Good day my good friend.

Yesterday, the Welsh Government cancelled all road building. Well, not quite, it is just saying that any new roads will have to meet strict criteria such as not creating more emissions, or increasingly traffic. Which is essentially all of them. As I posted on LinkedIn yesterday, this very much has the feel of the early days of the New Labour government. I wonder if it will stick this time?

Regardless, in the meantime, Llongyfarchiadau i Lywodraeth Cymru!

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

James

Intersectionality doesn’t describe where roads cross one another

If, like me, you have been struggling with understanding issues of gender, race, and sexuality (and not in a “this is all woke nonsense” kind of way, but in a “wow, I really need to know this stuff” kind of way), one of the terms you should focus on more than anything is intersectionality. The basic idea is that different parts of yours and others identity combine to create different modes of privelege and discrimination. Or, as I understand it, your not just discriminated against because of one thing, but because of potentially several.

Contrary to what you may read on some areas of social media, its also an analytical framework increasingly being used to explore different transport outcomes between groups. This recent review of urban cycling uses this approach, as does this approach to youth travel and this study of equity in mobility in India. I happen to feel that the term can be a tad over-used (in the way I understand it), but it is something to understand, and help us to see things from another view. Which is no bad thing.

Appraisal isn’t just at the end

I do love it when someone monitors the impacts of schemes correctly. And this brilliant research study by researchers at Cardiff University (there must be something in the water in Wales) sought to understand the ‘in process’ benefits of infrastructure projects. The way that we traditionally appraise the success of schemes is in post-scheme benefits. Build it, economy happens, measure that benefit. Simple, right? Nope, because as anyone who has ever actually built a scheme will tell you, there are benefits throughout the process.

Take a simple example. You are building a new cycle track. The highways contractor sub-contracts part of the build to a local construction firm. They hire additional staff to deliver the work. That is a real local benefit as the scheme is being built. But its NEVER captured. In the example of strategic road improvements in South Wales that was part of the study, of the £222m project spend that remained in the area, this generated an estimated £127m additional benefits to the local economy above this spend. The paper makes the point that this should be assessed. And it should.

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 Girl Internet and the Boy Internet (Beccacore)

• Is human migration really a normal activity? (The Spectator)

• The rebirth of Polaroid (Wallpaper)

• Let’s play a game: Deepfake news anchor or a real person? (The Register)

• Informed Choices: Gender Gaps in Career Advice (Becker Friedman Institute)

Something interesting

It seems that American’s like walkable places above everything else they would like to copy off the rest of the world. Fancy that.

If you do nothing else today, then do this

Read this paper from two years ago on Updating the Limits to Growth. Especially if you are scenario planning for the future of transport. The Limits to Growth set out the framework that economic growth (including travel demand) can only take place in social and environmental limits. Otherwise collapse is inevitable. This paper revisits those scenarios, and concludes from extensive data analysis that we are on the wrong path.

If you are thinking about the future of transport, this paper is essential reading in helping you frame the bounds within which you should think about the future. Its brilliant.