A rise in remote work since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t stopped traffic congestion in most of the largest metropolitan areas in the U.S.

“A reliance on remote work is not a panacea to the rise in VMT (Vehicle Miles Traveled) and the default solution for traffic – adding roadway capacity – isn't solving congestion,” according to The State of VMT and Congestion: How Rising Trends Impact U.S. Metros, published by StreetLight, a Jacobs Company.

The 26-page e-book measured five years of Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), from January 2019 through May 2024, comparing the top 100 most-populated metros by change in VMT, VMT per capita, change in congestion, and overall congestion. StreetLight also analyzed the correlation within the 25 biggest metro areas and in downtowns.

As of spring 2024, VMT has jumped up after steadily increasing since mid-2020. The rise in congestion from January-May 2023 marks the steepest year-over-year increase since the initial pandemic bounce back in 2021.

Eighty-eight of the top 100 metros in the U.S. saw VMT increase from spring 2019 through spring 2024 while only four metros saw decreases in the double digits. Six metros kept VMT down by more than 5 percent compared to 2019 while 27 have seen VMT rise by more than 20 percent.

Metrowide data follows a similar pattern to national data. Overwhelmingly, VMT accelerated in the last year compared to 2022-23. "Without significant changes, the upward trend in VMT shows no sign of peaking.”
 

The number of shared micromobility trips and the numbers of cities with shared micromobility systems are at record highs with the industry having evolved over the past 15 years. 

There were 172 million trips in North America last year, with an estimated 421 cities that had at least one bikeshare or scootershare system, according to the fifth annual Shared Micromobility State of the Industry Report from the North American Bikeshare & Scootershare Association (NABSA). The Portland, Maine-based organization released its annual report last month. 

"Climate, transportation equity, connections to transit, and financial sustainability continue to be key themes for the industry as electrification of shared micromobility devices and of operational vehicles expands,” according to the 21-page report, which tracks the progress and presents new research demonstrating the impact of the industry across North America. 

The total number of shared micromobility vehicles has slightly decreased since 2022 but the vehicles are being ridden more. Micromobility trips replaced a car trip about 37 percent of the time (25 percent, car driver/passenger and 12 percent, taxi or rideshare), according to the report, slightly more than the 35 percent that replaced walking. Some 16 percent of all micromobility trips were for the purpose of connecting to transit. 

Crashes and injuries were reduced by half after the installation of speed cameras along a notoriously dangerous stretch of road in Philadelphia, according to a new study.

The estimated annual safety benefits of an automated speed enforcement pilot program along Roosevelt Boulevard are six times higher than the $22 million in revenues generated in fiscal year 2021, according to the authors of Evaluating the Effectiveness of Speed Cameras on Philadelphia’s Roosevelt Boulevard, published in February in the Transportation Research Record.

“Automated enforcement is likely particularly effective in the absence of other types of enforcement,” according to the authors, who recommended the program be extended and expanded.

Between 2016 and 2022, 100 people died in car crashes on Roosevelt Boulevard and another 17 people died on the local roads immediately surrounding it. The road still accounts for around 8 percent of all traffic fatalities in Philadelphia. The 12-lane arterial "has long moved highway levels of traffic at grade through densely populated neighborhoods at high speeds and taken a steep toll in crashes, injuries, and traffic fatalities,” according to the paper.

The road remains a dangerous combination of high-speed highway that intersects with local streets in densely populated neighborhoods. Further safety improvements will likely require one of three approaches: 

-- Lower speed limits and ramp up enforcement to get traffic speeds closer to 30 mph instead of 50 mph;

-- Grade separate the Boulevard and turn it into the type of limited access highway envisioned by early federal highway planners;

-- Redesign the Boulevard to operate as a lower speed and lower-capacity boulevard that looks and behaves more like other urban arterials.
 

Road diets had little effect on emergency response vehicles although motorists could be better educated on how to properly yield to the vehicles. At least that was the case in one Midwest city.

“Impact of 4-to-3 lane conversions on emergency response,” a study published in Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, examined the impact of such road diets on emergency response in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  Researchers at the University of Iowa College of Public Health’s Injury Prevention Center analyzed 170 survey responses and EMS data.

The Hawkeye State was among the first states to implement such conversions in the 1990s. The 4-to-3 lane conversions attempt to smooth traffic flow and reduce crashes with the addition of a dedicated center turn lane while providing more space for bike lanes or parking.

More than half of EMS respondents believed there was no effect or a positive effect on responses while 40 percent believed there was a negative effect, which they attributed to driver confusion on how to properly yield to emergency vehicles.

While there was a lack of evidence of an effect on EMS response rates overall, results indicated that public guidance on how to properly respond to the presence of emergency vehicles may be needed. “Results of this analysis may be applicable to other lane conversion sites when appropriately combined with local context relevant to the target area,” according to the study.

