Good day my good friend.

Sorry about yesterday and the lack of an email. Substack decided to, well, not work essentially. There is no other way of putting it. Words were said about it. Hopefully it is all fixed now.

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

You should also join a lot of like-minded people at Mobility Camp in Bristol in September. Tickets are on sale now.

James

Non-riders don’t like people who ride bikes and e-scooters

Oh, this study is very good indeed. Ignore the use of the word ‘unsafety,’ which is frankly an assualt on the English language. Its a good study overall in identifying the role of risky behaviours in collisions, but it also goes into perceptions of who takes those risky behaviours. And people who don’t ride e-scooters or bicycles think that those who do take too many risks. The conclusion is fascinating:

The results of both studies suggest that external raters’ perceptions provide further understanding of the causes, dynamics, and conflicts related to road behaviors performed by certain groups of road users. This is particularly apparent when there is no clear legislation and information on safe riding in urban areas. In this sense, improving infrastructure could promote safer interactions.

Intersectionality and transport

I must admit that intersectionality is not a concept that I know that much about, although I am willing to learn. The basic concept behind it is that there are multiple layers to oppression in society, that mix together to re-inforce and maintain current inequalities and power dynamics.

This research paper on adopting an intersectional perspective to urban cycling is certainly one that made me think. We currently have equality impact assessments for many schemes, but are they sufficient enough for us to understand and take action on our impacts? I would argue that they are simply a tick box exercise. And perhaps the perspective offered by this paper offers us a way forward.

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.

• Tesla Semi Truck Spotted Cruising Down Public Highway (Futurism)

• It’s Boom Times For Wind Power & Green Hydrogen In Ireland (CleanTechnica)

• Ant, Alibaba plan for less intertwined future after China crackdown (Reuters)

• Musk, Tesla, SpaceX Are Sued for Alleged Dogecoin Pyramid Scheme (Bloomberg)

• Small green spaces can help keep cities cool during heat waves (The Conversation)

Something interesting

A timely image on what drives fuel prices. Though it seems to miss out speculation on the price of crude oil.

If you do nothing else today, then do this

Subscribe to Active Travel Studies, a new publication dedicated to active travel, that provides academic research for free. Its pretty good (and I may have used an article already).