Just the start of another week
Good day my good friend.
Short and sweet, and straight to the news.
James
The fight for active travel is a war of attrition
The House of Commons Transport Committee published a report last week into road pricing. Needless to say that the likes of FairFuelUK have reacted angrily to the mere mention of charging motorists for doing anything. The same groups are also attempting to fight changes to the Highway Code as well.
We can argue about the equalities impacts of road user charging all the live long day. Like any policy the impacts are complicated. But a pertinent question now is this. Battling entrenched opinions is long, hard, exhausting work in the dark arts of politics. Are we willing to help in that fight? Because those in opposition are.
Living in fear gives the incentive to do something about it. And so it is for road safety
This interesting bit of research from Nepal builds upon and expands earlier findings of how proximity to major roads impacts on the quality of life of residents. It does so by giving some insight into how people are inspired to do something about road safety and request assistance in doing so from government. Maybe, living in fear of something inspires you to do something about it?
This is not uncommon in transport. Many road crash victim support groups have been founded by those same people. But to see some research that looks to explore a similar dynamic is interesting.
It’s Black History Month
What I won’t do is share with you about how ethnic minorities are under-represented in the transport industry. Nor will I say anything about the experience of those who do work in our industry. I refuse to patronise anyone with my opinion on the matter when I will openly admit that I am still learning more about it.
What I will do is share with you some interesting articles that may help you to start thinking about these things. Such as this article on under-representation in cycling. Or this research on Re-Visioning Black Urbanism. Or the racial zoning of city planning. Or work on re-framing the journey to work. From this start, and from being the good people that you are, I urge you to think more about this.
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 Deep Math That Can Help Cargo Ships See Into the Future (Popular Mechanics)
Winter sports feeling the heat of warming atmosphere (Yale Climate Connections)
When scientific conferences went online, diversity and inclusion soared (Chemistry World)
North Korea Hacked Him. So He Took Down Its Internet (Wired)
Building rural capacity in the new economy (Concordia University)
Something interesting
If you do nothing else, then do this
Read this research article on Informal and shared mobility: A bibliometric analysis and researcher network mapping.
This week for paid subscribers
Find out about how an early experience of really, really tough public engagement shapes how public engagement should be done.
Mobility Matters 