Plus a couple of great jobs if you are interested
Good day my good friend.
Booking trains in the UK is a funny experience. To get to Glasgow tomorrow (if you want a chat at COP26, then drop me an email!), I spent 5 minutes booking the sleeper train and my return rail ticket, and 10 minutes on the phone to Caledonian Sleeper to book my bike on the train to Glasgow. Then I spent 45 minutes on the phone trying to book my bike on Avanti West Coast for the return journey, only to be told to ring CrossCountry as I booked the ticket through them. Sod Mobility as a Service, how about making the booking systems we have run well first?
Anyway, I digress. Here are the stories for today, curated especially for you.
James
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Why we can’t kick the highways habit
“Building more roads to prevent congestion is like a fat man loosening his belt to prevent obesity” said Lewis Mumford. The analogy is apt really. No matter what policy makers do in terms of dieting and trying to be healthier, highway expansion is the big slice of chocolate cake in the corner just saying “go on, just one bite.”
This article in CityLab is excellent because it gets to the heart of the problem. Not because they are politically popular – try selling more traffic to the electorate – but because our decision making systems almost require us to ignore induced demand, and in some cases reward it. That is starting to change, notably President Biden’s administration prioritising fixing infrastructure first (that has an amazing return on investment). Perhaps we should invest more in roads – by that I mean pile all the road expansion spend into fixing potholes and bridges.
Support for and opposition against Low Traffic Neighbourhoods is nuanced. Everyone with a brain not shocked.
Manchester has been doing some excellent work in expanding active travel infrastructure through its Bee Network plans. As part of this work, the University of Salford did some qualitative research into the experience of people in several areas of Greater Manchester where low traffic neighbourhoods had been delivered. And shock, there is nuance!
What became apparent through these discussions is that, unlike the division that is portrayed within news and social media of a ‘war’ between a supportive cycling community and an unsupportive car lobby in active neighbourhood or low traffic neighbourhood (LTN) interventions, the reality is much more nuanced. For whilst people who participated in the walkalongs who both cycle and walk for local journeys were commonly supportive of active neighbourhoods, people who walk for their local journeys tended to be unsupportive or more ambivalent towards active neighbourhood interventions.
The report is a great read, and contains some really good policy recommendations (summary: involve people lots and tell them how you will judge success). And it perfectly mirrors earlier research by Transport for All. People are different, have different needs, and different motivations. Be sympathetic to that.
Double energy vulnerability and why it matters to us
Hearing a new concept is often a boring experience – mainly because its a sales pitch, usually. But this paper by Simcock et al introduced double energy vulnerability. This where people are vulnerable to energy poverty (where energy bills are a high percentage of people’s income) and transport poverty (as energy poverty but for transport) at the same time. Their analysis of papers on the two subjects indicate that rural areas, and people at the intersection of many vulnerabilities are more likely to experience it.
There are many great research papers on both subjects. This paper by the always-amazing Karen Lucas (et al) and this paper by Nussbaumer et al are really good starting points on both subjects. Whilst measuring both strikes me to be measuring a symptom as opposed to a cause, both are worthwhile measures to consider in our planning if we seek to achieve wider social development goals. After all, why put on a bus if the fares keep going up significantly?
Random things
Random nonsense and the Internet go together like peas and carrots. So I took the best of both and have made a Sunday roast for you.
Climate finance is the elephant in the room at COP26 (Center for Global Development)
Cabbies’ brains offer route to fight dementia (The Times)
Why machine-learning chatbots find it difficult to respond to idioms, metaphors, rhetorical questions, sarcasm (The Register)
Charities call for easing of zebra crossing rules to promote walking (The Guardian)
Interesting things
Probably the most useful infographic you will ever see. Essential reading for any transport planner and professional.
If you do nothing else today, then do this…
My good friends at the Scottish Rural & Islands Transport Community are recruiting for two part time positions to help them with their amazing work in highlighting the needs of rural communities in transport decision making. The deadline for applicants is tomorrow, and you should put in an application!
Mobility Matters 