Read the full 12-page study here.
 

As use of electric micromobility vehicles has surged, so too have injuries related to the devices. E-bike injuries have doubled every year from 2017 to 2022 and e-scooter injuries have increased by 45 percent, according to a study that’s believed to be the first investigation into recent injury patterns in the United States.

The study by the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF), published in JAMA Network Open, a monthly medical journal by the American Medical Association, found that e-bicycle injuries increased from 751 in 2017 to 23,493 in 2022, and e-scooter injuries rose from 8,566 to 56,847 over that timeframe. Altogether, there were nearly 2.5 million bicycle injuries, more than 304,000 scooter injuries, 45,586 e-bicycle injuries, and 189,517 e-scooter injuries reported in the U.S.

Both conventional and electric bike and scooter injuries were more common in urban settings. Electric bike and scooter riders were older and more likely to participate in risky behaviors, such as riding while intoxicated and without a helmet than conventional vehicle riders.

Injured e-riders tended to be slightly older and wore helmets less often than conventional riders. E-scooter riders were more likely to sustain internal injuries than conventional scooter riders, while upper extremity injuries were more common among non-electric riders.

Read the full report here.
 

Roundabouts on North Dakota’s highway system reduced the number of traffic crashes and fatalities and serious injuries in crashes, according to a study by the state Department of Transportation.

Across 12 locations, the average crash rate declined by 33 percent, total crashes per year dropped by 36 percent, and fatal and serious injury crashes per year decreased by 59 percent.

The study analyzed five years of crash data at 12 locations where roundabouts were installed between 2012 and 2021. One location was excluded from the average due to lack of volume data.

After roundabouts were installed, angle crashes were more of a merging crash between a vehicle entering the roundabout and a vehicle already circulating within the roundabout, according to the study. Roundabouts virtually eliminate the number of head-on and high-speed right-angle, or T-bone, collisions.

The proportion of rear-end crashes decreased by 22 percent while single-vehicle crashes increased by 55 percent. Almost half of single-vehicle crashes involved overturning or shifting load when circulating the roundabout and going straight into the roundabout’s center of the island.

North Dakota built its first highway roundabout in 2012 and today there are 14 on the state transportation system. Another 13 are planned to be installed in the next few years.

Read more about roundabouts in this story from InTransition.

The full study and other resources are available here.
 

There were a record 157 million trips on bike and scooter share systems across the U.S. and Canada in 2023 -- up almost 20 percent over the previous year and almost 7 percent higher than the 2019 peak of 147 million. That comes despite rising cost and financing challenges for some systems, according to an annual report from the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO).

The 2023 Shared Micromobility in the U.S. and Canada makes three recommendations for how cities can ensure long-term success of micromobility systems:

- Investing public money in capital and operating costs;
- Eliminating sales tax to bring it in line with other public transportation; and,
- Building infrastructure to safely connect people to where they want to go, through protected bike lane networks and shared bike and scooter paths close to homes and popular destinations.

Trips in the U.S. increased by 16 percent which was driven largely by continued growth of e-bike trips on larger station-based systems. More than 90 percent of all station-based bike share trips took place on 10 systems, with New York City's Citi Bike alone accounting for 35 million of the 81 million trips.

While bike share and scooter share systems in some cities experienced dramatically climbing costs for riders, others folded or had trouble financing operations. Bike share prices are now significantly higher than other public transportation options, according to the report. A typical 30- to 35-minute pay-as-you-go trip on station-based bike share costs an average of $3.85 one way on a pedal bike and $7 or more on an e-bike. A typical bus trip costs in the United States costs less than $2 on average.

Read the complete 22-page report here.
 

Taxes and fees imposed by cities on micromobility programs like bike share and scooter share vary tremendously and often are higher than most other modes of transportation.

"Taxing Shared Micromobility: Assessing the Global Landscape of Fees and Taxes and their Implications for Cities, Riders, and Operators,” by John MacArthur of Portland State University, Kevin Fang of Sonoma State University, and Calvin Thigpen of Lime, examined data from 120 cities in 16 countries and surveyed shared micromobility program managers throughout North America.

Shared micromobility is taxed twice: By sales taxes and program fees. These revenues can be substantial. On average, annual fees were $0.22 per mile or $0.28 per trip in 2022. When sales taxes are included, the average shared micromobility trip generates fee and tax revenue of $0.70 per mile or $0.89 per trip. This is a combined global average rate of 16.4% in taxes and fees derived from user fares.

When deciding on fees, cities are especially concerned with covering administrative costs as well as influencing operator behaviors.

The information can “help inform cities who are working with shared micromobility companies to align program fee structures with their goals around climate, equity, congestion, and more,” according to the 108-page report.
 

Protected bike lanes, intersection treatments, and reallocated space for biking and walking are some of the common traits found among the top cities and towns for bicycling.

