Towards an electric scooter level of service: A review and framework

Although electric scooters (e-scooters) are gaining ground rapidly, research on analysing their users\u27 experience lags far behind practice. Level of Service (LOS) is a promising approach to bridge the gap between research and practice via quantifying e-scooter riders\u27 experience. We reviewed the state-of-the-art literature of e-scooters concerning their users\u27 experience and proposed a preliminary framework for developing e-scooter LOS (SLOS). The findings suggest a lack of studies to evaluate SLOS, and e-scooters are rarely considered in the LOS estimation of other transport modes. Considering the impact of e-scooters in both modal substitute and supplement calls for unique SLOS indices in each scenario to reflect their user\u27s experience realistically. Future studies should analyse the interaction of e-scooters with other road users, particularly pedestrians. This study highlights the importance of treating e-scooter as a distinct transport mode and contributes to matching policy and practice to integrate e-scooters into transport planning

Minimum parking requirements and car ownership: An analysis of Swedish municipalities

Transportation is a major contributor to anthropogenic climate change driven primarily by private automobility and for nearly a century, cities have used a suite of policies and regulations that reinforce high rates of car ownership. One such regulation is minimum parking requirements, enacted to ensure that private properties can accommodate the storage of private vehicles. In recent years, cities have begun to reevaluate these parking requirements, with some municipalities reducing them, others providing opportunities for flexible parking, and some even removing parking requirements in part or all of the city. This article explores the relationship between parking requirements and car ownership by analyzing a survey of 56 municipalities across Sweden. In this paper, we develop two methods for comparing different parking metrics that municipalities use (parking spaces per apartment and parking spaces per building area). Our analysis examines variation between different sizes and classifications of municipalities. We find that across all municipalities, there is a positive relationship between minimum parking requirements and car ownership, meaning that higher minimum parking requirements are associated with higher rates of car ownership. City size is an important factor in rates of car ownership, but our analysis shows that even among similarly sized municipalities, minimum parking requirements tend to be associated with higher rates of car ownership. These findings show that reducing parking minimums can be an effective policy to reduce car ownership, but it is important to consider that these changes only impact new development and repurposing parking areas in existing housing areas may be an equally effective policy to curb car ownership

Variability of daily car usage and the frequency of long-distance driving

The limited electric range of battery electric vehicles (BEV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) requires an understanding of the variation in day-to-day driving and the frequency of long-distance driving. Existing literature suggests high regularity of human mobility. However, large longitudinal mobility samples for empirical tests are hardly available. Here, we analyze the regularity of daily vehicle kilometers travelled (VKT) of 10,000 vehicles observed between two months and several years and quantify the regularity of daily VKT and the frequency of long-distance driving. Our results indicate limited regularity of daily VKT beyond one day of time lag (mean autocorrelation ≤ 0.11). Long-distance driving with daily km over 100 km (200 km) typically take place on less than 20% (5% for 200 km) of driving days but make up 40% (18%) of annual VKT. Our results have implications for sustainable transport research and the design of travel surveys

An in-depth understanding of powered micro-mobility safety issues

The fast-growing market of powered micro-mobility, including electric bikes (e-bikes) and electric scooters (e-scooters), has introduced a paradigm shift in mobility across the world. These emerging transport modes have frequently been referred to as convenient mobility, having playfulness and transport functions. However, one of the main obstacles to the safe adoption of these transport modes is the safety issues related to their use. Based on the cycling literature, the interaction of vulnerable road users with each other could be classified based on the encounter directions. More specifically, passing is referred to as same-direction encounters, and meeting demonstrates opposite-direction encounters. Experiments and observations have been applied in this research domain for data collection, while interview setups are less conducted to explore users' opinions about their interactions. In this study, we conducted a series of semi-structured interviews and scrutinised e-bike and e-scooter users' safety issues in motorised and non-motorised facilities (e.g. shoulder lanes and sidewalks). [from Introduction

Electric scooter safety: An integrative review of evidence from transport and medical research domains

Safe mobility is a prerequisite in the paradigm shift toward sustainable cities and societies. Yet, the serious safety concerns associated with the practice of emerging modes such as electric scooters (e-scooters) are a major challenge for a smooth adoption of these transport modes. We have systematically reviewed peer-reviewed e-scooter safety papers with a primary focus on transport and a secondary focus on medical research domains. Our findings suggest a dire need for analysing interactions of e-scooters with other road users, and, subsequently, adopting surrogate safety measures for e-scooters. Also, it is determined that head and face injuries are the most common injury types for e-scooter riders involved in collisions. The absence of uniform regulations for the practice of e-scooters could potentially affect their safe adoption. The findings highlight the importance of providing uniform regulations for safety gears as well as the prevention of riding under the influence

How do users adapt to a short-range battery electric vehicle in a two-car household? Results from a trial in Sweden

