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Good day my good friend.
As I write this, I have a small dog wagging its tail and growling under its breath on the bed behind me. Its distracting. So here are the links I found before I get barked at for not paying attention to her.
James
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If you wanted the toolkit for innovating in rural areas, the International Transport Forum has just the thing for you
Providing innovative transport solutions in rural areas usually boils down to one of two things. An urban solution is ‘adapted’ to the rural context, fails, and then is withdrawn, or exactly the same except the operator goes cap in hand to the local Council for support. Both of which usually ignore a simple fact: that rural areas are not just defined by lower demand for services, but by the places that they are.
This is why the International Transport Forum’s new report on Innovations for Better Rural Mobility is so important. The recommendations you should know: flexible regulation, place-based funding, innovative financing, and actually having a strategy in place to support rural connectivity. All based on great case studies from across the world. And the below diagram is as near as dammit to a rural transport cheat sheet you will ever see. Make this document your essential reading over Christmas.
Millennials are killing the motor industry, version 732324643
Nope, this isn’t some tech puff peice, or a whinging opinion column in the Daily Telegraph. This is based on actual data! An analysis of the 8 seperate US National Travel Surveys concludes the following:
During adulthood, Millennials have kept their daily VMT (vehicle miles travelled) consistently lower than that of Generation X by about 3 VMT, or 8%, whereas the younger group of Baby Boomers outdrove the older Millennials at age 28 and after by about 3.5 VMT, or 9% daily. When each generation is considered over its life course, peak-level daily VMT tends to occur at earlier ages for each successive generation.
Yes, Millennials appear to be driving much less. This appears to support wider evidence that shows declining car ownership and less driving among younger age cohorts. It doesn’t offer an explanation why, and that is ok. It is sometimes just good enough to get an indication of the general direction of travel, as opposed to understanding why.
The problem with running transport as networks is that delays have a tendancy to propogate
You have experienced it. Your train or bus is running late and you are going to miss your connection, and you think “why didn’t they hold the train for 5 minutes?” And everyone agrees that holding buses and trains for late running passengers is a very good thing. There is one problem with that. Delays propogate and have an impact. As this research on delays in the US airline system shows.
Simply, the impact of delays is uneven. In this case, late arriving flights with a high number of connecting passengers has a statistically significant impact on flights leaving late. And delays propogate much more when the hub is close to where the network is more dense. In other words, you may get away with holding the odd aircraft for connections off the beaten track, but if you try it at a busy airport you will create problems. This is why the decision to hold the plane, train, or bus is much more difficult than we think.
Random things
From even more surfing of the internet.
Black-Owned Filling Station Was a Refuge for Travelers Along Route 66 (The Daily Yonder)
Plan to slow Herefordshire school run to a walk (Gloucestershire Live)
PCEC transforms into pop-up bus station for Mandurah Line Shutdown (Government of Western Australia)
The Bicycle Metro: not public transport, but the bike has the future (Innovation Origins)
Alexander to step down as London’s deputy mayor for Transport (TransportXtra)
Interesting things
My followers in the UK may find this pertinent right now, but there is this excellent tool that visualises good government, and you can compare according to different measures. Above is how different countries score on the Happy Planet Index and Sustainable Economic Development. You know what countries are going to do well, but please explore the data. It is fun.
If you do nothing else today, then do this
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