Good day my good friend.
Yesterday, I had a good chat about ways by which we can improve our cities. Not with a real person, but with OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot (you can try it for free yourself, but you need to sign up to OpenAI). The below images show our conversation (I am JA). It would seem that OpenAI is slightly guarded about what will improve our cities.
If you have any suggestions for interesting news items or bits of research to include in this newsletter, you can email me.
James
Save the car parking for something that is more space efficient
The sight of a bicycle or e-scooter in a car parking spot is something sure to send the comments section of the local newspaper website into a blind rage. But it seems that Berlin doesn’t care about that, as its allowing bikes and e-scooters to park in on-street car parking bays. The reason? To avoid clutter on pavements with cycles and e-scooters everywhere. But will it work in that, and encouraging more people to use both?
There is some evidence that cycle parking, if well situated, can encourage cycling, even if its not as much as other factors. Emerging research on e-scooters shows that poor parking is an issue for pedestrians specifically. So the causal link isn’t exactly strong. But maybe that isn’t the point. Maybe the point is to make a statement about what is prioritised. And what Berlin is prioritising is parked bikes and scooters over parked cars.
Adieu, vols court-courriers
It was spoken about a lot earlier this year, and now its happening. France will now ban short haul flights where rail is a realistic alternative, at least on 3 routes to begin with. In short, the French Government said they want to do this, aviation complained, the European Commission said they will look at it, they looked at it and said it was ok (but review it in 3 years, please). Its worthwhile reading the Commission’s judgement in full. Particularly that the need to reduce carbon emissions is a serious environmental problem that should be tackled – so long as it doesn’t lead to a distorted market.
The evidence on the impact of such a policy is clear. Such a policy would significantly reduce carbon emissions from aviation. But longer distance flights tend to burn more fuel and need attention as well. Also, the economics of short haul flights in a highly competitive marketplace with rail is often shaky, though the transport economics of cost savings from reducing carbon emissions is even weirder. In all, France’s plan may be a good thing, and the good thing is they are giving us a chance to study the impacts of a policy that could reduce emissions. And that is a good thing.
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.
EU chief says bloc must act over US climate plan ‘distortions’ (The Straits Times)
Lessons learned after living in an off-grid rental (The Verge)
‘A gentle calm’: France’s streets once again echo to sound of working horses (The Guardian)
The quest for low carbon steel (Asia Times)
Something interesting
I’m sharing this video of this guy taking his duck, Wrinkle, on a subway, for no other reason than because it is just non-stop joy. A duck. A subway. What more can you ask for?
If you do nothing else today, then do this
Scarlett McNally puts the case for healthy streets extremely succinctly in the British Medical Journal. Copy it, paste it, send it to anyone who has doubts about how important this agenda is.
Mobility Matters 