Good day my good friend.

It wouldn’t be a World Cup without England crashing out in the Quarter Finals, and penalties having something to do with it. Yet, somewhere, this one stung a little bit more. Bah, who needs the stupid trophy anyway?

Oh, by the way, just a reminder that this Friday will be the last newsletter of the year for both free and paid subscribers. I’m taking an extended Christmas break this year, but will be back and fighting fit in the New Year.

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

James

Turns out staying at home had a big impact on data

Last Friday, the Office for National Statistics released the Travel to Work data from the 2021 Census. For reasons that I went into yesterday with a post for paid subscribers, this data is important. That is why there are caveats on how it should be used because, as it turns out, telling everyone to stay at home affects the result of a question asking them how they usually get to work.

And so the local authority with the highest percentage working from home? The City of London with 67.3%. In fact most local authorities do not have a majority of people working from home. Cambridge has the highest percentage cycling to work (16.8%). And there are plenty more stats where those came from.

What is actually important when measuring the quality of the built environment?

There are a lot of factors that affect how people experience places. We even have numerous surveys and data collection methods that try and quantify this. And some are better than others, but none will be perfect. A big part of that is that what is important for one person is not as important for others. The experience of the street varies, but we don’t know how much.

This latest research article tries to understand how much different factors influence the walkability of a place. A big thing that affects these factors is the purpose of the trip, with variances in significant factors observed. And its in understanding these differences, that our practice of auditing can become better.

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.

• Cyborgs on the Highways (The American Prospect)

• Nature-based solutions can generate 20 million new jobs with right policies: UN report (Anadolu Agency)

• The semiconductor industry and the China challenge (Asia Times)

• An Overview on Climate Change, Environment, and Innovative Finance in Emerging and Developing Economies (Asian Development Bank)

• Should the developing world restrict trade of dirty goods to protect the environment? Evidence from import restrictions on used vehicles in China (World Bank Blog)

Something interesting

Our World in Data has published some new data on global health risk factors, and it makes for interesting viewing. This one on one of the most important factors for transport – particulate matter – makes for somewhat depressing viewing.

If you do nothing else today, then do this

Cities have a parking problem, this article in City Monitor concludes. The policy solutions are a bit obvious, but that doesn’t mean its not a good article.