Good day my good friend.
I’ve managed to work myself something that is exceedingly rare in the life of a freelancer – a day off! At the time this is published, I plan to be walking the Redways of Milton Keynes, before having a jolly nice catch up with the good people organising Mobility Camp. What a lovely day ahead.
If you have any suggestions for interesting news items or bits of research to include in this newsletter, you can email me.
James
EV charging does Yes, Minister
There is a classic line from the British comedy series Yes, Minister that states “We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do it.” I am certainly getting that feeling about our approach to electric vehicle charging infrastructure, where for many years the Office for Low Emission Vehicles has invested in public charging infrastructure, with little direction or strategy on what type of infrastructure the UK (or anyone) should be investing in.
A new report by the EV Energy Taskforce somewhat touches on this, by setting out some ‘enabling conditions’ for the expansion of electric vehicles in the UK. But it makes the same mistake as government. It sets a vague end goal (more people using EVs), says we must invest in capabilities, and then fails to articulate the direction of travel. Its a useful, and interesting, bit of work, but like EV charging policy it needs direction, and not just more “EVs are good.”
Building new roads is fundamentally incompatible with net zero, and we need to be leaders on this
In some indications of a change of direction from the Department for Transport, local authorities are being asked to reappraise their Major Roads programmes in light of reduced funding. But few are willing to do so. Which is a major concern. The UK road network is still expanding each and every year. And this is a worrying trend.
In many respects, we are in a bit of a bind. On the one hand, building more roads and laying more tarmac may be necessary to effectively encourage active travel (e.g. to serve new developments, or to remove through traffic so we can pedestrianise areas). But we can’t just build more roads all the time. We have to be braver in really questioning whether some roads are truly worth building from a perspective of encouraging low and zero carbon travel. But we seem unwilling to. Time is ticking on this, everyone.
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.
How UK Military and spy agencies are weaponising social justice (Declassified UK)
Nobody Lives Here (The Big Picture)
The cost of living crisis is forcing people to work multiple jobs to make ends meet (The Big Issue)
The China Shock’s Lessons for the Green Economy (Foreign Policy)
Something interesting
The slow renationalisation of the British rail network continues.
If you do nothing else today, then do this
The Scottish Government want to know how it can reduce car kilometres by 20% to achieve its climate goals. So go tell them how to do it.
Mobility Matters 