Good day my good friend.

Things were so busy last week, that I forgot that yesterday (Monday) was a public holiday in the UK. So if you were expecting a newsletter yesterday, I can only say sorry for the disappointment. When I was meant to be writing it, I was cycling along National Cycle Route 51 towards Bedford after a lovely meal at Danish Camp. If you do fancy a short day of cycling through countryside and a lovely meal, I highly recommend taking the train to Bedford and doing just this ride.

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

Balancing the need to do something to make transport sustainable, and not annoying people

Oh, us Brits learned this lesson the hard way with Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. I very much sympathise with the need to do something when it comes to road space reallocation. And there is a lot of merit to being bold when making changes to road space. But people have a very nasty habit of not liking being told what to do, or even lectured to. They especially get annoyed when people ignore them. And while it doesn’t mean electoral oblivion necessarily, it does plant a bomb that could go off at any point in the future.

This excellent bit of research on the Great Walk of Athens gives us insight into the risks of being gung-ho with changes. There is no shock that the schemes that reallocate road space are controversial, but this work shows that doing engagement badly actually costs money and good will. Thankfully, the likes of Carla Casquette are showing us how its done!

Cities – to fix or to build anew?

The age old question at the heart of urban planning pretty much since the dawn of civilisation I’d wager. When planning to expand your population, do you fix your current cities or build new ones? The UK has a long history of rebuilding what it has, although starting a new is not unheard of. And while the UK has set planning rules that give a clear indication that building on existing areas in the preferred option, when there is a housing crisis then all options to deliver homes should be explored.

But this is not a UK-specific issue. A similar debate is raging in South Africa with the announcement of new cities at Lanseria, Mooikeef, and the Eastern Cape. In Indonesia, the government is effectively abandoning Jakarta in favour of a new capital city on Borneo called Nusantara. Building anew or fixing what we have are different problems, needing the same transport solutions built differently. Our preference is ultimately political and not technical. We just need the appropriate skills and knowledge regardless of the job.

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.

• Will Europe Go Down to Defeat Before Ukraine? (Naked Capitalism)

• If you thought this summer’s heat waves were bad, a new study has some disturbing news about dangerous heat in the future (The Conversation)

• Will the cloud kill the data centre? Jim Chanos thinks so (Financial Times)

• Discover how sweltering urban heat islands are being cooled down (World Economic Forum)

• China’s Fragile Economy Is Being Hammered by Driest Riverbeds Since 1865 (Bloomberg)

Something interesting

As someone currently house-hunting, this is useful. I wonder what the average prices of homes are in Vienna, Copenhagen, and Zurich…ok, never mind. Oh, but while I don’t have the data to confirm this, its interesting how those cities at the top have a pretty good reputation for walking, cycling, or public transport. Don’t you think?

If you do nothing else today, then do this

Read this brilliant article on how cycling to school is changing education for girls in Africa. Very simply, the biggest determinant of enrolling in a school is how close the school is. Bicycles make schools closer. This is a perfect example of how a transport solution can be applied to a social issue.