Good day my good friend.

I swear that all street furniture has a secret life. One of the key success factors of a great place is that it is adaptable and can be used for any purpose at any time. But seeing street signs as a resting place for cuddly octopi was something I never thought I’d see.

If you have any suggestions for interesting news items or bits of research to include in this newsletter, you can email me.

James

The verdict on the use of emergency traffic regulation orders in the UK during COVID-19 are in: some success, loads of pain, not much saved

Temporary Traffic Regulation Orders. Necessary for trying new ideas or road closures, or a nefarious device for forcing everyone in local communities to ride their bicycles like some sort of lefty elitist liberal out-of-touch snowflake. Take your pick. In the real world, the Department for Transport commissioned some research into the experience of using them during COVID-19 to make changes to highways. The results are in.

The overall result was that many people didn’t like the fact that consultation wasn’t done, there were no complaints about using digital means to engage with people (while people really weren’t a fan of using the local paper), and that Council’s didn’t save money by doing them. No shock on the latter point, as the main cost is with legal teams. But there are plenty of lessons to learn from the experience.

Spaceports – the final frontier for transport planning?

With the news that the Shetland Islands have just given permission for the first vertical launch spaceport in the UK, perhaps it is time that us transport professionals started thinking about what this new infrastructure means for how we plan transport in their immediate environment? That then begs the question – what could their impacts actually be?

This paper on the principles of planning a spaceport provides a useful reference to get you started on the basics of it all. The best way to think of them currently is to consider them as kind of an Airport Plus. So as well as the access issues of an airport, we need to consider flights as connecting modes in their own right. Or you can just check out the Transport Assessment supporting the planning application for the site on Shetland. Your choice.

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.

• EPA Proposes Tougher Emissions Standards For Trucks (Naked Capitalism)

• Has the pandemic changed our relationship with cash forever? (MSN)

• Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Puts Cryptocurrencies at the Heart of War (Vanity Fair)

• How BlackRock, Vanguard, and UBS Are Screwing the World (New Republic)

• The Economist’s glass-ceiling index (The Economist)

Something interesting

That pointwork is just beautiful. Unless you are a Network Rail track engineer.

If you do nothing else today, then do this

It’s International Women’s Day today, so it would be remiss for me not to mention the brilliant Gender Equality Toolkit, a must for every transport planner. Created by the amazing Mollie Hoggard, Marie Godward, and Laura Brooks, who you must follow on LinkedIn. Every little thing we can do to Break the Bias helps.