Mobility Matters Daily #209 – Petrol prices, co-creation, and tourist transport

In short: the politics is hard, co-creation is learning, and we are rubbish at tourist transport

Good day my good friend.

As I write this, its 10:30pm. This has just happened to me. So I’m sure you’ll forgive me if i keep this newsletter short.

Heading back down to Bedfordshire from Huddersfield. £200 for the pleasure of missed connections adding 3 hours onto the journey. I know there's no much the railways can do about delays sometimes, but I completely understand why people give up on using them.
— Mobility Matters (@MobilityMatter1) November 25, 2021

Today, i changed trains 9 times at Bedford (twice), Kettering, Leicester, Beeston, Derby, Sheffield (twice) and Leeds. I am exhausted.

James

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

The Human-Machine Game

The common narrative behind social media and the ills that it creates is that algorithms are driving user behaviour. Which is undoubtebly true. But in this great, thoughtful post on The Shape of Reality, we need to remember that this is not manipulation. This is a feedback loop. One where our behaviours influence the behaviours of machines, which in turn influence our behaviours. In effect, it puts our preference shifts on steroids.

Think about the impacts of this on travel behaviours, for both good and bad. Through surge pricing, Uber has successfully managed to influence travel choices in real time through its surge pricing algorithm. Choices can be pushed to travellers in real time, influencing their travel choices, which in turns sets new travel patterns for better or for worse. But this is not a case of computer gone bad. Its computer trying things, us telling it whether or not we like it, and it trying again.

https://cms.qz.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2021-01-04T110609Z_1848548137_RC2Z0L9PNAB1_RTRMADP_3_HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-SCHOOLS-KENYA-e1616677388366.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=3200&h=1806

Walkability – different context, same result

I love exploring how people behave in different contexts. This study of pedestrian behaviour in two cities in Mozambique certainly scratches that particular itch. What this study concluded was that linear cities generally experienced lower walking levels than more compact cities, or in this case the coastal city on a national highway had lower walking levels than cities inland.

This is not a new phenomenon. Dense neighbourhoods clustered around several key services has been shown to increase walking and cycling levels, and has been shown to do this consistently. But if the marker of good science is a repeatable experiment getting the same or similar results, clearly our science is sound.

Random things

You know the drill by now.

Safe and sustainable…but currently unobtainable (En Evant!)
Gdańsk – the amber city making a big logistics play (City Monitor)
The McDonald’s Ice Cream Machine Hacking Saga Has a New Twist (Wired)
Pete Buttigieg’s impossible job (The Economist)
TfL warns of bridge and tunnel closures due to funding crisis (The Transport Network)

Interesting things

Investing in transport infrastructure is (generally) good. This video by Wendover Productions demonstrates why, using the Interstate Highway system of the USA.

If you do nothing else today, then do this…

Read the Irish Department for Transport’s 5 Cities Demand Management research report. It’s a great exploration of what drives demand in the 5 cities of Ireland.