Good day my good friend.
A little secret for you. I actually write these newsletters the night before I send them. And tonight I am struggling to keep my eyes open, so I am going to be brief here.
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. Get your tickets now.
James
Measuring accessibility not just in terms of journey times
One of my person frustrations about transport accessibility is how binary it is. Its either physical accessibility, or accessibility in terms of journey time. Did we learn nothing from Making the Connections? Anyway, this research paper looks to expand our horizons by considering transport accessibility through sociodemographic and environmental factors. And it does a decent job of it.
Our results reveal that the accessibility patterns depend on the individual characteristics and the built environment. Moreover, our results also confirm that the expansion and densification of the cycling network have an impact on the access to opportunities for cyclists that is not necessarily captured by most classical accessibility measures when considering the variability of cyclists’ profiles.
Yet more post-COVID research paints a confusing picture
Honestly, you cannot move for the amount of research coming out about post-pandemic travel patterns. Despite the minor fact that we are still in one. This one caught my eye today, focussing on public transport use in the future in Scotland.
The results paint a confusing picture, and are summarising below. But what this research usefully does is apply it to a model to estimate the demand impacts across areas and population types. Which may be quite useful for future service planning.
The respondents indicated that they anticipated they would make less use of buses and trains at the end of the pandemic. Over a third expect to use buses (36%) and trains (34%) less, whilst a quarter expect to drive their cars more.
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.
The Limits to Growth: Ecosocialism or Barbarism (Monthly Review)
Walking the World: Hanoi (Walking the World)
The Futility of Utility (Every)
Something interesting
This video starts off with an annoyance (delays to boarding aircraft) but explains the intricacies of crowd dynamics really well. Highly recommended.
If you do nothing else today, then do this
I love this visualisation of walking and cycling growth in West Yorkshire. Simple to do, but hard to master, and even harder to do it well. This is it done well. Learn from it.
Mobility Matters 