Good day my good friend.

As I write this on the Saturday just passed (16th July 2022), it is already getting very warm indeed in the East of England. The preparation for the coming days is largely done – essentially coming down to blinds and towels on every window, wet towels and ice cubes for the dogs, and an emergency A/C unit in case it gets really unbearable. We can only now wait for the rain to arrive on Wednesday.

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

F*ck Cars

Its been a long time since I have been down with the kids – and I was last cool sometime in the middle of the summer of 1998. But there seems to be something interesting taking place. Kids are increasingly not liking cars. And when urban planning TikTok is becoming a thing, you can see that it might have some legs. Also, the r/f*ckcars Subreddit is one of the fastest growing on Reddit.

I can’t explain why this is so – maybe some of the younger among you might be able to shed some light. I know that young people are overwhelmingly concerned about the environment. They are also less likely to own cars. The Future Generations Commission for Wales has done some good work on this. But maybe, just maybe, this energy against car ownership is something to harness, and not lecture them on?

Could we implement a mobility permit trading scheme

Oooh, this methodological and highly theoretical paper has awoken my inner economist. Simply put, it sets out a methodological framework for a tradable mobility permit scheme. Simply put, people are given different amounts of mobility permits – to a finite total amount – which they can then trade with other people. Very similar to carbon trading.

What could the impact of such a permit scheme be? Until we have a field test, its hard to say. From the experience of carbon trading, if reducing travel is the outcome then it could potentially do this, as carbon trading has helped to reduce emissions. Although there may be several issues with accounting and reporting. So if reducing transport gluttony is a goal, mobility credit trading may be the way to do it.

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 Capitalist Solution to ‘Save’ the Planet: Make It an Asset Class & Sell it (GPENewsdocs)

• Groundhog Day For America’s Energy Grid (OilPrice)

• Black and Native American pedestrians are killed at higher rates — here’s why (The Next Web)

• More cities across China order partial Covid lockdowns (South China Morning Post)

• San Francisco cops want real-time access to private security cameras for surveillance (The Register)

Something interesting

Lots of people talk about School Streets. London just cracks on and does it!

If you do nothing else today, then do this

Thank you to good friend Giuseppe Sollazzo for sharing this article on why the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system used broad gauge and not standard gauge. I would love to say that they were inspired by Brunel, but the reasons why are more technical than that.