Also, a lot more infrastructure is going to get flooded
Good day my good friend.
Sometimes, the grassroots does it better. I very much enjoyed reading this article about a grassroots initiative to overcome range anxiety in electric vehicles in Costa Rica. I sometimes think that the reason why grassroots is great is that just gets on with it.
Anyway, enough blather. Here are today’s links selected especially for you.
James
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The global supply chain crisis could do wonders for recycling electric car batteries
With supply chains across the world being, as us Brits might say, a dogs dinner at the moment, suddenly recycling batteries for electric cars has become more interesting. After all, if you can’t shift the lithium from Bolivia and Chile and there is (theoretically) some good lithium sat on a used car lot down the road, why not give it a go?
The Union of Concerned Scientists has put together a summary of how this can be realised. Simply, the technology is there to do this. But its a classic technology Valley of Death: the concept has been proven, but the market for something commercially viable isn’t there. There are several ways to bridge this gap: more electric vehicles being sold (happening), reducing the cost of raw materials or providing the service (also happening), or government subsidy to stimulate the market and improve the technology (very much happening). So while the valley is there, the bridge is already three quarters of the way through construction.
Accurate detection of where e-scooter riders are is hard
Having read through a lot of e-scooter tenders and claims about the ability of their technology to detect things to less than one metre, seeing Bird’s latest claims about their technology was an amusing read. Just a quick Google demonstrates comes up with numerous articles over the last two years on exactly the same issue, saying how accurate the technology is. But, how confident can the lay person be on these claims?
It’s tricky, because much of the claims are based on propriatary technology. The nearest I have come to an in-field analysis is this report by the city of Chicago, who even then said that the technology had not been deployed in their city. In the lack of independently-verifiable evidence of the claims of the technology, survey evidence is often used but can paint a misleading picture. My honest suggestion to cities is to, as part of your procurement process, set up a road test, and test the e-scooters in the field. Test the claims yourself.
Why transit inequality persists in Brazil
Recently, I came across a great series of articles by ITDP in Brazil (obvious warning: install a translation browser extension if Portugese is not your native language) that told stories of the structural racism that exist in how public transport is planned. It is worth your while taking the time to translate these if you can, even if its a basic translation through Google.
I am currently looking through the report Por que meninas negras não aprendem a pedalar (rough translation: Why black girls don’t learn to ride). This states that there is a preference for males to have access to bicycles in households, and persons in the black community have lower incomes, both of which inhibit young black girls from learning to ride. These reports are an excellent exploration of the social issues that affect the transport available to us.
Random things
Here are some random things found across the internet that may be interesting to you.
Why Climate Policy Has Failed (Foreign Affairs)
Ethnicity, poverty, and the data in Scotland (Joseph Rowntree Foundation)
COVID-19 Impacts and Policy Options: An Asian Perspective (Asian Development Bank)
Robert Reich: The Real Reason The Economy Might Collapse (Eurasia Review)
Interesting things
Flooding is the most expensive natural disaster that hits the United States every year. This map in Grist shows how this risk will change in the next 30 years. In summary: more things will get flooded more often, and worse than before.
If you don’t do anything else today, do this…
Read the State of Shared Mobility Report by the Shared Use Mobility Centre. If you live in the US, how is your metro area doing compared to others?
Mobility Matters 