Good day my good friend.

As I write this, I am on a late evening train leaving London. With fellow passengers discussing long lost loves, the history of their family, and last night’s League Cup Semi Final. And this is why I love using public transport. The opportunity to get a window into the lives of others just by sitting in a train carriage.

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

James

What needs to change to make automated vehicles a thing?

In order to pave the way for mass motorisation, road building was necessary (thanks to the cyclists). After all, you cannot drive a car without the road to drive it on. Well you can, it would just be uncomfortable. So what is needed to make driverless cars a reality? There have been some initial thought peices into this. With views ranging from remodelling cities to relying on the tech to determine what is a really faded white line or not. But there has been little on the views of professionals.

Until now. This research article by the University of Leeds asks just this question. So what do the great and the good think? There is little by way of consensus, actually. They agreed it was important, just not what was the most important. And who should be responsible for when it goes wrong. In my view, this is a case of professionals waiting to see what the technology can do, as opposed to not having a strong view one way or another.

What can be done to get citizens to act as environmental actors

In recent weeks, my town has been on a bit of a tree planting binge. But giving away lots of nice trees is the easy bit. How can you encourage people to become advocates for environmental causes? Its hard to do, no matter where or who you are. But citizen advocates are essential elements of change, and so getting more of them (and empowering those that do) is of critical importance to shifting to a low carbon future. I know this from bitter personal experience.

This study of tree-planting came onto something that I think is useful for how we do our work. Meaningful advocacy comes from solid pre-existing relationships that support it. And if they don’t exist, they need to be established in order to maintain momentum. This has lessons for meaningful engagement as part of transport schemes. Build on existing relationships, as establishing new ones is always more challenging.

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.

• Meet the former Tesla director who wants to pull carbon dioxide out of the air (The Verge)

• The Tech-Layoff ‘Contagion’ (The Atlantic)

• Net zero requires massive tracts of land. Habitat conservation lies in the details (Anthropocene)

• What is framing? (New Economics Foundation)

• What does AI think the future of cities will be? (City Monitor)

Something interesting

China has been on a railway building binge. But this video sets out why it needs yet another one.

What paid subscribers are getting today

In short, some commentary on the value of thinking time for transport planning, and how the recovery of flights in Europe is good for the environment. Check it out.

If you do nothing else today, then do this

This is an interesting read on the dual nature of cities, which attempt to balance the pressures to suburbanise and to centralise. What are the most dominant factors in the city where you live?