Good day my good friend.
Too busy. Not enough words to say. So onto the interesting stuff. Unless you want to chuckle at the BBC and its journalistic standards.
If you have any suggestions for interesting news items or bits of research to include in this newsletter, you can email me.
James
Don’t subsidise fuel. Subsidise use
There is a great recent report (thanks to good friend Beate Kubitz for pointing it out) that reveals that current spend on fuel subsidies would pay for 5.3 billion bike sharing trips in Europe. Or a lot of rail passes, whichever chooses your fancy. Notwithstanding the obvious environmental benefit of doing this, changing the subsidy model to one based on trips makes business sense.
Subsidies should be tailored in a way that encourages greater ridership, or in a way that ensures basic services (like public transport) remain operational for the public good. Subsidies focussing on costs are either absorbed by businesses, or vast paperwork is needed to ensure that the cost subsidy is actually increasing ridership. So, pay for trips, which ultimately become regular trips, and save money on subsidy in the long run through more fare payers.
Is informal growth the way forward for cities?
I’m going to be controversial here. The UK plan-led planning system is an utter failure at everything it intends to do and needs a radical overhaul to be fixed. But what comes in its place? Zoning? Frankly, I don’t know, but this interesting article in Cities has given me food for thought. It covers the interplay between the state and informal development of cities in Peru, and suggests strategies for how both approaches could be used to develop cities in the future based on one of four strategies. As the article concludes:
The possibilities of success in applying these joint strategies, as a combination of theoretical solutions in other informal settlements, are lent for discussion, choosing four conflictive Latin American settlements with similar characteristics as an initial study. For this purpose, urban solutions have been proposed in Petare in Caracas, in the Manuel Bustos camp in Viña del Mar, Villa 1-11-14 in Buenos Aires, and Villa María del Triunfo. The results are still preliminary and are proposed as new forms for urban reorientation and regeneration, responding to the rapid evolution of informal settlements and strengthening their social solid, economical, and productive dynamics.
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.
A doorway on Mars? How we see things in space that aren’t there (The Conversation)
Volkswagen settles UK ‘dieselgate’ claims with £193m payout (The Guardian)
Reckoning With the Growing Demand for Long-Term Care (Naked Capitalism)
Stop Doomscrolling and Look at These Photos of the Milky Way Instead (Vice)
Something interesting
Come on, M&S, parking is not that important.
If you do nothing else today, then do this
Read this cool report on linking decarbonisation of transport with local energy generation.
Mobility Matters 