No witty sub here

Good day my good friend.

Anyone else finally getting back into the work groove? I had that on Friday, just before clocking off for the weekend. Typical. Anyway, enough small talk. News!

James

When it comes to modelling the impacts of transport interventions, some areas are more mature than others

Us transport planners have a pretty decent idea as to what the transport impacts of our schemes are likely to be. But modelling the wider impacts of our schemes in a more integrated way is much more of a developing art. Notable examples being understanding the carbon impact of our schemes, but also the noise impact of our schemes. The latter of which is subject to an interesting research paper published recently.

With the noise impact of transport schemes being something that we really don’t take seriously. By using a probability-based distribution model for traffic noise, the model developed by the researchers was able to predict noise levels to within 3 dbA. To give you an idea, 10 dbA is the sound of a pin dropping. Though this was only applied to ‘expressway traffic,’ such work could prove important in planning schemes and interventions to deal with the traffic drum.

Poverty is becoming suburbanised, and we need to think about how we deal with that

It is easy to think that poverty is an issue in the inner city. That is what many models of city planning which many in my generation and older were based on. But as recent research from Oslo has shown, poverty has become increasingly suburbanised. Some of the most inaccessible places in cities.

There are many reasons for this. One is that there is a greater demand from wealthier people to live in cities, pushing those on lower incomes to the suburbs. In some areas, it is because of the decline of a locally important employment base. The picture is also very variable. But ask this: if poverty is hard to service financially (at least in transport) and it is now in the most inaccessible locations in cities, how do we serve those people?

How do we solve a problem like electric vehicle charging points?

A couple of weeks ago I asked on LinkedIn what people thought local authorities should do to encourage the use of electric vehicles. The top answer, but by no means a convincing victory, was more charging points on street. But street charging points are not the clear-cut policy solution you think they are.

As shown by this example of Shell in London, ultra-rapid chargers are now making EV hubs (or the petrol station equivalent for EV charging) a real possibility. I’m not sure on-street chargers have a future, for a variety of reasons. So I say this to my authority colleagues: think about where they will be needed, and who you can work with to install charging points. And only charge on street as a last resort.

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.

• The most important computer you have never heard of (Arstechnica)

• Fusion energy is a reason to be excited about the future (Vox)

• The refrigerator became an agent of climate catastrophe (New Yorker)

• How one of South America’s biggest dams became a Bitcoin battleground (Rest Of World)

• Controlled Prices (Phenomenal World)

Something interesting

If you do nothing else, then do this

If you are a transport modeller, fill in this modellers of the future survey.