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scienceforhaters.bsky.social
Principal Instigators Podcast
@scienceforhaters.bsky.social
34 followers 34 following 110 posts
A science podcast for the haters. Find us on all your favorite podcast apps at https://link.chtbl.com/principalinstigators
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scienceforhaters.bsky.social
The 1st figure shows ridership already bouncing back from 2020 when the 4-month patchwork of discounts started. You'd expect car usage to also increase during this time, which makes it difficult to generate a null expectation of how air quality would change because of briefly discounted transit.
An insufficiently-labeled graph showing transit ridership in the area examined in this study, from 2019 to 2022. Ridership was steadily increasing from the very low levels of March/April 2020 when a patchwork of transit discounts was introduced in late 2022.
December 13, 2024 at 5:43 PM
scienceforhaters.bsky.social
The text of the paper shows that this was (1) a patchwork of discounts that (2) riders often had to subscribe to in advance by paying a deposit, which (3) lasted for only a few months, and (4) was implemented during a time of financial uncertainty, which may have reduced people's travel anyway.
The policy was implemented as a specific transit subscription through a voucher (available starting on August 24, 2022) that was valid for unlimited intra- and intercity trips in each metropolitan or regional area of the country between September 1 and December 31, 2022. To target commuters and frequent travellers, the voucher would be free for all users who made a minimum of 16 trips between the same origin–destination city pair during the four months in which the voucher was valid. To acquire a voucher for short-distance railway services, customers had to pay a deposit of 10 euros. To acquire a voucher for medium-distance conventional railway services, customers had to pay a deposit of 20 euros. In both cases, the deposits was returned at the end of the period, subject to compliance with the minimum requirement of 16 trips. Furthermore, other 50% fare discounts were also granted to medium-distance high-speed railway services and bus lines concessioned by the state, most of which covered public service obligations. Additionally, the royal decree also allowed public transport authorities to cut fares for multimodal tickets in metropolitan areas by 30% thanks to funding provided by the Ministry of Transport. Hence, regional and local governments could simultaneously contribute their funds to decreasing prices further on local train, bus, subway, and tram services operated by their owned transportation companies, typically bringing discounts up to 50% or even more. This specific discount setup is heterogeneous across metropolitan areas and depends on how discounts are applied to transit subscriptions and multipass tickets within the variety of fare schemes available. For example, cities such as Madrid and Barcelona have applied a 50% discount to subscriptions and a 30% discount to multipass tickets, while cities such as Bilbao and Vitoria have applied a 50% discount to both. Other cities, such as Valencia, Sevilla, Zaragoza and Granada, have generally used a 30% discount, while some others have gone as high as 75% (Oviedo) or even 100% (Palma de Mallorca). These combined measures affecting both urban and intercity public transportation services were welcomed by hundreds of thousands of users. By the start of the four months, approximately half a million users had applied for Renfe’s discounts alone. According to the declarations made by the Minister of Transport (Raquel Sánchez) and Renfe, the number of users had reached 900 000 by mid-September and more than two million by the end of 2022.13 However, monthly ridership figures for the railway services affected by the PTD policy gathered by the Ministry of Transport (and shown in Fig. 1) suggest that the increase in short-distance ridership in September 2022 (reaching 35 million trips) was approximately 33.5% when compared to September 2021 but only approximately 1.4% when compared to the same month of 2019, therefore revealing that the prepandemic level has only been matched. Regarding medium-distance railway services, the increase in September 2022 (reaching 3.5 million trips) was approximately 21.5% when compared to that in September 2019. Such evidence has been confirmed by a recent press release (MITMA, 2023) that stated how short-distance ridership had not significantly increased from 2019 levels and that the major change had simply been a shift away from multipass tickets towards this transit subscription. However, the press release argued that the increase in medium-distance transit ridership, paired with a general decrease in mobility for trips above 50 km and a slight decrease in fuel consumption, is indicative of a shift away from car travel and of a positive environmental impact of the policy.14 In short, such evidence suggests that the PTD policy may have concentrated its impact on medium-distance railway services only, which represent just approximately 10% of the trips affected by this financing scheme.
