How We Get Around

Traffic engineering has everything to do with how we get around.

It doesn’t matter how many neighbors sign a petition for new sidewalks, or more crosswalks, protected bike lanes, bus rapid transit, road diets…

Everything goes through traffic engineering analysis.

Listen up to learn why good engineers earn bad grades.

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https://www.AndyBoenau.com

https://twitter.com/boenau

https://linkedin.com/in/boenau

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Andy Boenau explores emerging trends that are altering How We Get Around. 

You’re scratching your head about electric scooters,  

You wonder if bike share could work in the suburbs, 

You feel bad that buses aren’t used more,

You have an opinion about autonomous vehicles,

Your walking shoes need more wear, and

You wish you didn’t have to drive so much.

Mobility freedom, equitable access, emerging technology, subscription culture, and traffic safety.

We have a lot to cover.

Not everyone can afford to own their own car. And even if everyone could, they should not be forced to spend their money to own and operate a personal car.

Transportation equity should be about giving people the same access to homes, jobs, food, and services. 

If this is one of your soap box issues, it’s worth taking a little internet adventure researching new urbanism and human-scale design. 

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https://www.AndyBoenau.com

https://twitter.com/boenau

https://linkedin.com/in/boenau

***

Andy Boenau explores emerging trends that are altering How We Get Around. 

You’re scratching your head about electric scooters,  

You wonder if bike share could work in the suburbs, 

You feel bad that buses aren’t used more,

You have an opinion about autonomous vehicles,

Your walking shoes need more wear, and

You wish you didn’t have to drive so much.

Mobility freedom, equitable access, emerging technology, subscription culture, and traffic safety.

We have a lot to cover.

Can you buy a self-driving car today? Right now, today, in early 2022, can you visit a dealer or hop on a website and purchase your own self-driving car?

In the internet age, you’d think there’d be no confusion. But most people aren't sure of the answer. That's a education problem that has real-world consequences.

***

https://www.AndyBoenau.com

https://twitter.com/boenau

https://linkedin.com/in/boenau

***

Andy Boenau explores emerging trends that are altering How We Get Around. 

You’re scratching your head about electric scooters,  

You wonder if bike share could work in the suburbs, 

You feel bad that buses aren’t used more,

You have an opinion about autonomous vehicles,

Your walking shoes need more wear, and

You wish you didn’t have to drive so much.

Mobility freedom, equitable access, emerging technology, subscription culture, and traffic safety.

We have a lot to cover.

The Infrastructure Report Card is published every year by the American Society of Civil Engineers. It sounds like something you’d get in school, but the big difference is that this one is abstract and subjective.

But once engineers get out of school, the grading system is more like art class. Here's what you need to know.

***

https://www.AndyBoenau.com

https://twitter.com/boenau

https://linkedin.com/in/boenau

***

Andy Boenau explores emerging trends that are altering How We Get Around. 

You’re scratching your head about electric scooters,  

You wonder if bike share could work in the suburbs, 

You feel bad that buses aren’t used more,

You have an opinion about autonomous vehicles,

Your walking shoes need more wear, and

You wish you didn’t have to drive so much.

Mobility freedom, equitable access, emerging technology, subscription culture, and traffic safety.

We have a lot to cover.

Professional land use planners and traffic engineers look in the rearview mirror to see what’s through the windshield. It’s an embarrassing form of fortune telling.

Inevitably, a long-range land use or mobility plan includes outdated assumptions. It doesn't have to be that way!

***

https://www.AndyBoenau.com

https://twitter.com/boenau

https://linkedin.com/in/boenau

***

Andy Boenau explores emerging trends that are altering How We Get Around. 

You’re scratching your head about electric scooters,  

You wonder if bike share could work in the suburbs, 

You feel bad that buses aren’t used more,

You have an opinion about autonomous vehicles,

Your walking shoes need more wear, and

You wish you didn’t have to drive so much.

Mobility freedom, equitable access, emerging technology, subscription culture, and traffic safety.

We have a lot to cover.

One of Virginia's snowstorms made national news because portions of I-95 were shut down. Some people were trapped for almost 30 hours in the freezing cold.

It was crazy. Thousands of people hemmed in with no way to get unstuck.

