Good day my good friend.

“The Dutch have hills and they cycle loads more than we do” is something I often hear in response to a common argument as to why us Brits don’t cycle as much as the Dutch. And yes, it is largely true. However, anyone who thinks that a bit of cycle track will reduce the incline on a huge steep hill in West Yorkshire to less that one that wrecks your legs is fooling themselves. I’m going to need to lie down for half an hour

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

James

Menopause and the experience of travelling

Here in the UK, there has been much commentary on the government’s response to a report by the UK Parliament’s Women and Equalities Committee on Menopause and the Workplace. I do recommend reading it, as while I am far from an expert on the matter, from my knowledge of the experience of women in my life who have experienced this, a lot of the recommendations seem to be sensible, basic stuff. But hey, when did sensible, basic things get in the way of a culture war discussion on women’s issues?

But it got me thinking – what do we know about that time in a woman’s life, and its implications for transport policy makers. Firstly, no shock here, but physical exercise (walking and cycling) has an impact on the experience of menopause, but better studies are needed to understand the effects better. Flexible working is consistently recommended, and its something women seek consistently. Other than that…nothing. The travel experiences of a major life stage of over half the population is just…not known about. Another example of Invisible Women, methinks. And one that needs making visible.

Blockchain, Blockchain, BLOCKCHAIN

Blockchain. Remember that? Better known as the tech underpinning a ponzi scheme that is consuming the energy equivalent of a country. Also had a government report written about it for…reasons? Anyway, notwithstanding my cynicism, this technology has been undertaking extensive trials as a shared ledger. Because apparently a distributed ledger is worth looking at to use a ledger technology. And few industries need ledgers more than logistics.

Despite there being a lot of trials of blockchain and other ledger technologies, market uptake has been much less than the hype. Why is this? This new research paper explores this from a stakeholder mapping perspective. And some of the challenges are no shock: poor data, lack of trust between parties, and no incentive to share. The paper recommends practical solutions to these issues. But it goes to show that even if the tech has a use case, it needs the humans to trust it.

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.

• Humanity May Reach Singularity Within Just 7 Years, Trend Shows (Popular Mechanics)

• Historic structures re-used to save carbon in creation of new Manchester park (New Civil Engineer)

• How to vaccinate the world next time (Nature)

• New study: 96% of companies move manufacturing closer to home amid supply chain disruptions (Container News)

• How we Geolocated a Photo of a Russian Missile Programming Team (Bellingcat)

Something interesting

A video of what its like cycling around Hell’s Kitchen. Without a mad, bad-tempered Scottish chef screaming in your face.

If you do nothing else today, then do this

It finally happened. Someone wrote a good economics paper on Mobility-as-a-Service. And how about it is in no way economically efficient even when accounting for externalities. Read it.