In larger cities such as Lyon or even Dublin, bikeshare schemes are quite successful. In smaller ones like Limerick they struggle. I am convinced the problem is critical mass. As a scheme gets bigger, it provides disproportionately more possible useful journeys (as long as there is the population density to support it).

I want to model this. Let’s start by imagining cities that are big enough to sustain a square grid of bike stations, and let’s count the number of possible A-B journeys it provides (of different distances).
Continue reading Bicycle schemes need big cities →

Multi-seat STV as a voting system is meant to yield approximately proportional outcomes (parties proportions of seats should approximate their proportion of the vote). It has other advantages, primarily that voters don’t need to vote tactically, since their preferences will be reflected (if your favourite candidate has no hope, voting for them is not throwing away your vote). But compared with other ways of electing people in multi-seat consitituencies, how well does it perform?

Continue reading Single Transferable Voting: efficient? →