Good day my good friend.

This last weekend, I finally got around to reading the last few pages of the excellent Wayfinding by Michael Bond. Its a really compelling exploration of the psychology of how we get around, and I highly, highly recommend it. If only for the excellent sections on Polynesian sailors and how confusing London is.

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

James

Mobility-as-a-Service: where are we at, and where does it go from here?

As me and Beate Kubitz have been writing a book on MaaS for the better part of a year, that is a struggle we know all too well. There has been plenty of commentary on what MaaS is, and where it is going in the future. There have been plenty of research projects on the concept, and plenty of critique of it. In short, there has been plenty of heat on the idea, but precious little light on it.

Adding to the mix is this research by the Technical University of Munich, which identifies potential early adopters and changes in mode share arising from MaaS services. This research is useful, in helping to structure the policy discussions and at least putting forward a rationale for potential modal shift, and not just a TED Talk. But at the moment, MaaS is in a loop. A policy idea without overwhelming research findings to support it, but promises a lot. Lets see where it goes from here.

Engaging the community is more representative. To the shock of nobody.

Drawing a line between an engagement activity and its outcome should be a simple thing. In fact, I wrote some words a few years ago on quite how easy this is. Yet ensuring that these exercises are representative has always been a challenging ask. What has been even harder than this is providing evidence – outside of the touchy-feely yet slightly unscientific approach of vibes from meetings – that different approaches are more representative.

That is where this latest paper fills the void. Slightly anyway. Not only did the community-led engagement be more representative when it cames to transport consultation, but it also revealed vastly different priorities. Agency-led surveys favoured congestion, but community-led ones favoured safety and lower fares. Personally, I am just glad that, for once, we have evidence that different methods are 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.

• Alaska’s Arctic Waterways Are Turning a Foreboding Orange (Wired)

• ‘Disruptive’ science has declined — and no one knows why (Nature)

• The Great Forgetting (Nautilus)

• Meet the Designer of the Fanciful Subway Entrances to the Paris Métro (Smithsonian Magazine)

• Sectional Industrialization (Phenomenal World)

Something interesting

You know what, in this assessment of global risks, I’m really quite worried that ‘structural failures in health systems’ and ‘weakening of human rights’ score quite so low. Particularly in terms of impact. If this is our perception of risk, no wonder the pandemic hit us hard.

If you do nothing else today, then do this

Recently, data was released in the UK of household car ownership from the 2021 Census. You should check it out. Thank you to my colleague Esther Barnes who reminded me of it!