We supplied 25 two-car households with a short-range battery electric vehicle (BEV) to study their adaptation to a BEV replacing one of their conventional cars. The data includes GPS-measured driving of the households’ two original cars for 2–3 months, and for the BEV and the remaining conventional car for 3–4 months. We performed interviews with the households before and after the BEV trial period. We can thus compare the change in measured driving patterns and the users’ experienced adaptation in relation to their measured driving adaptation. We find large heterogeneity in measured adaptation, with some users driving the BEV more than the replaced car and some less. Most users state a preference for using the BEV, but this is not always detectable in the GPS data. Similarly, expected issues with the range limitation from the GPS data do not predict satisfaction with the BEV from the qualitative data

Indicating and managing BEV range issues in two-car households

We discuss from various perspectives the range limitation; possible indicators, different relaxation options and the actual adaptation in two-car households, using GPS-loggings of both cars simultaneously for 1-3 months in 64 two-car households, and interviews after a BEV trial in 25 of these households. Indicators such as DRA are less useful in two-car households. Instead the flexibility in such households may drastically reduce the range issues. The actual adaptation in households shows that there are numerous reasons to why the options are not fully utilized. Still, none of the test households stated a perceived limitation due to range

La infiltración del Batallón de Inteligencia Nº 601 en el PRT-ERP (1974-1976) : El Oso Ranier. Ni héroe ni traidor

Entre 1974 y 1976, Jesús Rafael Ranier, el Oso, estuvo infiltrado en el Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores-Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo (PRT-ERP). Calificado como “traidor” o “doblado” por los sobrevivientes de esta organización y como “héroe” por los integrantes de los servicios de inteligencia para los que actuó durante catorce meses, Ranier fue el responsable directo por la delación del ataque al Batallón Domingo Viejo Bueno de Monte Chingolo el 23 de diciembre de 1975. ¿Cómo y por qué pudo permanecer durante tanto tiempo en una organización conspirativa, clandestina y conocida por su hermetismo? ¿De qué manera se diseñó y se sustanció el proyecto represivo que dio vida a las actividades del Oso dentro del PRT-ERP? ¿Cuáles fueron los sentidos asignados a sus prácticas por los sobrevivientes de la organización y por la historiografía interesada en el decurso del PRT-ERP? Estos son algunos de los interrogantes que este libro procura responder. Para ello, y en función del propósito perseguido, esta investigación ha recurrido a un acervo documental conformado por fuentes escritas que comprenden publicaciones partidarias, escritos biográficos e informes de los organismos represivos del Estado, confrontados con los testimonios de diversos ex compañeros de militancia de Ranier para poder acercarnos y comprender la tensión histórica que se manifiesta en las disputas por los sentidos, significados y olvidos de una trama del pasado reciente.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

Electrification of Vehicle Miles Traveled and Fuel Consumption within the Household Context: A Case Study from California, USA

Plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs), consisting of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), combined with the decarbonization of the electricity sector, can significantly help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector. This study used empirical data from 287 households with at least one plug-in electric vehicle in California between 2016 and 2020. We estimated electric vehicle miles traveled (eVMT), fuel consumption and utility factor at the household level, i.e., taking into consideration all vehicles. We also studied the effect of household-specific factors-such as frequency of overlaps between vehicles, frequency of charging and frequency of long-distance trips-on eVMT, utility factor and fuel consumption within two-car households. Our results indicate that PHEVs with a range of at least 35 miles have the potential to electrify a similar share of total household miles as some short range BEVs, or can reach up to 70% as much electrification as some long range BEVs and, thus, can play an important role in decarbonizing the transport sector

The effect of plug-in hybrid electric vehicle charging on fuel consumption and tail-pipe emissions

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) have an electric motor and an internal combustion engine and can reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from transport. However, their environmental benefit strongly depends on the charging behaviour. Several studies have analysed the GHG emissions from upstream electricity production, yet the impact of individual charging behaviour on PHEV tail-pipe carbon emissions has not been quantified from empirical data so far. Here, we use daily driving data from 7,491 Chevrolet Volt PHEV with a total 3.4 million driving days in the US and Canada to fill this gap. We quantify the effect of daily charging on the electric driving share and the individual fuel consumption. We find that even a minor deviation from charging every driving day significantly increases fuel consumption and thus tail-pipe emissions. Our results show that reducing charging from every day to 9 out of 10 days, increases fuel consumption on average by 1.85 +/- 0.03 l/100 km or 42.7 +/- 0.8 gCO(2) km(-1) tail-pipe emissions (+/- on standard error). Charging more than once per driving day has less impact in our sample, this must occur during at least 20% of driving days to have a noteworthy effect. Even then, a 10% increase in frequency only has moderate effect of decreasing fuel consumption on average by 0.08 +/- 0.02 l/100 km or 1.86 +/- 0.46 gCO(2) km(-1) tail-pipe emissions. Our results illustrate the importance of providing adequate charging infrastructure and incentives for PHEV users to charge their vehicles on a regular basis in order to ensure that their environmental impact is small as even long-range PHEVs can have a noteworthy share of conventional fuel use when not regularly charged