Good day my good friend.

6 hours of sleep in 3 days tends to make you a bit cranky. So this introduction is going to be a bit shorter than normal. More to the point. Let’s get on with it.

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. Seriously, they are starting to really sell now.

James

What if we buried all the roads?

Ok, this is completely impractical. And when I saw the headline of this BBC article, I expected an article in the tones of an Elon Musk fanboy. But this article is actually an interesting exploration of all the potential benefits of doing so. The obvious one is freeing up more space in our cities. But had you thought about things like reducing the number of animals killed? Or providing more protection against flooding?

Despite Elon’s best efforts to put roads in tunnels and call it innovative, this article does raise a point. If roads are still essential (they are) is burying them for the public good? Even the likes of the Big Dig has had some public benefit in terms of new parks and green spaces. Its a reminder that, when looking to make improvements to towns and cities globally, even building roads can be of benefit.

Tackling the hypermilers

This is another excellent research article by the team at CREDS. Whilst the average English adult travels around 5680 miles per year, there is a band of people who travel way in excess of that. The headline results are amazing. The top 5% of ‘excess’ car users travel 4.8 times that distance, and emit 5.7 times more carbon dioxide.

The policy choices to tackle this are complex, although the research team warns against using choice as a policy approach. Instead, favouring the development of multiple transport options and more stringent measures to tackle excessive car use, such as congestion charging and strict mileage rationing. But if overconsumption and greed is trashing our world, as well as being a sin, perhaps juicier carrots and bigger sticks are what is needed.

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.

• Mexico leader to end daylight saving, keep “God’s clock” (Associated Press)

• Natural selection may be making society more unequal (Phys.org)

• Misinformation About the Dutch Farm Crisis (Atlantic Sentinel)

• Fearing Russian gas shut-off, France’s industry turns to oil (Reuters)

• Self-Driving Cruise Taxi Crashes With Passengers On Board (The Drive)

Something interesting

According to the UN, the world’s population is due to pass 8 billion in 2022. But the rate of population growth continues to fall, and has dipped below 1% for the second successive year.

If you do nothing else today, then do this

Take a look at the first pictures from the James Webb Space Telescope. Yes, it’s a non-transport thing. But this sort of thing is seriously cool, and looks spectacular.