Good day my good friend.
It has been quite a week! How are you doing? Well, I trust? I hope so, as despite the general chaos in the world, everyone deserves the chance to be happy and do the things that they love.
Needless to say that there is a lot to process from the last week. So over the next few newsletters I will go through some of the good (today), bad (Wednesday), and the ugly (Friday) of the last week or so in British transport planning.
If you like this newsletter, please share it with someone else who you think will love it. I will love you forever if you do. ☺️
James
🫵🏽 You lovely people
I am still exhausted from Mobility Camp last week in Birmingham. It was amazing to see so many of you in person, for an event where we discussed changing the narrative on sustainable transport. Which proved somewhat perfectly timed, as it so happens.
The only thing that I can say is that it was amazing. You can usually tell how well an unconference is going by the level of noise in the room, and the noise for the entire day was deafening. Which was utterly brilliant.
So what did I take away from the day? If I am honest, its hard to take things in when you are running around trying to make sure that everything works. But despite that, there are several things that I can take away from the day.
The first is the value of simply having a space for people to be and express themselves. People were not bound by expectations associated with their role or their organisation. They could be themselves and express themselves freely, but in a positive and productive way. Just seeing so many people experiencing that is inspiring.
The second is that there is a great desire to creatively challenge. Those that were there generally agreed on the challenges associated with changing the narrative on sustainable transport, but constantly challenged each other to debate better and come up with better solutions to overcoming such challenges. I don’t think I have ever heard the idea of a strike that – how shall we say – is mostly performed by the female gender being used to tackle road safety issues. Sounds slightly mad, but through mad ideas comes great solutions.
Finally, that even when there are dark times and there are a lot of frustrations with government policy and the direction of things politically, there are a lot of people out there committed to, and working towards, making a better world. To simply know that there are others out there in the same position as you is a very comforting thought and a good source of help. Because if we don’t change the world, then nobody will.
I did take a few pictures of the day, which you can find below. I just wanted to say thank you again to everyone who came along as was so inspiring all day. You made Mobility Camp the brilliant event it was!
What you can do: A few years ago, me and the fellow organisers of the time created a how-to guide for running your own unconference, at that time called Transport Planning Camp. If you want to run one yourself, you should read it.
🎓 From academia
The clever clogs at our universities have published the following excellent research. Where you are unable to access the research, email the author – they may give you a copy of the research paper for free.
Expanding the Playful City: Planning for older adult play
TL:DR – Design places so that both kids and adults can play.
When do traffic reports make traffic better?
TL:DR – Traffic reports are not useful when there is loads of road capacity for all the trips. Shockingly.
Mobility-on-demand public transport toward spatial justice: Shared mobility or Mobility as a Service
TL:DR – MaaS may be better for spatial justice than shared mobility.
Do households substitute mileage across their cars?
TL:DR – People don’t always shift their driving towards the more efficient car in the household when petrol prices increase.
✊ Awesome people doing awesome things
It could only be the amazing people who made Mobility Camp a reality.
A big thank you to my fellow organisers – Cat Swanson, Omar Ajaz, Stephen Lynn, Marie Godward, Jenny Cook and those not pictured here Kacper Rossa and Pam Turton. My fellow partners in crime – you were amazing!
Also a big thank you to the volunteers who helped out on the day – Amber Kenyon, Bethan Hopkins, Richard Jones, Ejiro Ikoko, Philip Adewele, Victor Garcia, Chinebuli Uzondu, Kit Allwinter, Lianne Baker-Brooke, Shannon Connolly, Alexandra-Elena Vitel, and Ibrahim Sulaimon. You did it again!
Another thanks to our amazing panellists – Sonya Byers, Georgia Yexley, Isabelle Clement, Pauline Johnstone, Sandra Witzel, and Humera Sultan (who “caught the bus”). What a start to the day you all gave!
Finally, to Mel Jones, Ian Braddock and Alistair Robinson. For accepting the task of coming up with an activity for Mobility Camp, and delivering it!
I highly recommend you follow all of them on LinkedIn.
📼 On the (You)Tube
Yeah, that’s a nice station.
What you can do: There are far too many guides on what makes a good mobility hub, and if I am honest most of them are worthless. This guide by the Shared Use Mobility Centre is as good as it gets. So I recommend simply going out and seeing some good examples yourself.
As most of you are based in the UK, I would recommend Seabrook Orchards in Exeter, the Haslemere Community Station, London St Pancras International, and Luton Airport Parkway (yes, really).
🖼️ Graphic Design
The Tesla Model 3 seems to be very popular, including here in the UK. But another Tesla is out-selling it.
📚 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.
How Fast Fashion Is Slowing Sales (EconLife)
How stereotyping increases during economic crises (The Conversation)
The UK is doing a shoddy job keeping up with its neighbours (Tim Harford)
Analysis: How some of the world’s largest companies rely on carbon offsets to ‘reach net-zero’ (Carbon Brief)
We finally know what makes orange carrots orange (New Scientist)
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