December 13, 2024 at 5:35 PM
scienceforhaters.bsky.social
Scheduling a recording session this week like
Screencapture of the Well There's Your Problem podcast 9/11 episode paused at the exact moment Rocz learns RBG has died
November 4, 2024 at 6:52 PM
scienceforhaters.bsky.social
We’re thrilled to announce our first-ever giveaway - for a series of lino prints with our podcast logo, designed / drawn / carved / printed by hand by one of the cohosts of Principal Instigators.
Lino cut #1: Our podcast logo (a chemistry flask containing a burning coffin, emblazoned with the word “science”) sitting on a table. The opening of the flask is giving off a golden yellow halo of light. The image is printed with black ink on off-white paper, with the exception of the flames, in red ink. Lino cut #2: The chemistry flask from our podcast logo, inverted, flying through the black sky as a hot air balloon. It is powered by the flames from a coffin that is on fire, emblazoned with the word “science.” The image is printed with black ink on off-white paper, with the exception of the flames, in red ink. Lino cut #3: The chemistry flask from our podcast logo, descending into the flames of hell, powered by its wings which are a mix of an angel’s bird wings (feathers) and a demon’s bat wings (anatomical structure). The image is printed with black ink on off-white paper, with the exception of the flames, in red ink. Lino cut #4: Our podcast logo (a chemistry flask containing a burning coffin) reimagined as Baba Yaga’s house, complete with chicken legs. The logo is wandering away from dark woods full of pine trees. The image is printed with black ink on off-white paper, with the exception of the flames, in red ink.
June 19, 2024 at 12:45 AM
scienceforhaters.bsky.social
By the way, here's one of the largest items on display in said museum: a wall-sized fake newspaper with the titles of press releases from Lee Berger's colleagues.
A large wall in the Malapa Museum Experience at the Cradle Boutique Hotel, with a giant poster of a fake newspaper called The News. The headline above the fold is "New Hominid Species Rocks Cradle of Humankind." Pull quotes surrounding the newspaper include "Maybe Lucy Wasn't Your Mom."
June 5, 2024 at 6:52 PM
scienceforhaters.bsky.social
When NatGeo explorer Lee Berger described a new species of fossil hominin from South Africa, the guy who owned the land where the fossils were found (Tim Nash) had some unique ideas about who should retain control over those fossils. (Excerpt from Darwin's Hunch by Christa Kuljian.)
The cover of a book called Darwin's Hunch: Science, Race, and the Search for Human Origins, written by Christa Kuljian. The cover is a dusty brown color, with grayscale photographs of a hominin skull and a tool. Relevant excerpt: "The fossils had been found on privately owned land within the Cradle of Humankind so the landowner Tim Nash wanted to establish a foundation that would have oversight over Malapa, but the government and the management authority of the Cradle of Humankind declared that the fossils needed to be held in a public trust, and Wits University became the custodian of Sediba [sic]. There was a lengthy debate about the rights and responsibilities of the land owner and the university. The university, the government, the sponsors including Standard Bank and PAST, as well as the landowner, all had different perspectives on how the bones should be handled. "These tensions raised the important issue of land ownership. While the Sterkfontein Caves and the land around Swartkrans are now owned by Wits University, there are still numerous privately owned farms in the Cradle of Humankind. Current land ownership raises the question of who previously lived on the land...."
June 5, 2024 at 6:42 PM
scienceforhaters.bsky.social
Please join us in welcoming a new cohost who made his debut in yesterday's recording session. You don't need a specialized educational background in STEM to be a hater ❤️
A six-week-old kitten, burrito'ed in a pillowcase with only his cute little head sticking out, is pictured alongside a laptop keyboard and the cheapest USB microphone money can buy.
September 25, 2023 at 8:06 PM