Good day my good friend.
Happy Transport Planning Day everyone! Did Transport Planning Santa give you what you wanted this year? Ok, to be serious now. Let’s spend today telling the world how awesome we make it, and how their everyday lives will be much worse without us. And if you are in London later for TPS’s celebration, have a wonderful time. Sadly, due to some last minute changes I won’t be there. Maybe next year!
If you have any suggestions for interesting news items or bits of research to include in this newsletter, you can email me. I know that plenty of you have suggested articles – I will get to them soon!
James
Equitable active transport is getting the attention it deserves
Over the last few years, a big lesson that I have learned when it comes to equity is understanding that your own privilege (or disadvantage) does not give you a unique insight into the experience of others. It is only through listening and learning that you understand. The likes of Kristen Jeffers, Sarah Barnes, and Karen Lucas have been just a few of the people who have helped me on this journey of understanding. Thankfully, it seems that the research on active travel is getting it.
For instance, new research from Uganda has explored the role of cycling clubs in getting more girls to cycle. Or how the application of a health model could ingrain social justice in active travel policy. Maybe even understanding the equity impacts of new mobility technologies like shared bicycles. Perhaps just an exploration of professional practice in active travel policy making maybe more your thing. Its early, but different strands of policy and practice on equity and active travel are starting to come together. And that is a good thing.
Cultural travel is another thing we don’t know much about
As professionals we know a lot about how things behave when on a highway network, and to some degree about route choices and travel psychology. But for the more fringe cases about how we get around and why, we know amazingly little. Take, for example, travel for cultural reasons, maybe even day trips that make up 36 trips per person per annum in the UK. Significant enough to be mentioned in official statistics, but not significant enough for us to care?
Well, that’s not the case for all researchers. This new article in the journal Cities looks at the changing nature of travel for leisure and culture. Warning now, it is heavy on theory. But essentially, it says that the nature of leisure travel is changing in both the physical and digital sense of the word. And current ways by which we facilitate those experiences in cities are not up to the job. Its…very theoretical and a tough read in places, but it really helps you to think about this matter differently. It’s worth it, I swear.
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 return of the American bison is an environmental boon — and a logistical mess (Grist)
Unnatural Selection: Technological Evolution (Life in the 21st Century)
The Fallout of the FTX Collapse (Wired)
Beaming Clean Energy From Space – Caltech’s “Extraordinary and Unprecedented Project” (SciTechDaily)
LNG bottlenecks highlight Europe’s energy infrastructure weaknesses (Upstream)
Something interesting
This is a story about how (no, not how my life got flipped turned upside down) a misquoted statistic on road safety took on, and continues to take on, a life of its own. Sit back, open this Twitter thread, and enjoy.
If you do nothing else today, then do this
The Asian Development Bank has published a great paper on Climate Change Mitigation and the lessons for Asian countries. But they are equally applicable in other parts of the world. You should take the time to read it.
For paid subscribers this week
Yesterday, I made the case for having EVs as an integral part of your transport policies. Plus I shared graphs comparing consumption-based CO2 emissions and production-based CO2 emissions for different countries, and a video on taking a coach from London to Paris.
Mobility Matters 