Good day my good friend.
Thank you all for your patience during my week-long break. I had to spend the time freed up on sorting out a few personal things in my life, but it had the added benefit of hopefully recharging my batteries when it comes to the newsletter. Maybe I will take more breaks in the future to try and keep things fresh.
If you like this newsletter, please share it with someone else who you think will love it. The main way my audience grows is through your recommendations. I will love you forever if you do. 😍
😢 If you think the UK has it bad
A sizeable number of you subscribe to this newsletter from New Zealand. Now I will be honest with you – I don’t pretend to know the details of New Zealand politics or policy making. In fact my knowledge of the political situation in New Zealand would probably hold a 3 second conversation, and most of that would be quiet. Anyway.
The New Zealand Government, following elections in November 2023, is a coalition of the National Party (generally conservative), ACT New Zealand (“classic liberal” apparently), and New Zealand First (populist). And they have been unashamedly in favour of road building, at the expense of public transport and active travel. And their brand new Government Policy Statement on Land Transport goes in big on this.
By that, I mean it makes the UK’s Plan for Drivers look like it was written by a load of woke cycling advocates. This great post by Greater Auckland goes into detail a lot of the key aspects of the statement, but to summarise some of the key points:
- Lots more money to be spent on building roads
- Removing subsidy for rail expenditure that comes from forms of road taxation
- A halving of spend on walking and cycling improvements compared to what was planned by the previous government
- Splitting spend into investment classes in such a way that improvements to other modes of transport brought about by road construction should not be paid for with the roads budget.
The last one is truly bonkers for me. Not every new road that is built is a motorway (and even motorways need to consider the needs of non-car modes at places like junctions). And it completely misses the point of transport, where its true value comes from operating as a system with mutually complimentary parts.
This represents a highly simplistic way of how transport operates, that is all too common in many decision makers. Where railways, buses, walking, cycling, logistics, maritime, aviation, and even cars are put in nice neat silos that are easy to deal with and understand and allocate a budget to. Without realising that it is these different modes operating in unison that make trips possible.
Lets talk an example of a drive to work. You walk out to your car which is parked in your drive, and you drive it to work. Imagine if there was no pedestrian footpath from your car to the front door. That’s mental, right? Surely when the car park is built you would build the path, right? That’s common sense. Something that is likely primarily for people who walk being used by someone who has not walked for their entire trip.
This is not what this policy statement is saying. When you build a road, it implies that this must be for vehicle users and funding for other things should be secured from elsewhere as this fund won’t fund it.
I’d like to think that when it comes down to practice, it shouldn’t be like this. Even here in the UK where Government wants to build more roads, National Highways has duties of care towards other road users – as well as actually building infrastructure for such users (because that is the common sense thing to do). But looking at the wording of this policy, it really only points one direction.
So to my New Zealand readers, I wish you luck. Remember that the fight for what is right is hard, but is ultimately worth it, and even in the worst of times good things can still be done.
What you can do: It’s hard to say for any non-New Zealanders. The likes of Greater Auckland appear to be mounting some kind of civic resistance against the plans. If any New Zealanders can give direction on great organisations to help, let everyone know in the comments!
👩🎓 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.
A multi-objective model to design shared e-kick scooters parking spaces in large urban areas
TL:DR – Someone created a model to determine the best location to have scooter parking.
TL:DR – New York has struggled to adopt Vision Zero in an ethical way.
TL:DR – If we want to cut the emissions of schools, we should focus on staff travel, as they emit more than students.
Privacy preferences in automotive data collection
TL:DR – Car drivers want to own their data, and share it with companies on their own terms.
✊ Amazing people doing amazing things
Cargo bikes are becoming increasingly popular for businesses in city centre as a way of making local deliveries. So it was only a matter of time before business groups in specific areas started taking it seriously. Such as the Bristol Business Improvement District. Who are offering a 50% discount on the purchase of a new cargo bike and a £350 subsidy to reduce the cost of deliveries. Thank you to good friend Charlotte Brown for pointing this great initiative out to me.
📺 On the (You)Tube
A like a video that gets a bit geeky. And the excellent Bicycle Dutch has an in-depth look at the latest stats on cycling in the Netherlands. In short: loads of people in the Netherlands cycle.
🖼 Graphic Design
Share of new vehicles sold that are electric (global) (Source: Our World In Data)
These are encouraging signs. The sale of electric vehicles is taking off across the world.
📚 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 investors get risk wrong (The Economist)
- How poor Kenyans became economists’ guinea pigs (1843 Magazine)
- In the poorest countries, empowered women are critical to economic growth (World Bank)
- The Public Is Rapidly Turning Against AI, Polling Shows (Futurism)
- Inside the DIY Movement to Fight Coastal Erosion (Wired)
📰 The bottom of the news
Traffic Managers have a lot to deal with. Animals wondering onto highways, holes appearing in the road, and collisions are relatively common. But how about tumbleweed? Well, that is what Salt Lake City had to deal with.
👍 Your feedback is essential
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Mobility Matters 