In summary: they don’t cause congestion, costs are rising, and we need to do more.

Good day my good friend.

Metallic taste, sore arm, slight headache. The being pricked part of a booster jab was the least painful part of it. But thank you to the very kind people at the vaccination centre in Luton for at least making the experience fun. Anyway, today’s link.

James

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Do cycle lanes cause congestion? You should know the answer by now: its complicated

Oh God, not this again. According to INRIX, because cycle lanes were rolled out in London that made congestion worse. Ignoring the fact that traffic levels went back to what they were in 2019, and the fact that car use was quick to recover post-lockdowns, and the rubbish social media stuff, you must remember one thing. While the reduced roadspace = reduced traffic relationship is largely shown by evidence, reducing congestion is a much more complicated relationship.

Lets state an obvious point: congestion can (and does) occur even in situations where there is less overall traffic because congestion is slower journeys and increased queuing. This is affected by the total available roadspace and the demand for it. But that does not mean that reducing roadspace increases congestion. My good friend David Metz usefully retorts the INRIX data in this article. The work of Phil Goodwin is seminal in this area as well. It shows that the relationship is complicated and must be heavily caveated. Reducing traffic levels may be a good policy aim, but that does not mean that roads become less congested.

Transport costs in the UK are higher, but not for the reasons you think they are

The Department for Transport just did a data drop on transport spend in the UK, and seeing what the average Brit spends each week on transport is always fun. Since 2006, the average weekly spend has gone up by £20 a week to just over £80, and is broken down by different modes. Motoring costs make up £60 of the weekly spend.

But the biggest driver of this increase? More people flying, and paying more for flying. Nearly £12 of the weekly increase is down to this, with the rest made up of a general inflationary increase. More detail is needed, but even this analysis may challenge a few assumptions.

Ensuring the safety of children in vehicles is a problem tackled, but not a problem solved

A recent research article on seat belt laws for ride-hailing vehicles shows that there is no consistency in terms of legislation for children and their safety in such vehicles. Simply, while there is a general requirement for child car seats in most states, who is responsible for its use is often less well defined.

Research has shown that the use of child seats is linked to socio-economic status and education levels. Mistakes in keeping children safe in cars are common, such as poor seating position and non-use of restraints. So whilst the laws on child safety are often very clear, the practice is highly variable. Considering that children are vulnerable road users, maybe tackling this behavioural issue should be a priority?

Random things

Just what you need ahead of the weekend:

• Three steps to the future (Benedict Evans)

• Commission proposals to improve the working conditions of people working through digital labour platforms (European Commission)

• Supermarkets grapple with checkout-free stores (Financial Times)

• How important is Christmas for the High Street? (Centre for Cities)

• The US Is Gently Discouraging States From Building New Highways (Wired)

Interesting things

You will have seen variations of this diagram before, but this diagram showing carbon emissions by sector is very good. Road transport is responsible for 11.9% of all global emissions of CO2, more than any other single industry.

If you do nothing else today, then do this

Read this Streetsblog on The Go Hub project, looking at making mobility hubs mobility justice focussed.