Cuts in bus services, commuting' changes, on-demand transportation [Next Stop #3]

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Get to the point 👇🏻

Bus service cuts, need to comply with a changed (and changing) demand for mobility, the potential help brought by technology. These are the ingredients of this week’s edition of Next Stop by Sustainable Bus .

A just-published article by the Guardian found that in Great Britain nearly 10% of local bus services were eliminated in the last year, despite government promises to improve local transport. The Guardian stresses that

The reductions – equivalent to more than 1,000 registered routes – follow the publication of a national bus strategy for England in 2021, aimed at improving routes and service frequencies. The figures suggest the “bus back better” strategy, conceived under the then prime minister Boris Johnson, has failed to halt the decline in local bus services

According to a report by the DB-owned tech company ioki, today in England, Wales and Scotland “less than 20 per cent of the population have access to attractive public transport”. There’s just one exception: London. ioki paper adds: “55 million German citizens living in suburban and rural areas do not have access to attractive public transport offerings”. Italy? To cope with the high energy costs, Milan's public transportation may face a cut in both surface and subway services (via AUTOBUS )

Nonetheless, it’s evident that the seven-day timetable of five and two no longer works as commuting habits have changed. “While Friday-Monday long-distance services and increasingly full, urban and commuter services are empty, Edward Morley , a rail expert for PA Consulting , pointed out with the specialized media Future of Rail (but the reasoning is perfectly applicable to all forms of public transportation): “2023 will see increased challenge for customer groups, and greater recognition from the government of a need to alter this balance, with a more dynamic solution required, both in the timetable itself, and the configuration of trains that serve that timetable”.

Technology is here to help. An article by Earth.org underlines that, as nearly 14% of US citizens live in rural areas, “ride-sharing, vanpooling, bike sharing, and even micro-transit shuttles are all options that are currently being tested across the country (...). To improve this “demand-response” microtransit in rural areas, many countries are now using satellite imagery, drones, and smart phone data to collect information on rural ridership”.

Deutsche Bahn  plans to transport 200 million passengers per year with on-demand transportation by 2030. Autonomous buses will also be used.

In Germany, at the beginning of 2019, there were about a dozen of on-demand services. By the end of 2022, VDV forecasted in mid-2022, that there were already four times as many, with over 80 projects, and the trend is rising.

This week a study realized by Hitachi Rail on 8,000 respondents from eight cities around the globe found that 75% of people would choose a more connected public transportation system rather than driving.

Overcrowding (48%) and busyness (42%) of services are the single biggest factors that put people off. In contrast, people identify the three C’s – cost, convenience and comfort – as their biggest motivators to travel, with 79% noting the appeal of the ability to avoid crowded services, and 78% highlighting the importance of shortest journey time, and cheapest travel option

Hitachi Rail study cannot avoid to underline the huge impact of the pandemic on mobility behaviors, as on average, 71% of people in cities have reported changing their travel habits since the pandemic began. However, 59% of those surveyed anticipate that their travel habits will continue to change in the future: this presents an opportunity for municipalities to implement solutions that decrease reliance on polluting vehicles and work towards achieving net-zero emissions and reducing air pollution.

🤓 Things we enjoyed reading

• UK is paying people to not use electricity - For several hours this week and through the rest of the winter, UK residents can earn money by turning lights off, unplugging laptops, and using the microwave to heat dinner instead of cooking it in an electric oven. Keep reading on Quartz [ Quartz ]
• Do you remember Megabus? - Megabus returns to Columbus with routes to Chicago, Dayton and 12 other cities both in-state and throughout Indiana. The low-cost bus carrier is expanding service in the Midwest because of a new partnership with Miller Transportation. Keep reading on Axios [ Axios ]
• Bus drivers shortage: urging EU to remove age barrier - In a letter to the Swedish Presidency of the EU Council, two major transport organisations have called for the revision of the EU Driving Licence Directive to lower the minimum driving age for professional drivers. Keep reading on IRU's website

🗣 Time for a quote

America is in the midst of a streetcar boom. In the last decade, streetcar systems have sprung up in Kansas City, Mo., Cincinnati, Washington, D.C., Detroit and Atlanta, among other cities, and more communities are eyeing the possibility of implementing them

New York Times' article "In Omaha, a Streetcar Named Undesirable by Warren Buffett" (LINK)

What about a chart?