Good day my good friend.
Its getting warm again. It would be nice to have some sort of respite from the hot weather at some point. While some of you may enjoy it, I am very much a winter person. Still, I expect social media will be aflutter with complaints of late trains and disruptions to highways over the coming days, and I pity to poor social media leads who have to field them.
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
Who will adopt Electric Vehicles?
Electric Vehicle adoption is growing both in the UK and across the world. There has been plentiful research that explores the type of people who will and are adopting electric vehicles. There has also been work on the effects of policy initiatives in helping this along. But there isn’t much research into the impact of behavioural factors.
New research into consumer adoption behaviour in the UK considered attitudes towards environmental factors. By doing so, it revealed something interesting – the effects of environmental attitudes are not as strong as more practical considerations on electric vehicles. Specifically a consumers readiness to adopt new technologies. So, you just have to get people more interested in new tech. Simple, right?
Inland waterways are often under-appreciated. Until times like now
Europe’s rivers are in trouble. With a record breaking drought showing no signs of abating, river levels across the continent are reaching critical levels. And that is bad news for one of the most important ways of moving freight across the continent – inland waterway. In 2020, inland waterways carried 505 million tonnes of freight across the EU, including up to 30% of the tonnage of metal ores.
To replace a typical barge on the River Rhine, you would need 150 trucks or several trains. Rivers are VERY good at transporting bulk goods, but its importance varies significantly between countries. And sadly, little work has been done on understanding their resilience to significant shocks such as droughts. Maybe, this should be a policy priority of upmost urgency.
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.
Vital Signs of the Planet (NASA)
UK Plans for Blackouts in January in Emergency Energy Plan (Bloomberg)
Tesla Absolutely Trucks Child Dummy in Stoppage Test (r/Damnthatsinteresting)
Something interesting
Topical. This is a really good explainer of why the London Underground, specifically the Central Line, is getting hotter each year. This Wired article goes into more detail into it.
If you do nothing else today, then do this
Read this article on a new law being proposed in the Philippines states that before buying a car, you must have proof that you can park it off road. Otherwise, no car. This is similar to the law in place in Japan. Might it be worthwhile as a solution to many on-street parking issues?
Mobility Matters 