Imagine having to clear out thousands of electric vehicles with dead batteries. When people see headlines about banning gas-powered cars and shifting to electric cars, it's fair to ask "what happens to people stuck on I-95?"

***

https://www.AndyBoenau.com

https://twitter.com/boenau

https://linkedin.com/in/boenau

***

Andy Boenau explores emerging trends that are altering How We Get Around. 

You’re scratching your head about electric scooters,  

You wonder if bike share could work in the suburbs, 

You feel bad that buses aren’t used more,

You have an opinion about autonomous vehicles,

Your walking shoes need more wear, and

You wish you didn’t have to drive so much.

Mobility freedom, equitable access, emerging technology, subscription culture, and traffic safety.

We have a lot to cover.

In the last year, the biggest selling electric vehicle was a bicycle.

E-bikes outsold E-cars 2:1 in the U.S.:

• 300,000 electric cars sold, with 60,000 places to securely charge them.
• 600,000 electric bikes sold, with 8 places to securely charge them.

Planners, architects, engineers: pleeeease start incorporating secure charging for the highest selling form of EV.

***

https://www.AndyBoenau.com

https://twitter.com/boenau

https://linkedin.com/in/boenau

***

Andy Boenau explores emerging trends that are altering How We Get Around. 

You’re scratching your head about electric scooters,  

You wonder if bike share could work in the suburbs, 

You feel bad that buses aren’t used more,

You have an opinion about autonomous vehicles,

Your walking shoes need more wear, and

You wish you didn’t have to drive so much.

Mobility freedom, equitable access, emerging technology, subscription culture, and traffic safety.

We have a lot to cover.

Wayyyy back in 2020, I spoke at a conference about the danger of authorities controlling personal data, including travel habits. Locations, frequency, companions, purpose, etc.

China tracks its subjects and decides who's allowed to travel and for what purposes. Well here we are in 2022, and Canadian officials admitted they've been tracking 87% of their citizens.

Americans are rightly skeptical of giving over their data to authorities. If government agencies control Mobility-as-a-Service platforms, for example, people worry about the use of data.

***

https://www.AndyBoenau.com

https://twitter.com/boenau

https://linkedin.com/in/boenau

***

Andy Boenau explores emerging trends that are altering How We Get Around. 

You’re scratching your head about electric scooters,  

You wonder if bike share could work in the suburbs, 

You feel bad that buses aren’t used more,

You have an opinion about autonomous vehicles,

Your walking shoes need more wear, and

You wish you didn’t have to drive so much.

Mobility freedom, equitable access, emerging technology, subscription culture, and traffic safety.

We have a lot to cover.

This is a short reaction to an article from Bloomberg's CityLab: "Can the U.S. Build Big Again?"

Here's the pull quote they use to make urban planners nod in agreement, as if this is a moderate position.

The author is making the case that big transportation fixes come when power is consolidated. I have a different point of view.

***

https://www.AndyBoenau.com

https://twitter.com/boenau

https://linkedin.com/in/boenau

***

Andy Boenau explores emerging trends that are altering How We Get Around. 

You’re scratching your head about electric scooters,  

You wonder if bike share could work in the suburbs, 

You feel bad that buses aren’t used more,

You have an opinion about autonomous vehicles,

Your walking shoes need more wear, and

You wish you didn’t have to drive so much.

Mobility freedom, equitable access, emerging technology, subscription culture, and traffic safety.

We have a lot to cover.

"Multimodal balance" is the idea that equal priority should be given to all types of transport - buses, cars, bicycles, delivery trucks, fire trucks, scooters, and walking.

There's a huge problem with this concept.

***

https://www.AndyBoenau.com

https://twitter.com/boenau

https://linkedin.com/in/boenau

***

Andy Boenau explores emerging trends that are altering How We Get Around. 

You’re scratching your head about electric scooters,  

You wonder if bike share could work in the suburbs, 

You feel bad that buses aren’t used more,

You have an opinion about autonomous vehicles,

Your walking shoes need more wear, and

You wish you didn’t have to drive so much.

Mobility freedom, equitable access, emerging technology, subscription culture, and traffic safety.

We have a lot to cover.