Good day my good friend.

Recently, I have been very much enjoying a BBC Travel Series where they post articles on great train journeys of the world. However, whilst the likes of Zimbabwe’s Safari Train and the Skeena in Canada are amazing, for me nothing beats the Dawlish Sea Wall. I’m just a Devon lad at heart, I guess.

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

James

Understanding the utilisation of EV charging points – harder than you might think

We are pretty lucky in the UK. We have open data sources like the National Charge Point Registry and Zap Map that actually tell us where EV charging points are. Trust me, knowing where they all are in a country is far from universal. But how they are utilised is a closely guarded commercial secret. There is a lot of research on spatial characteristics that could affect charge point placing, but not much on how much each charge point is used.

Until I saw this research from the US, that is. Which actually collects data on utilisation of charging points and correlates it with socio-economic factors. Lo and behold, EV ownership is important. And also the amount of kWH discharged on a daily basis varies by charging point. But at least this is data that is useful to planners.

We don’t just build transport. We build infrastructure

Something often forgotten by us planners is that we don’t just build cycle tracks, roads, and railways. Underneath all of it, sometimes literally, is a whole system of infrastructure such as electrics and drainage that are essential to that transport infrastructure working. That all needs planning when we plan schemes, as anyone who has ever had to deal with a Stats diversion has ever told you.

This is why I find this article on power generation to support electrification in transport in Costa Rica fascinating. With a push to electrify everything, a whole system of substations, exchange upgrades, and distributed generation is needed to make it all work. Without the capacity at a local level to operate this infrastructure and services, they will fail. By electrifying itself, transport is driving a change in the energy market. How is that for an impact?

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 Promise and the Politics of Rewilding India (The New Yorker)

• US scientists confirm ‘major breakthrough’ in nuclear fusion (The Guardian)

• Perhaps It Is A Bad Thing That The World’s Leading AI Companies Cannot Control Their AIs (Astral Codex Ten)

• McLaren’s 1st EV Is a Scooter (The Micromobility Newsletter)

• Just 5 senses? Architects manipulate 7 of your senses (Big Think)

Something interesting

Amsterdam is removing 10,000 car parking spaces. Why? Because its a good thing with lots of benefits, obviously.

If you do nothing else today, then do this

The Civil Aviation Authority has produced a report on the accessibility of UK airports. It makes for interesting (and depressing) reading. Only Aberdeen, Belfast International, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow and London City did themselves any favours.