Good day my good friend.
For what reasons have you dug out old guidance documents? Today (well, yesterday as you read this) I had to dig out LTN 2/95 during a Town Council meeting to defend the highway authority putting in a zebra crossing about 5 metres from a junction. Because these are the small battles that sustainable transport must win.
If you have any suggestions for interesting news items or bits of research to include in this newsletter, you can email me.
James
Turns out that stations are pretty important to how passengers experience trains. Who knew?
There are numerous design guides for rail stations. Transport for London’s is an excellent one (and a personal favourite), but there is a reason why there are so many design guides. Stations are a fundamental part of the experience of travelling, and one of the many potential points of failure for public transport. So getting station design right matters, especially for safety.
A recent review of literature highlights that a number of characteristics affect how people feel safe at stations. Lighting, surveillance, other people, time of day, and gender of the person being particularly important. More importantly, this review identified that there are short and long term implications on use of public transport of these issues. So perhaps we should focus station redesign work not just on the busiest stations, but on those that are poorly designed?
If you know the road rules, it helps you stop breaking them
Obvious point I know. But considering the debates around the changes to the Highway Code in the UK, I did begin to wonder whether or not awareness of road rules was enough to ensure their compliance. Some new research into awareness of the ban in using mobile phones while cycling in Denmark did remind me of the obvious, however…
The results identify subjective norms, potential overconfidence, and traffic rule awareness (when there is a ban) as relevant factors in reducing the likelihood of cyclists’ handheld phone use.
Simply put, if cyclists know the rules they are more likely to obey them. But, to be fair, this research goes further. The research indicates links between culture and personal values and the likelihood to break the law, that require more research to flesh out a bit more.
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.
We Are Made of Plasticstuff: Scientists Find Microplastics in Human Blood (The Wire)
Daimler trucks chief warns cost of electric will ‘forever be higher’ (Financial Times)
The U.S. Still Doesn’t Know How To Track A Pandemic (FiveThirtyEight)
A World That’s More Expensive Is Starting to Destroy Demand (Bloomberg)
Something interesting
I’m sorry, vehicle licencing data at the Lower Super Output Area level? I know what my next month will be spent doing.
If you do nothing else, then do this
Watch this video. When transport gets an urgent call, boy does it answer it.
Mobility Matters 