Good day my good friend.
Thank you to every one of you who voted for me to be part of the Transport Planning Society Board. Unfortunately, it was not to be. But the good news is that those who got elected are awesome, and I have no issues losing out to any one of them. Well done Mark Frost, Susan Cross, Liani Baglietto Castellares, Daisy Narayanan, Isabelle Milford and Tim Cuthbert. You will all be amazing!
If you have any suggestions for interesting news items or bits of research to include in this newsletter, you can email me.
James
Rant time
You have been warned. Because the UK is currently in a bit of a sticky situation (not caused in any way by the decisions of government – nope, nuh-uh, not at all…), the UK Government is running around weilding a big axe. And the Department for Transport is no exception. What we know so far is this. HS2 continues its death by a billion cuts. Two road schemes – including the Lower Thames Crossing – will be mothballed or deferred. And, apparently, the Active Travel Budget will be cut by two-thirds. This final point really grinds my gears.
I have to say that I agree with Andy and Adam on this one. Investing in active travel is as close to a miracle pill as you can get? Good for the environment? Check. Reduce dependance on foreign oil? Check. Help with the cost of living? Check. Good for health? Check. But no. It would seem that all of this is being sacrificed at the altar of the Treasury’s economic model. Despite the fact that the UK has under-invested in transport infrastructure for decades and it really drags on our productivity as a nation, the bean-counters win out again. I’m tempted to listen to this on repeat (warning: has bad language and is very political).
Silicon Bad
Some of you may have heard that a bank in America, Silicon Valley Bank, had a run on it and has now failed. You may also be wondering why we should care about it. A bank concentrates its investment in one thing, that one thing goes south, and the bank goes under. Why care? Well, that bank funds a lot of investment in start-up companies. Including those ride hailing companies and micro-mobility companies you may have heard of. Or, more accurately, they fund the investors who fund these companies. No bank = no money for companies to run their business. And that’s bad.
As regulators around the world scramble to make sure it really doesn’t go south, how will this impact on start-ups in transport? There is no way to know for sure (companies aren’t exactly forthcoming with who funds them), but most companies backed by Silicon Valley VC backers have likely had some urgent video calls over the weekend to ensure they can pay their staff over the next few months. E-scooter companies – many of which are struggling now – are likely to be extremely worried, as are a few well-known ride hailing companies. While a wider panic across the banking sector like in 2008 is unlikely (most big banks are well capitalised now), businesses on the edge may just find the next few months very hard indeed.
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.
Getting Dynamic Implementation to Work (Journal of Political Economy)
How the Great Recession paved the way for influencers to inherit the earth (Vox)
Emotion and Decision Making (Annual Review of Psychology)
Green Spaces and Public Health in Urban Areas (Theoretical and Empirical Researches in Urban Management)
Something interesting
Auckland needs a subway. There you go, New Zealanders. The B1M told you so. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, here is your primer.
If you do nothing else today, then do this
Listen to this podcast on researching social exclusion and transport, with the always-excellent Karen Lucas. And learn loads. And I mean LOADS.
Mobility Matters 