Good day my good friend.
Today, I finally admitted defeat against the cold weather. Not only has the Manchester United beanie come out, but the central heating has been switched on at home. We guessed at the weekend it may be time, on the fact that my wife has got a cold. Its funny how it takes an energy crisis for people to start taking meaningful action.
Oh, and thank you for taking part in last week’s poll, its good to see that 40% have read the National Travel Survey, as the average Brit took 757 trips in 2021. There will be another poll on Thursday, so swot up!
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
Public transport is active mobility
Active mobility is a somewhat poor term. It has a nasty habit of banding together different forms of transport that are functionally different, and have different needs. It also has another unintented consequence. It assumes that there is no activity inherent in other modes, especially public transport. We know that is not the case. In fact, with concepts like Mobility Hubs, we try to make a concious effort to plan for what we term as the last mile, but in reality is often the walk to bus stop or train station.
And the level of activity inherent in public transport should never be under-estimated. Some new research from the University of New South Wales using smart card data has indicated that public transport users take, on average, 2400 steps every day. This backs up previous research that indicates the same – using the bus, train, boat, whatever, is very good in getting people active. Especially if they are running late, I would guess.
Eco-driving – does it actually reduce emissions?
As any hyper-miler will tell you, eco-driving has been a tactic intended to reduce fuel costs for many, many years. After all, if you are going to drive, you may as well drive in a way that saves fuel, right? The evidence of its impact is actually quite sparse. The most advanced research is in logistics, where there is some evidence of impact. So much so that monitoring of sudden breaking, acceleration, and mechanical performance is highly advanced to the point where mile-by-mile fuel consumption can be estimated accurately.
Much of the end performance depends on the intention and behaviour of the driver. New evidence has shown that those with greater awareness of environmental issues, and the use of connected vehicle technology can improve ‘green driving’ performance. The challenge is that many drivers feel that their ability to act is limited, and they require constant feedback to improve their performance. So does it reduce emissions? Yes, but that depends on the driver, and not all drivers are the same.
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.
How to Move a Country: Fiji’s Radical Plan to Escape Rising Sea Levels (The Guardian)
Could offshore aquaculture make fish farming more sustainable? (QZ)
Biden turns 80 and joins growing ranks of octogenarians who still work (Washington Post)
Racial injustice: missing link in the chain of poverty and mental ill-health (Joseph Rowntree Foundation)
Something interesting
London has done some serious growing, from a small town on the banks of the River Thames to the megacity it is today. What amazed me about this video is quite how much growth there has been in the last 100 years. All thanks to the Tube and rail networks, of course.
If you do nothing else today, then do this
The finalists of the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan Awards have been announced. Personally, I don’t understand how you can get an award for a plan, when a plan’s success is determined by delivery, but there are some good best practice case studies there. I particularly like Mitrovica South’s plan.
Mobility Matters 