Good day my good friend.

Are you coming to TPM 2022, which is taking place at the University of Greenwich on Wednesday and Thursday? If so, then I will see you there hopefully. If you fancy a chat about all things transport, then drop me an email and we will arrange a time to say hi!

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

Moving beyond slogans

It is too easy to commandeer a slogan for your own benefit. Or to use it on a policy when what is needed is a deeper, and more systemic change. Writing a policy or publishing a press release it easy. But as this research article on Vision Zero shows, meaningful change is found in funding, systems, and processes.

In this case, it showcases the deep, meaningful actions the Dutch and the Swiss took to enable change. To put it in their own words:

The synthesis suggests that to embrace the Safe System approach, we need a paradigm shift that puts safety and quality of life at the forefront of our thinking about transportation planning, design, and implementation. We argue that there is a need for a broader dissemination, understanding, and adoption of the underlying principles of Sustainable Safety, and recommend that universities improve engineering and planning education with more Sustainable Safety thinking.

Out of centre retail centres are not good for carbon emissions

A common thing that long-time readers of this newsletter will know is that sometimes you need a study to point out the obvious. And this study does just this. It shows that, within the context of Irish retail developments, if you build one out of the town centre, then the carbon emissions that it generates is higher compared to those that are centrally located. Put simply:

This supports theories suggesting that accessibility-centred development is the best option to combat the ill effects of sprawl, and that car dependency worsens the environmental degradation associated with sprawling developments.

We know the reasons why. Out of town developments are car-centric, and environmentally degrading in their own right, while those in city centres are more accessible by a range of modes of transport and tend to re-use old buildings. Its good that the science tends to confirm such things.

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.

• Summer travel misery ahead as industry workers in revolt (France 24)

• The village once owned by England’s first queen (BBC) – I don’t give travel tips very often, but as a Devon lad, I can say that Clovelly is beautiful

• Safety Town (Guernica)

• Considering the African City of the Future (Der Spiegel)

• Internet Explorer was once synonymous with the Internet, but today it’s gone for good (Ars Technica)

Something interesting

I’ve posted this for no other reason other than it looks stunning. We should make more use of disused railway lines.

If you do nothing else today, then do this

Read this article on winning hearts and minds when it comes to road space reallocation by Laura Laker.