The 2024 City Ratings from PeopleForBikes (PFB) are here. City Ratings aim to identify, evaluate, and compare the best cities and towns for bicycling. More than 2,500 cities worldwide were ranked in the seventh annual ratings, including 816 new cities in the U.S and 133 new cities across the U.K. and Australia. The Boulder, Colorado-based advocacy nonprofit adds cities to its ratings based on requests received throughout the year.

PeopleForBikes identifies the most bike-friendly cities by analyzing six key factors:
* Safe speeds
* Protected bike lanes
* Reallocated space for biking and walking
* Intersection treatments
* Network connections
* Trusted data

The annual report breaks down cities into three categories: small, with a population of less than 50,000; medium, 50,000 to 300,000, and large, more than 300,000. Based on data from PFB’s Bicycle Network Analysis (BNA), each city receives a City Ratings score on a scale of 1-100.

To explore 2024 City Ratings, click here.

Pedestrian deaths continue to rise in the United States, with 7,522 people struck and killed while walking in 2022 – roughly the equivalent of three full Boeing 737 airplanes falling out of the sky each month for a year.

The latest Dangerous By Design from Smart Growth America includes pedestrian fatality statistics for the most recent year with complete federal data and ranks the largest 101 metropolitan areas. While the increase is 1.8 percent year-over-year, up from 7,388 deaths in 2021, pedestrian deaths in the last decade are up 25 percent compared to the previous 10 years. There were 61,459 pedestrians struck and killed from 2013 to 2022 compared with 45,935 from 2003 to 2012.

Florida continues to dominate the list with eight of the top 20 deadliest metros, despite two of those being among the few trending lower over the longer term.

Comparing five-year periods (2013-2017 versus 2018-2022), the largest 101 metros grew by 1.7 percent while the total number of deaths in those metros increased by almost 26 percent. The top 20 most deadly metros grew by 5.1 percent but total fatalities increased by 37 percent. Only 18 metro areas showed a decline in the long-term trend in the fatality rate.

Fast-growing metros in the South and Sun Belt are still the deadliest, keeping up with population growth or surpassing it. Urban areas are increasing in danger faster – up 61 percent – than rural areas, which are up 41 percent. Overall, traffic deaths are holding flat in rural areas since 2013.

Memphis, Tenn., is the deadliest city for pedestrian with 5.14 per 100,000 pedestrians who are hit and killed by cars while walking, almost three times the rate recorded in 2009.
 

Most docked bikeshare systems experienced an increase in ridership last year, led by expansion in Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., according to new data from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).

Pittsburgh’s POGOH, formerly Healthy Ride, experienced the sharpest increase in ridership last year, growing 201 percent thanks to an expansion. It was far and away the largest spurt, far outdistancing MetroBike LA, which was up 37 percent, followed closely by Capital Bike Share in Washington, D.C, up 36 percent. Capital Bike Share added more e-bikes to the system in the spring and BTS cited a “greater presence of workers” in D.C. area buildings.

Not all bikeshares saw growth; ridership declined on four systems: 

• Indego, Philadelphia, -10 percent 
• BlueBikes, Boston, -5 percent 
• Bay Wheels, San Francisco, -5 percent 
• Divvy, Chicago, -1 percent

With the exception of Bay Wheels, growth in years prior to 2023 more than offset the declines in these four systems experienced in 2020, when the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic significantly reduced ridership on almost all systems, according to the BTS. Ridership on Bay Wheels was 4 percentage points below the 2019 level in 2023.

As of June 30, 2023, 56 docked bikeshare systems open to the public operated 8,796 docking stations in the U.S., according to the BTS. The average system operates 154 docking stations. The largest system (Citi Bike serving New York City; Jersey City, N.J.; and, Hoboken, N.J.) operates nearly 2,000 stations and 6 systems have 10 or fewer stations.

The number of docked bikeshare systems nearly doubled, from 66 to 109, between 2015 and 2019, then declined to 64 in 2020 as many docked bikeshare systems closed permanently following a temporary suspension of operations due to the pandemic.

Washington, D.C.’s Capital Bike Share is the oldest system, started in 2010, while Cogo in Columbus, Ohio, is the youngest, having started in 2018.

BTS compiles bike share and e-scooter data for both docked and dockless in the U.S. In January 2023, BTS expanded its docked bikeshare data to include data for years prior to 2019, with records beginning at the launch of most docked bikeshare systems.
 

Amid soaring sales of e-bikes and e-scooters in recent years, there’s a lack of awareness among owners about the lithium-ion batteries that power the devices that could lead to risky behavior and even deadly fires, according to recent surveys.

The nine-page report, Raising the Risk: How Safety Oversights of E-Mobility Riders Threaten More Lithium-Ion Battery Fires, by UL Standards and Engagements (ULSE) shows that more than half of owners (53 percent) continue charging batteries even after reaching a full charge while almost as many (41 percent) routinely charge overnight.

