Good day my good friend.

Its easy to feel that things are constantly changing. But at times like this, it is worthwhile focussing on the things like never change. Like English sporting teams getting wins that somehow wreck your nerves even when they should be easy. Its a wonder after 40 years of doing this that my nerves aren’t shredded.

If you have any suggestions for interesting news items or bits of research to include in this newsletter, you can email me.

James

Profitable companies and lower wages point to the basic transport business model

A new research paper analyses the balance between higher wages and profits for transportation network companies (read: Uber). In simple terms, it concludes that higher wages is bad for company profitability, while rules that are to the benefit of the company (based on increasing driver efficiency) is bad for wages. No shock there, then.

The costs of transport businesses are driven by 3 things. Capital (vehicles or infrastructure), staff, and fuel. Profitable companies do two things: sweat their assets hard and aggressively minimise costs. This is because transport demand is elastic over the long term, and so raising prices has a significant effect on company demand. Seeing tech bros learn this lesson the hard way over the last 5 years has been somewhat satisfying to watch. Making money in transport is hard without subsidy.

The evidence for age friendly cities is mixed

We have known for some time that the world is getting older. The elderly population globally is forecast to double by 2050, so we need to get better at making where we live more age-appropriate. A number of factors outside of accessible transport make for age-friendly cities. But the concept has been promoted as a way of considering the needs of current and future elderly generations in how cities – and their transport systems – are run for this growing population.

So, if the idea has been around for a while, what has its impact been? Mixed, to put it mildly. Certainly that’s the experience from China, which has reported mixed impacts on mental and physical health. But experience from Latin America, Manchester, and Brussels shows that adopting the method is incredibly difficult given institutional barriers and a desire to maintain the status quo. So while we are doing our bit in terms of accessible transport (mostly), a future of ageing well may be some way off yet.

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.

• Why Is Everyone Feeling So ‘Stuck’ Right Now? (Refinery29)

• It’s time for solar microgrids to replace dirty diesel generators (Canary Media)

• 25 Years Ahead Of Initial Target, GM Secures All Energy Needed to Achieve Renewable Energy Goal (Clean Technica)

• Travelers have a lot to say about shrinking airplane seats (CNN)

• Why Do Batteries Lose Charge When You Aren’t Using Them? (How To Geek)

Something interesting

Rubbish (or garbage, as they say over the other side ot the Atlantic) is taking over our pavements (or sidewalks, as they say in the same place). So what’s the solution? New York is giving an idea a go, as shown by this short video.

If you do nothing else today, then do this

It’s Transport Planning Day in the UK next week. If you are in London next Monday, why not come along to One Great George Street and come to Transport Planning Society’s Future-proofing transport event? My amazing TPS Bursarian Liani Baglietto Castellares will be on an intergenerational panel that you won’t want to miss.