Good day my good friend.

I count this as the third once-in-a-generation recession since I graduated in 2004. No wonder the next generation aren’t liking capitalism that much. And as capitalism is a bike driver behind our transport planning assumptions (the commute and freight travel, anyone?), planning for a transition away from it may just be the true boss battle of transport planning.

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. Sponsorship slots are also available.

James

British ports don’t operate like you think they do

Rooting around the latest data on the freight that passes through UK ports is always fun, as it always challenges how we think the whole system works. Whilst the casual observer may think that the Port of Dover rules all, the reality is much more interesting than that. Particularly when it comes to freight.

The busiest ports for freight? London and Grimsby. The former for containers mainly, and the latter for liquid fuels. That is where the tonnage is! For passengers, the Port of Dover is the busiest passenger port in the world, but even then short sea shipping within the UK (e.g. to Northern Ireland from the mainland and short trips to outlying islands) has strongly recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bus Rapid Transit impacts on land use patterns are mixed, but under-studied

In the UK, when we think about mass transit systems, we too often default to trams. For good reasons, to be fair. One of which is the potential impacts on the value of land and the subsequent value of the developable land within the proximity of the services. But there is more than one type of mass transit system, and as bus rapid transit is rather popular across many areas of the world, it is amazing that the impacts on land use have not been studied.

Until now, anyway, specifically this new study on the impacts on land uses of BRT in Bogotá in Columbia and Quito in Ecuador. Bogota saw a shift towards commercial uses along the lines, while in Quito there was a mix of impacts, but an overall conclusion that there was development activity in close proximity to the BRT lines post-completion. The conclusion is basically that more research is needed, but its a good indicator that we need to be more clever in understanding the land use impacts of public transport investments that are not as sexy as a tram.

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.

• Five reasons why the four-day week won’t work (The Conversation)

• Why So Many Cars Have Rats in Them Now (The New York Times)

• EV tax credits could stall out on lack of US battery supply (MIT Technology Review)

• Count the bugs “splatted” on your car to help track insect decline (New Scientist)

• How Siestas Might Help Europe Survive Deadly Heat Waves (Wired)

Something interesting

Network Rail have a very good YouTube channel that explains brilliantly the issues with running a railway. It is worth having a look around. This is my favourite video – a simple explainer of broken rails!

If you do nothing else today, then do this

How far can you get by rail in 5 hours from where you are (so long as you live in Europe)? This interactive map has been doing the rounds on Twitter all week, and its brilliant. Apparently, from where I live in Flitwick, I can get as far as Aachen in Germany, but not to Edinburgh in Scotland. The Thameslink route does that for you.