Plus how easy it is to drive in European cities

Good day my good friend.

I have written this newsletter while listening to Guns ‘n Roses. Any references to Paradise Cities, Night Trains, and drinking lemonade shandy1 are purely by accident. Here are the rest of your links.

James

Thank you for being a paid subscriber. Remember to check out this week’s in-depth article on the net zero carbon moonshot.

It turns out that we don’t all want to park close to the door

The patron saint of parking, Donald Shoup, has published his latest research into what he calls the ‘self management’ of parking supply and demand. By looking at four variables – parking duration, number of persons in the car, walking speed, and value of saving time spent walking – he looked at choices people made in the context of prices getting more expensive the closer to the destination. In short – long stay parkers and people with a low value of travel time are more likely to walk further.

Whilst blended approaches to parking management have been successful in squeezing out 5-10% marginal gains, and shifting parking location has long been understood as the main impact of increasing parking charges, this relationship between parking location and parking duration has never been fully defined. The thing is, based on what we know of interchange catchment areas and how much they change according to service levels, this should not come as much of a shock.

Turns out there is a huge market for transport tech in Africa. Who knew? (Clue: anyone with a brain)

It seems barely a week goes by without a story about an African start up company doing some great work to expand services and secure investment. Treepz secured $2.8 million in funding to expand its Mobility as a Service, well, service, from Nigeria to Uganda and ultimately to Rwanda, Tanzania, and Burundi. SWVL has just finished some major expansion of its services in Egypt and Kenya, while Opibus in Kenya by retrofitting electric engines to diesel buses.

This recent activity taking place at the same time as China’s interest in infrastructure investment in the continent starting to cool is probably a co-incidence. But with vehicle ownership continuing to rise throughout the continent, if you want to invest in growing markets its a smart investment.

Electric vehicle charging points at home to become the law in the UK. The profession misses the point.

In between witterings about Pepper Pig World, the British Prime Minister announced that all new and renovated buildings would be required, by law, to have electric vehicle charging points installed. The necessary legislation is planned for next year. It seems that the transport profession took it at face value.

As loathed as I am to give Government some credit, let’s at least see the law first before we react. This could feasibly reduce the propensity to provide EV charging points on street, enable EVs themselves to act as remote grid storage, and it may even help to decarbonise personal transport. Yes, do all the other stuff too. But let’s not let the perfect be the enemy of the potentially good.

Random things

There is plenty of it out there on the Internet.

• Lobby seeks women-friendly public transport in Machakos, Kenya (The Star)

• The UK’s new rail plan for the north is beyond satire (The Financial Times)

• Trillions in Assets May Be Left Stranded as Companies Address Climate Change (Wall Street Journal)

• Why some nations’ labour markets did better during the pandemic (VoxEU)

• Why Bosses Are Inflexible About Flexible Work Arrangements (Wired)

Interesting things

Turns out that you can get a fair way by car in Brussels compared to a lot of European cities.

If you do nothing else today, do this…

Over the last week or, I have been promoting the Chrisp Street Community Cycle fundraiser. They are just over £1000 from their target with 8 days to go. With the money they raise, they will enabling more people in disadvantaged communities, while training people with key skills and allowing them to find employment. Whatever you can give will be greatly appreciated.