Almost half of e-bikers (49 percent) who charge at home block fire exits – a contributing factor in several cases where death occurred. More than a quarter of users (26 percent) report charging batteries unattended while away from home. It takes only 20 seconds from the first sign of smoke to a room being engulfed in flames from a lithium-ion battery, while a traditional fire typically takes about three minutes, according to tests by First Safety Research Institute.

The findings are derived from two separate online surveys of 2,200 U.S. adults on e-mobility safety, conducted in January and April.

Almost half of e-bike owners (48 percent) have replaced their old e-bike battery for a variety of reasons, including:

• 28 percent, swelling or bulging on the old battery
• 24 percent, old battery overheating
• 16 percent, old battery damaged from a crash or collision
• 11 percent, old battery caught fire

For e-bikes and scooters, ULSE has three standards that cover devices and batteries that power them:

• UL 2849, the standard for e-bikes
• UL 2272, for personal e-mobility devices
• UL 2271, the standard for lithium-ion batteries in e-mobility devices

Researchers are in the midst of trying to sort out the impacts of remote work since the pandemic on transit systems and the environment.

After falling to 20 percent of pre-pandemic levels at the onset of the pandemic in April 2020, public transit ridership has recovered to 79 percent. Transit riders took 7.1 billion trips on public transportation in 2023, a 16-percent increase over 2022, according to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), which released a quarterly ridership update during its annual Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C., on Monday.

“Current data remains limited, but indicators in several metro regions point to transit recovery being led by trips to and from residential and commercial areas as opposed to office/work centers,” according to the APTA. “More time and data are needed to determine if this transit demand shift will remain the driving force for ridership return.”

Meanwhile, a study published this week in Nature Cities estimates that a 10-percent decrease in on-site employees could yield an annual reduction of almost 192 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions from the transportation sector. At the same time, it would cost transit agencies $3.7 billion in lost fare revenues each year within the contiguous United States. The impact, however, varies widely by region.

The estimate is based on a 1-percent decline in on-site employees that corresponds to a 0.99-percent reduction in state-level vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and a 2.26-percent drop in transit ridership. The study, “Impacts of remote work on vehicle miles traveled and transit ridership in the USA,” examined data between April 2020 and October 2022 across the 217 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA) in the United States.
 

More bicycle infrastructure can improve safety for all road users as it heightens the visibility and awareness of bicyclists and pedestrians have “strength in numbers” but the strongest relationship with improved safety are lower vehicle speeds and fewer vehicle trips that are likely a result of high-density land use development and transportation networks. 

Those are the findings of a recent study, “Traffic safety for all road users: A paired comparison study of small & mid-sized U.S. cities with high/low bicycling rates,” published in the Journal of Cycling and Micromobility Research by Nicholas N. Ferenchak, assistant professor in the Gerald May Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at the University of New Mexico, and Wesley E. Marshall, professor at the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado-Denver. 

“If cities wish to improve traffic safety outcomes, they should first and foremost plan and design for the convenience and safety of those not using a personal automobile,” the authors noted. Bicycling activity is significantly associated with better safety for all road users, and reduced exposure to driving has the strongest relationship with improved safety. Safer mid-sized cities tend to be more compact. 

The authors examined 10 years of data across 14 small and mid-sized U.S. cities with populations between 50,000 and 200,000 residents. Seven high-bicycling cities (those with high bike commuter mode share greater than triple the national average of 0.5 percent) were paired with seven cities that had low or average rates of bicycle commuting but otherwise similar population and geography. 

Read the full study here.
 

Intercity bus traffic is expected to recover to pre-pandemic levels by 2026 even as the high-profile bus station closings continue.

“Back on the Bus,” the annual intercity bus review by the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development at DePaul University in Chicago notes ridership gains in some regions as traffic rose to roughly 85 to 90 percent of pre-pandemic levels. The 20-page report includes a year in review for 2023 and five predictions for 2024.

Driver shortages and other problems could slow the recovery, “which will be uneven across regions, but trends are favorable.” Problems stemming from station closures will get worse before they get better and even after the recovery, the report suggests that traffic will remain marginally below 2016 levels.

"The image of legacy bus lines took a hit as bus station problems facing Greyhound and its partners continued. More downtown depots were closed and services were relocated to curbside spots or modest facilities without much or sometimes any indoor seating.”

More downtown bus stations in prominent cities are at risk of closing this year, including Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, and Orlando. They would follow recent station closings in Houston, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and Tampa, among others.

The study described Little Rock, Ark., station as a “poster child for the bus-station woes now facing the industry,” with its closure last year. It’s a primary stop in the region but local government “has taken a hostile stance toward resumption of intercity bus service and derailed attempts to find a new station.”

The complete report can be found here.