Good day my good friend.

Let’s try that again shall we? Well, I’ve typed a few words and it seems to be autosaving. Which is as welcome news as England putting in a good performance in the World Cup.

Also, let it be said that I admit to my mistakes. One or two of you messaged me to say that the study on high visibility clothing in a Road Safety GB article I linked to last week stated that they could not determine if the high visibility material on its own improved road safety. Sorry if I gave a misleading impression, it was not my intention. And I am happy to clarify that.

Anyway, back to business.

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

James

Re-opening ghost railways – a strategy of hope?

This article on plans to re-open the Don Valley Line and the Askern Line in South Yorkshire prompted some interest in me in an occasional transport debate here in the UK: re-opening old railways. The UK has a lot of closed railways. Where I grew up used to have 5 railways serving it, and now is the end station on a branch line. The Restoring Your Railway Fund was well over-subscribed when bids were open for it. But how much is based on some form of logic, rather than a hope to return to the past?

Supporters will, rightly, point to best case examples like the Borders Railway, Exeter to Okehampton, or even East-West Rail of the benefits such re-openings could provide. But the cold, hard reality is that – whatever you think of Dr Beeching – many of these lines didn’t stack up in their heyday. They may have a social value to reopening, but they need to be considered alongside alternatives that can provide a huge benefit on their own. As much as I would love to see trains running between Barnstaple and Bideford again, and not toy trains, the Tarka Trail has a value of its own as well. We should remember that.

Understanding networks of influence is important to making change happen

Yesterday, Oxford took a brave step of committing to delivering traffic filters in the city. Active travel advocates (and opponents) like to state the importance of politicians in making these decisions. And they are important – they make the decisions. But decisions are not taken in isolation, and nor are decisions taken based purely upon the evidence. People are influenced by others, and it is something that has been known about for a long time.

I’m not talking about stuff like how this is all a crazy globalist agenda by the ruling lizard people to maintain dominance over free will (yes, I have seen a David Icke talk). But policy networks, and the people in them, do impact the policy making process. And new research from Canada has shown that policy makers support active travel, and so programmes need tailoring to influence them further to deliver on them. Know the players, know the game, and adapt your tactics. Our challenge has been that we don’t know the game.

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.

• Hobo signs and symbols, code for the road (Logo Design Love)

• Algocracy would replace politicians with algorithms. Should we try it? (Big Think)

• How to test if we’re living in a computer simulation (The Conversation)

• The Problem With Oil And Gas Price Caps (OilPrice)

• Britain’s broken housing market (Off to Lunch)

Something interesting

According to the latest financial data, airlines seem to be recovering well from the pandemic. What amazed me most about this graphic is not quite how large the American airlines are, but how Turkish Airlines are apparently British, despite being based at Istanbul Airport.

If you do nothing else today, then do this

This is an interesting report by WSP on the fact that students are interested in jobs and careers in sectors that are key to our transition to Net Zero (ignore the headline, its false). For transport, 13% would not consider a career in the industry, which is good compared to 24% for construction. Transport planning can play a key role, but it is struggling to recruit. And to make the transition, we need the skills to do it.