Mobility Matters Daily #238 – Accessibility planning and Stephen Fry

A short one today

Good day my good friend.

Hush now, everyone. I’m discussing budgets at a Town Council committee. So here are your links, and be done with it!

James

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Accessibility planning in a time of COVID-19

The accessibility of healthcare sites has experienced a little more interest during COVID-19. Not least because of an interest in how accessible vaccination sites are during the initial roll out of the vaccines. Shockingly, many sites were not as accessible as they could be – and to be fair when you are trying to spring up thousands of vaccination centres overnight you can’t be picky.

New research has identified accessibility of healthcare sites in a different way, using the example of COVID. It has proposed a Multi-Criteria Analysis based upon factors that make people more vulnerable to COVID, including lack of access to a car.

A sign on the floor saying Please wait here until the person in front has moved forward. There are two feet at the bottom of the image

Is there political appetite for new roads?

Mainly yes (sorry to burst your bubble), but it is noticable that in several areas the tide seems to be turning against the construction of new roads. Wales is the obvious example, whilst on the opposite side of this blessed isle, Norwich City Council is opposing plans to build a bypass around the city. Even Stephen Fry is against the plan.

It is tempting to look back to the times of road protests as a sudden huge sea change when things happened suddenly. The world is not like that. Change bubbles away for years, even decades, before either hitting big or worming its way into how things are done and changing. A good strategist looks for weak signals and tries to understand their potential impacts, not for the obvious things that are known.

Random things

These links are meant to make you think about the things that affect our world in transport, and not just think about transport itself. I hope they do just that.

Africa faces an uphill battle against western emissions to combat climate change (The Conversation)
Nowa Huta: The city that went from communism to capitalism (BBC)
Guinness goes greener with zero emissions transport (The Drinks Business)
Delta Vows to Treat Nonbinary Travelers Equally. Other Airlines Stay Silent (The Daily Beast)
What Oil, Satellite Technology and Iraq can Tell us About Pollution (Bellingcat)

Something interesting

A description of the difference between powering electric vehicles and hydrogen vehicles. Electric vehicles take power from a solar panel and is directly charged in this example. For hydrogen, a solar panel kick starts a storage, distribution, and refinement mechanism all before the vehicle is powered

If you do nothing else today, then do this

Read the World Economic Situation and Prospects Report by the UN for all of your macro-economic needs.