Good day, my good friend.

Yesterday, I came across this sight whilst walking the dog. There is a certain mystery, and I daresay sadness, about abandoned modes of transport.

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

James

Its time to break the stigma of informal transport

I love reading Tom Courtright’s blog on informal transportation, and an absolutely corking article that he posted recently was on busting the myths of Boda Boda’s. It’s a really excellent take-down of many of the myths associated with this poorly understood mode of transport. But one sentence struck out at me in particular.

“…boda bodas have been marginalized in society and sidelined from planning…”

Perhaps a throwaway sentence, but it got me thinking. Much of our transport is informal. Whether it be arranging rides between friends, dropping off things with family, or even things like hitch-hiking. But do we not value it because we cannot measure it? There are policy approaches for informal transport modes, but we just don’t think about them. At all.

Electric trucks will be highly competitive in short-haul logistics

An interesting new study that has just been published tests out different policy initiatives for reducing emissions from trucks in British Columbia, from Zero Emission Vehicle mandates to rolling out charging infrastructure. While diesel hybrids are likely to remain dominant in the long haul market, the short haul market is something different entirely:

For short-haul trucks, [Battery Electric Vehicles] and [Fuel Cell Vehicles] tend to dominate, depending on supported infrastructure. For long-haul trucks, plug-in hybrid diesel and [Fuel Cell Vehicles] are more likely to dominate sales.

This is not a shock in many ways. Short haul logistics suffers less from range anxiety and less wear and tear from frequent acceleration and braking mean that the cost savings are potentially significant. But with cargo bikes moving to take over this market, I can’t help but think that in the future there will be more competition, not less.

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 that you enjoy them.

• Almost all the world’s population breathes harmful air, says WHO (Financial Times)

• Elevating the Helium Network with New Helium Inc Name & Series D (The Helium Blog)

• Is virtue signalling a vice? (Aeon)

• A Spot of Bother for Bitcoin (Doomsberg)

• New Vehicle Sales Plunge as Chip Shortages, Production Cuts, Low Inventories Drag On. Back Where They’d Been in 1979 (Wolf Street)

Something interesting

Occasionally, Reddit runs the r/place experiment. Giving its users a blank canvass and asks them to colour it. Look closely just above the middle for a link to a popular transport subreddit.

If you do nothing else today, then do this

If you are a UK-based transport planner, and you have worked with a transport planner who deserves recognition, nominate them for Transport Planner of the Year.