Good day my good friend.

I don’t know what Glenn is talking about. I think that government plans to widen parking bays is a great idea. That may reduce the total number of parking spaces in new developments. Of course, this all depends on the UK Government sorting out the pavement parking laws. And we all know that they are hard at work on this and….oh who am I kidding?

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

Why do we park on pavements?

And why do local councils allow it to happen? Well, according to this ethnographic research in Bucharest, it may be because we are now blurring the lines between the private and public space. Both at a personal and at a societal level. Although as previous cultural studies in Georgia have shown, there does appear to be a counter-culture to this trend emerging in many cities.

But amazingly for such an often-cited issue, and something that is of concern to people, there has been little effort to fully study. Or even quantify. Might it be that pavement parking is just an issue that is only really cared about by those with limited mobility, and transport planners? It is a shame if it is, but for reasons that may be understandable. After all, its not as if speeding is deemed to be socially unacceptable.

Discourse analysis – useful, but beware the pitfalls

There has been an increasing amount of research using discourse analysis as a means of understanding attitudes on social media and traditional media. This new paper on reporting crashes involving cyclists and cars, and Twitter analysis of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods are just two examples. Along with sentiment analysis, it is being used as a means of understanding social norms and attitudes towards a variety of transport matters.

I must admit to feeling uneasy at the seemingly uncritical acceptance of this method. Particularly where the results of it tend to align well with the views of certain groups. It is an area of study that can give good insight. But it requires people to process a vast amount of data, to be able to interpret meaning of words correctly, and it is only focussed on language in a way that doesn’t cover the meaning of the words in a social context. In other words, look at discourse analysis alongside other evidence. ESPECIALLY where the discourse analysis concludes with something you agree with.

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 future of copper and the future of Bougainville (Naked Capitalism)

• The length of Earth’s days has been mysteriously increasing, and scientists don’t know why (Phys.org)

• Corruption is sending shock waves through China’s chipmaking industry (MIT Technology Review)

• The end of the warehouse bubble (The Financial Times)

• Solar power opens the door to banking for rural Indians (Thomas Reuters Foundation)

Something interesting

Faisal Islam, the Economics Editor at the BBC, had his bike stolen. And this is the story of him following it and trying to track it down.

If you do nothing else today, then do this

If you are a young transport planner, maybe you should follow in the footsteps of Liani Baglietto Castellares, or maybe even yours truly and take part in this year’s Transport Planning Society Bursary Competition. This year’s theme is buses, and the deadline for submissions is this Friday (12th August). You should take part in it.