IN THE BUBBLE JOHN THACKARA - witz cultural

58 Chapter 3
journey is by air on Air France, and the second is on a high-speed train that
leaves from a platform underneath Charles de Gaulle Airport. The purpose
of transport system integration is predictability. Systems such as Zurich’s
‘‘clock-face pulse timetabling’’ ensure that passengers have a high degree
of certainty about interchange between modes, and a high enough service
frequency, to make the psychological leap from private to public transport.
The Zurich model has been adapted by Toronto, which boasts that its
transport system is ‘‘like New York, but run by the Swiss.’’ 25
In the Netherlands, planners hope that transport telematics will make it
possible to reduce so-called vehicle hours (the time spent by vehicles in
traffic) by 25 percent. A key concept in Dutch policy is the multimodal or
‘‘chain’’ approach. The idea is that information systems will help me work
out the best combination of walking, bicycling, private car, train, bus,
plane, or boat for making a particular journey before I set off. Right now,
individual transport information systems are pretty good—train and bus
websites are reliable and reasonably easy to use—but they don’t work well
together. The next step is to connect systems in such a way that I will enter
the beginning and end points of a journey—in place and in time—and be
offered a menu of ways to complete it.
Online timetables and route planners are static. Mobility is more dramatically
enhanced by dynamic systems based on the actual position of
vehicles, passengers, and goods in real time. Organizing the supply of incoming
parts and outgoing goods can account for 10 percent of a company’s
costs, so it pays to be good at it. But the just-in-time requirement
imposed by supermarkets and the distributors of short-life products is
another driver of mass mobility. The trend is for food to be delivered in
smaller but more frequent quantities to each distribution point. When
researchers at the Swedish Institute of Agricultural Sciences studied movement
among bakeries, wholesale butchers, wholesale florists, and distribution
firms in the country’s Uppsala region, they had to measure and
correlate an immense number of variables: the times required for loading
and unloading, driving, and stopping at different distribution points;
when engines were running or switched off; the weight of goods at each
destination; distance, speed, and road conditions; the geographical location
of manufacturers, distribution points, and stores; and emissions into the atmosphere.
Based on deliveries among Uppsala’s shops, restaurants, schools,
and day nurseries, the study compared actual journeys made with the best