Good day my good friend.

In the words of James May: Good news! Mobility Camp, the UK’s transport unconference, is returning this year. Keep an eye on the LinkedIn page for the latest announcements, though of course I will let you know the latest as well – when I can share it.

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

James

The capacity of the airways

We are transport planners, so we know a bit about modelling the capacity of transport networks. But here is a question: how do you analyse the capacity of air traffic routes? The basics are, in fact, very similar. For a simple reason: for simplicity we established air corridors based on direction and altitude, maintaining strict seperation rules, and the primary determinants of capacity are airports. This was a practice estabished after a famous mid-air collision over the Grand Canyon in the 1950s, and has remained broadly the same since.

When it comes to drones in cities, however, this basic approach causes problems due to the complex nature of airspace in urban environments. That is why there is some exciting developments in modelling the capacity of urban air space. Even if some just take wider aviation models and apply them to a city. I would love to see the interfaces with ground-based traffic models, or even a new city multi-modal model that includes airspace above the city.

Common Nonsense

I loved reading this article in The Conversation on common sense. It goes into crowd dynamics, echo chambers, and the psychology of it all. And in the conversation around low traffic neighbourhoods, to which the generally excellent (even if I often disagree with her) Claire Fox has waded in on the skeptical, “common sense” side, this is often deployed by way of objection.

Believe it or not, common sense has been extensively studied, primarily as a social and cultural phenomenon. Shockingly, it also has a political history, and indeed is a popular political slogan. And this is important. Such arguments are not an appeal to the rational in us, and cannot be discussed rationally, but focus on things such as values and social norms. So when someone says “the traffic will be awful! Its just common sense!” then don’t reply with statistics and logic. Appeal to values. Because common sense is, by and large, nonsense.

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.

• Why Gen Z prefer dogs to babies (Unherd)

• The Long, Slow Death of Global Development (American Affairs Journal)

• Is simulation theory a way to shirk responsibility for the world we’ve created? (aeon)

• Is cybersecurity an unsolvable problem? (Ars Technica)

• It’s not just a fiscal fiasco: greying economies also innovate less (The Economist)

Something interesting

Yar, me hearties! If ye wants to finds some plunder, ye best watch this YouTube. In all seriousness, I never knew salvage laws were so interesting.

If you do nothing else today, then do this

A staple of London travel may soon come to an end, as Transport for London is consulting on withdrawing the One Day Travelcard. You can find out more here. Personally, while I have used an Oystercard for years, I will miss it.