Good day my good friend.

Here is a bit of news for you, and a bit of an exclusive. I will shortly be a Transport Planning Society Board Member (subject to confirmation etc.). After unsuccessfully running for election to the Board recently, a member has withdrawn, which means yours truly is now a Board member! To say I’m stoked would be putting it politely. Here is to actually doing something to change the industry rather than just complaining. I must admit though, following this news, I couldn’t help but think that this scene from The Simpsons was a very accurate description of the situation.

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

James

Tackling Discrimination? Time to JFDI

Lets be honest – as a good friend of mine artfully put it (you know who you are) – transport is pale, male, and stale. The author of this newsletter is a case in point of that. And many people in society face greater discrimination than others, especially people from black communities. Data from the UK puts that into perspective, and this is even reflected in transport data from the UK and the USA. But rarely I find a good report into the experiences, and what can be done as policy makers to actually do something.

This report by Charles T. Brown, J’Lin Rose, and Samuel Kling is just the report that’s needed. Its part charge sheet, and part action plan. In short, practice and laws founded in discrimination still permeate and have left a lasting legacy. So we should repeal laws, use bikes and scooters as means of achieving social justice outcomes, get the police to behave much more, and lots more besides. Read it. Consume every word. Then do something about it.

Commutes are killing the kids

Anybody who has ever worked will know the drag of the daily commute. We know that it has a serious impact on our physical and mental health. Its been documented enough, and the evidence linking home working to increased productivity (even if the research is self-reported). No doubt many of the extroverts and middle managers will shout something about innovation, and there is value in working in the presence of others. But commuting, especially extreme commuting, is not a good thing.

And, in results of shock to very few of us, if we force kids to travel long distances to school, new research shows it is very bad for them. In short, kids who travel a long way are more tired, struggle to learn a lot more, and leads to poorer mental health. Even if teenagers think sleep is for the weak. So here’s an idea: stop making our kids travel long distances for good grades.

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.

• Oh Look, More Dead Kids (Common Dreams)

• The Trans-American Race to Build Chargers for Electric Trucks (Wired)

• Black Enslavement Underwrote America. The Bill’s Coming Due (The Daily Beast)

• Measuring Economic Policy Uncertainty (Quarterly Journal of Economics)

• Minimum Wage and Individual Worker Productivity: Evidence from a Large US Retailer (Journal of Political Economy)

Something interesting

British aviation policy can be summarised in one key question: what do you do with Heathrow Airport? This video explores the future for one of the busiest airports in the world.

If you do nothing else today, then do this

This is a brilliant article on how roads cause huge problems for water infrastructure. And importantly, what we can do to tackle it.