.At least it seems that they benefit from some improvement to their transport systems and the added experience in mobility management.