A couple of nice, meaty subjects for you

Good day my good friend.

I have just come back from a walk around my local town. The wind can best be described as ‘Arctic’ and so I am typing this with a couple of blocks of ice as hands. I hope I don’t mess this up. Here are today’s articles just for you.

James

Transport decolonization – a new concept or a re-imagining of old ideas?

Benjie de la Pena’s excellent Makeshift Mobility Substack (you should sign up to it) just posted a follow-up post on the concept of Decolonization of Transport. His original post articulates what that is far better than I can, but if you are after a TL;DR its about traditional ways of thinking and doing coming from a position of privilege, and ultimately control, and not favouring local forms of knowledge. If you will allow me to indulge on this matter for a few moments.

This is a welcome way of thinking about how transport should be done. The experience of people who are traditionally excluded from decision making, challenging our own biases, and developing solutions with communities and local people should be more central to everyday practice. But a word of caution. Traditional tools, data collection methods, and even governance have their value. What is critical for us as professionals is understanding what this value is, and the value of new methods, and apply the appropriate tools and approaches to the context in which we are doing our work.

As professionals, we have a responsibility. We must challenge our own biases and how we do things, but what we do needs to based on a balance on the evidence of what works and our understanding of who we are serving. This does not mean what we have currently is bad, but that we must be open to the fact that good evidence of what works can come from anywhere. And providing that evidence is easier for some than others.

Whilst as (mostly) public servants we must serve the people, we must play a number of roles when doing that. As an enabler, as a guide, as a leader, as a a barrier breaker, to name a few. We are experts, after all, so lets use our skills and our knowledge to help people. If we call it decolonization of transport, so be it, but regardless of what we call it, we should make it so.

I urge you to read Benjie’s post and the links contained therein. It is worth your time in doing so.

E-mopeds are an upgrade to a mode of transport that never gets the due it is worth

New research from Shanghai in China revealed that the people who were most satisfied with their commutes after the users of active travel were e-moped users. And there are no shortage of options for purchasing a Vespa-style e-moped in the city. The ownership of motorcycles in China is around 18 per 100 people, a slight decline over the years. It is an industry where sales of new vehicles are highly variable across the world, but the needs of motorcycle users are almost never, if ever, considered when we plan for transport.

If you want a good primer, I highly recommend work done in the Phillipines on incorporating motorcycles into local transport policy as a good start. You can also discover how they react to demand management policies. Colin Brown of the Motorcycle Action Group wrote a post last year lamenting the inclusion of motorcycles (or lack thereof) in transport policy. The same groups’ Welcoming Roads publication is also worth a read.

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.

• An explosion felt around the world (New York Magazine)

• Back to normal isn’t enough (Defector)

• There’s a reason why pandemic escapees are moving back to London (New Statesman)

• Are we witnessing the dawn of post-theory science? (The Observer)

• An Environmentalist’s Lessons for an Improvisational Life (The MIT Press Reader)

Something interesting

If you do nothing else, then do this

Read this article on Our World in Data on how the end of poverty has just begun.