Along for the Ride #136
Along for the Ride #136
Just a lot of news, ya know?
Heya friends, happy Friday!
I have minimal preamble this week because there is so much ~news~ so, all my energy and intention went there this week. And next week will feature … 🥁 … the first guest contributor of the year! Really excited to be kicking off that series this month, and to bring in some new perspectives to this platform.
As a reminder if you’re interested in guest contributing, I have a short write-up about what it entails here. Ok, onto le news.
Celebrating Black Excellence
This week I want to share an article about the changing relationship and evolution Black communities have had with cars. In An Atlas of Self-Reliance, the researchers consider how automobility brought forward new access and opportunities to Black people, alongside escalated challenges.
The widespread adoption of automobiles coincided with the Jim Crow era, and as some Black people began to afford such assets, White communities continued to find new ways to segregate Black folks. Public displays of success (such as car ownership) would draw further attention from segregationist White communities, and they retaliated by denying essential services (such as access to washrooms / toilets, rest areas, and food) at road-side stops. Enter stage left: The Green Book.
The Green Book was created “to help Black motorists travel safely across a landscape partitioned by segregation and scarred by lynching.. The inaugural edition of the guide ran 16 pages long and focused on tourist areas in and around New York City. By the eve of U.S. entry in World War II, it had expanded to 48 pages and covered nearly every state in the union. Two decades later, the guide was nearly 100 pages long and offered advice for black tourists visiting Canada, Mexico, Europe, Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean.”
Often times in my work I am compelled to bash automobiles and once you learn about the devastation wrought by automobile OEMs in the 20th century… it’s hard to unlearn or ignore the impact. But understanding how automobiles have been upheld as a reprieve from discrimination on public transport, and other dangerous or uncomfortable modes of travel demonstrates their power to provoke a sense of a safety, even when that sense may not reflect a lived reality.
This article reminded me that we still continue to promote vehicles as an essential tool for social mobility, and yet trap Black people into that belief while (a) limiting access to safe and well-serviced public transport, and (b) providing hostile, dangerous, and deadly infrastructure and public spaces for Black people in our cities—especially on roadways and through policing. We can and must do better, but need to lead with empathy and awareness that unless discrimination and racism is addressed at every level of our transportation system we will fail to deliver true liberation of Black people.
Government and Policy
Cars have some learning left to do
Happy California DMV Disengagement Report week! You can read the full report here.
The above is a fairly detailed view on California’s most recent disengagement report, and the relatively consistent challenges faced across all operators. The issues follow the three Ps: perception, prediction, and planning. And let me tell you, every body is reporting disengagements. Except Tesla, because obviously they skirt around this legislation.
Subtext: The transportation zine we need
Shoutout to AFTR reader Marisa for this share! TransitCenter has published this amazing zine featuring pieces published by Women Changing Transportation (WCT). This issue in particular focuses on the lived experiences of Black, Indigenous and additional Women of Colour across the transportation industry. The whole issue is really inspiring.
Really excited to get my hands on Jessie Singer’s new book: There are no accidents. Today most people use the term “accident” to describe when a driver kills a pedestrian or cyclist, even if there is a clear cause such as a driver who was drunk, distracted or speeding. Jessie Singer argues that what most people describe as accidents are anything but. She argues that who lives and dies by accident in America is not random but utterly predictable. Using the word, she says, protects the powerful and leads to “the prevention of prevention.” You can listen to the War on Cars podcast interview Jessie here.
The pandemic that is pedestrian deaths
* Trigger warning: traffic violence *
“Fatalities are climbing to record levels two years into the pandemic. Authorities cite drivers’ anxiety levels, larger vehicles and fraying social norms… New Jersey had its highest number of pedestrian fatalities in more than 30 years. Last year was also the deadliest on Utah’s roads since the start of the century, as pedestrian deaths rose 22 percent. Washington State ended 2021 with a 15-year high in traffic fatalities. And pedestrian deaths in Texas climbed last year to a record high.”
The more you know:
The Chinese government is betting big on AVs (TechCrunch, paywall)
Dubai is to begin AV testing in 2023 (National News)
Industry
Intel announced they would be bringing their “movers” to the US
Slated for 2024, Intel hopes to bring their fully electric and shared AV shuttles to the streets of America. The company noted that these devices could help reach communities as part of microtransit programs. The vehicles feature technology from Benteler Electric Vehicle Systems, Beep and Mobileye.
