Good day my good friend.
I know where you live. I don’t mean that to be creepy, but I’ve just delved into the Substack stats, and I have a good idea where you all live. Apparently, 57% of you live in the UK. Which I found to be amazingly low. Other popular countries were the USA (9%), New Zealand (8%), Australia (5%), and Spain (3%). But I always find it fun to look at the nations where just one or two of you subscribe. On that list include the likes of Ethiopia, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Uganda, Iran, Slovenia, and Columbia. To every one of you, you are most welcome!
If you have any suggestions for interesting news items or bits of research to include in this newsletter, you can email me.
James
Belt and Braces
One of the largest geopolitical projects of the last 20 years has been China’s ‘Belt and Road’ Initiative, sometimes referred to as the New Silk Road. In short, China invested a significant amount of finances and technical capability into developing connectivity and cooperation between continents. This is as much a political project as it is a connectivity project, though there has been a lot of significant investment in infrastructure. But what have its impacts been, and where is it going?
The impact has been varied on a practical level (I won’t discuss the politics). The impact on the environment has been a mixed bag. There is some emerging evidence that the impact of transport investment on regional economic growth has been positive. But this too is highly variable by region. But maybe, in this instance, the transport impact is not the point. Instead, maybe transport is being used as a means to achieve a wider aim.
No more Nomads
Its the Instagram version of work isn’t it? The Digital Nomad. With COVID-19 now passed (apparently), and internet connectivity becoming ubiquitous, people are travelling the world with laptop and Instagram account in tow, living in desirable places for a short time before heading off elsewhere. Apparently its on the rise – though I’ve yet to see any reliable evidence of it. And its apparently causing problems that our outside of heavily edited videos posted to TikTok and Insta.
Its causing a housing crisis wherever people talk about being a nomad, apparently. To me, this is not saying that this is not an issue – it might be – but it shows the limits of ethnographic work. Housing market dynamics cannot be explained through stories, and the presence of such nomads and more remote working does not mean correlation equals causation. This phenomenon needs proper investigation as it has a number of potential economic and social impacts, not more BS.
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 men who created Tetris reflect on their bromance (Polygon)
The Glory of Trams (Los Angeles Review of Books)
Training ChatGPT AI Required 185,000 Gallons of Water: Study (Gizmodo)
Where We Meet the World’ Review: A Flood of Senses (Wall Street Journal)
Ukraine’s tech warrior (Emerging Europe)
Something interesting
An interesting video on how ‘The Line’ In Saudi Arabia may or may not fail. Lots of food for thought.
If you don’t do anything else today, then do this
I completely missed this the other week. But here is a run down of some of the most influential women in mobility. And most of these on the list are AWESOME (as are a great number who aren’t). A special mention goes to good friends Annie Reddaway, Sandra Witzel, and Olga Anapryenka.
Mobility Matters 