The Guardian: Mind the gaps: will we go back to public transport after Covid?. “When lockdown emptied the UK’s trains and buses, their operators’ revenues collapsed. Now home working and cycling could become a permanent threat to their finances.”
Route Fifty: New Study Will Look at Risks to Transit Workers From Virus. “With the coronavirus infecting thousands of New York City bus and subway workers this year, claiming the lives of dozens of them, a team of academic researchers is planning to investigate the risks that these public employees face on the job. New York University’s School of Global Public Health said Thursday it would launch a series of studies looking at the physical and mental health risks the pandemic is posing for Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers, as well as other effects it is having on their jobs. They’re planning to coordinate with Transport Workers Union Local 100 to carry out the project.”
The Next Web: Coronavirus has changed travel in European cities for good — here’s how . “At a recent Cities Today Institute roundtable, cities across Europe told a consistent story – public transport ridership is down between 60 and 90 percent on pre-coronavirus levels and capacity is reduced due to social distancing, while private car usage is beginning to climb once again. With revenues from media, parking and other taxes also slashed, this is adding up to a perfect storm of looming congestion and decimated budgets.”
Phys .org: Researchers aim to help cities prioritize interventions for public transit. “The New York City Subway—which, under normal circumstances, serves 5.5 million riders daily—resumed service June 8, amid concerns from residents about exposing themselves to the closed, crowded conditions that could be ripe for coronavirus transmission. Researchers at Penn State aim to help minimize the risk of COVID-19 spread by identifying specific subway stations in which intervention resources—such as setting up testing sites, allocating additional personnel to disinfect frequently touched surfaces in subway stations, and distributing masks and hand sanitizer—could be of greatest benefit.”
Phys .org: Coronavirus lockdowns are pushing mass transit systems to the brink – and low-income riders will pay the price. “Steep declines in ridership during the crisis have pushed public transit systems across the U.S. into deep financial distress. Though Congress included allocations for transit in the CARES Act, cities said it won’t be nearly enough. Even major systems in large metro areas like New York City and Washington, D.C., have serious concerns about long-term survival without more sustained support. Failure of transit systems would be a disaster for the large proportion of low income households that depend on buses and trains to get to work and elsewhere—not only in urban areas, but in rural ones too.”
CityLab: Hit Hard by Covid-19, Transit Workers Call for Shutdowns. “The life of a transit worker was never easy in the United States. Then along came coronavirus. To enable the livelihoods of other essential workers, thousands of bus drivers, track repairers, yard masters, cleaners and others are still showing up to their jobs amid the pandemic. But the death toll among the ranks of front-line public transportation workers, who are considered part of the ‘essential workforce’ in most U.S. cities, suggests they are acutely vulnerable to the virus.”
Route Fifty: The Unsettling Rise of the Urban Narc App. “It’s getting easier for city residents to use technology that can report bad drivers who block bike lanes. Welcome to the self-surveillance era of traffic safety.”
Lifehacker: Quickly Find a Nearby Scooter Using This App. “I have admittedly been reluctant to embrace the scooters that are infiltrating our cities. In my neighborhood in San Francisco, you constantly have to be on the lookout to make sure an inexperienced rider isn’t going to mow you down on the sidewalk, and on weekends that sidewalk is also often literally blocked with piles of them. I hate them. But in my hometown in North Carolina, where there are considerably fewer of them, I see the appeal.”
Boston Globe: This Twitter account tells you the general mood of MBTA riders by the hour. “Riders have long been able to turn to the MBTA’s Twitter account and online alerts to get updates and find out what’s happening around the transit system. But now, there’s more available than just announcements about a train’s arrival time. People can also find out how fellow commuters are feeling about the transit agency’s daily performance.”
