See you in Glasgow

Good day my good friend.

I don’t try to start these newsletters off on a personal note, but if any of you are around the Green Zone at COP26 in Glasgow on Wednesday, yours truly will be there. Drop me an email, and lets see if we can chat!

In the meantime, enjoy these stories curated just for you.

James

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The dark arts of social media algorithms and how we don’t know what we are doing

With social media becoming an ever-more important way of engaging with people as part of our plans and schemes, it is worthwhile paying some (skeptical) attention to reports on how these systems work in terms of driving user engagement. So following the account of the whistleblower Frances Haugen has been a worrying experience, as has this article in the Washington Post about how angry emojis get 5 times the engagement of likes.

There is relatively little data on the effect of social media on engagement in transport issues. Although there is some evidence that more engagement on Facebook is related to more travel for social purposes1. Some data can be used to monitor incidents and responses to them in real time through sentiment analysis. There is also some evidence that there is a difference between the genders in terms of the content of posts impacting on trip decisions. But a lot of the impact of social media on transport debates can best be described as gut feels, echo chambers, and anecdote. Better data is needed, and maybe a skeptical eye cast over the benefits and disbenefits of social media.

What’s the future for online deliveries?

According to the latest data from the UK Department for Transport, the use of light commercial vehicles on UK roads is still slightly above the levels seen prior to the onset of COVID-19. Lets work on the assumption that some of that uplift is due to more internet delivery traffic. How long will that last? That is what a new study by Wang et al has tried to understand.

In simple terms, if people used online deliveries before COVID-19, they are now leaning into it big time. Although there was growth in use across all user groups. There is also a notable growth in online grocery deliveries, and at least half of the total growth is likely to stick in the longer term. This confirms an earlier analysis by Unnikrishnan and Figliozzi that reported similar results and differences between social groups. More online deliveries are here to stay, but for some more than others.

Optimising the position of electric charging points for autonomous vehicles depending on what capacity there is in the grid

“But what about the capacity on the electricity grid?” is an often-heard comment / objection to the expansion of electric vehicles. Despite energy grid experts stating that given their assumptions about the balance of generation on the grid, it should all be fine, for some countries it will be less fine than others. Reflecting that, Azin et al have developed a framework for planning electric charging grids in a future when vehicles will be autonomous2.

Simply, their model using the Utah highway network, found prime locations where charging points could be delivered, considering grid capacity and traffic flows. This is useful, as to date the approach has generally been a mix of planning policy saying “you should do this”, and local transport authorities typically deciding where charging points should be and getting stuck with a huge bill from the power company after it emerges that a substation needs upgrading. There is excellent advice from the Energy Saving Trust on how to do all this right, but the work of Azin et al is useful in developing better tools to do the work properly.

Random things

I went on a search around the Internet for you, and here is what I found:

• ‘Paralysing jargon’ is preventing us from taking action on climate change, says new research (Euronews)

• Shenzhen disciplines Uber-like ride hailing services in the city amid unchecked expansion (South China Morning Post)

• Taliban Orders Taxi Drivers To Not Transport Other Gunmen (NDTV)

• Cutthroat capitalism vs. cuddly capitalism (Noahpinion)

• Comparative evaluation of commuters’ preferences and expectations for sharing auto-rickshaw (Case Studies on Transport Policy) – A shoutout to the excellent Pop Transport newsletter for pointing this out to me.

Interesting things

Percentages can be fun, and the growth in percentage terms of emissions from all areas of the world and all modes should be of concern to us all. But it’s also important to remember the growth base. Which this graph from TUMI usefully shows.

If you do nothing else today, then do this.

Start to take action to reduce your emissions. I have to thank Rachael Rombough for sharing this useful infographic. I can already see 3 actions that I can take.

And finally

I did some number crunching on rural accessibility and the link with deprivation in this week’s in-depth post. To read it before everyone else, you need to sign up to be a paid subscriber.

Mobility Matters

Mobility Matters Extra – The link between rural accessibility and rural deprivation

Key points There is no clear link between journey times by public transport to key services, and the levels of deprivation experienced in a rural area. The most deprived rural areas have the best accessibility to key public services. When tackling rural mobility issues, focus on developing policies that are place-based (e.g. encouraging services to locate …

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2 years ago · James Gleave