Despite there being fewer AVs in California, they are traveling more miles
Autonomous vehicles drove over 4 million miles in California, a huge growth after back-to-back pandemic years where testing was limited due to social distancing. Of these 4 million miles, around 25,000 miles were driven by cars without a driver on board. To nobody’s surprise, Waymo clocked the most miles, with Cruise racing in behind them—together they make up 80% of all miles driven in the State.
The super-top-secret-not-to-be-seen-or-discussed Apple autonomous vehicle reported driving 13,000 miles in 2021 through the disengagement report. The report indicates Apple has 37 vehicles approved for testing, all of which as Lexus RX SUVs. So the mysterious exterior design is still under wraps.
Tesla’s really bad-bad-no-good “Full Self-Driving Mode”
* Trigger warning: traffic violence *
A youtuber out of San Francisco showing a Tesla vehicle operating under “Full Self-Driving Mode” (AKA Level 2, for those following along), veer towards a cyclist. You can watch the clip around the 25 minute mark as the youtubers talk about how this is a “game changer for safety” before the driver has to stop the vehicle from hitting a cyclist. They then question if they’ll have to cut that content, but decided the whole situation is “fine”.
As an aside, my personal hell is a youtube video of two dudes driving around aimlessly in a Tesla talking about how cool FSD is.
AutoX sets its sights on San Francisco
Because what cities really need is more cars testing on their roads and using the public like Guinea Pigs™️. The AV company has already acquired both a drivered testing permit, which allows testing with a human safety operator behind the wheel, and a driverless testing permit, which allows testing without a human safety operator, from the California Department of Motor Vehicles. They currently run testing in San Jose.
The more you know:
Aurora (who purchased Uber ATG) and Xpress partner to advance automated trucking (BusinessWire)
Baidu autonomous vehicles at the Olympics (Bloomberg)
Jaguar Land Rover partner with Nvidia to provide assisted driving platform for future vehicles (The Verge)
Waymo partners with CHR on … you guessed it, freight (Waymo)
Research and Academia
Cycling and walking route choices during the winter
* Breaks out inner Canadian * As somebody who used to walk to school in -20C weather, I can confirm this research deeply resonates.
“The results indicate that surface conditions have a significant impact on pedestrians’ and bicyclists’ route choice. Specifically, pedestrians avoid slippery surfaces in general, while bicyclists avoid surfaces with a build-up of loose snow on the pavement. When bare pavement is available, some pedestrians change their route from snow- or slush-covered surfaces to walk on a bare surface, even when the amount of snow or slush is minimal. On the other hand, based on the experimental results, a partly ice-covered surface did not deter pedestrians, indicating that a correspondence between actual surface conditions and pedestrians’ visual perceptions is an important factor in their informed decision-making.”
Our EVs are only as clean as our energy grid
A lot of you hopefully read that and went “duh”, but for those of you who didn’t…
“While average emissions have decreased substantially over the last decade (28% nationally), marginal emissions have increased (7% nationally). We show that underlying these trends is primarily a shift toward greater reliance on coal to satisfy marginal electricity use. We apply our estimates to an analysis of the Biden administration’s target of having electric vehicles (EVs) make up 50% of new vehicle purchases by 2030. We find that, without significant and concurrent changes to the electricity sector, the increase in electricity emissions is likely to offset more than half of the emission reductions from having fewer gasoline-powered vehicles on the road.”
Opinion
Six ways AVs could shape cities for the worse
From more congested streets, precarious future investments in public transport, increasing the costs of car ownership, inducing sprawl, reducing funding sources for governments, and limited benefits delivered to people with disabilities … AVs could really make our cities worse. And this article doesn’t even touch on the emissions issue..!
Extra Bits + Bobs
Jobs you should apply for!
San Francisco Fellows Program: Apply by March 6th to be considered for this innovative and exciting program oriented towards recent graduates. The Fellows program is a unique opportunity to learn about public administration in local government while working full time as a City employee.
That’s all from me, have a beautiful weekend friends.
Sarah