Good day my good friend.

This week I have had a rather humbling learning experience. As part of some engagement with socially excluded groups, I had the pleasure of speaking to some asylum seekers and the challenges that they face in accessing transport services in the UK. The way that we treat them is nothing short of barbaric, and frankly makes me ashamed to be British. A few highlights being having £9 a week to live off, and severe mental illness whilst they wait in limbo for their application to be processed.

If you judge a society by how you treat its most vulnerable, I dare say that ours is not coming out so well.

Also, a quick reminder that this is going to be my last post until next Wednesday (3rd April), as I will be taking a few days off over the Easter holiday period. With some trips to York and Saltaire planned for good measure, alongside painting a room. So see you next Wednesday.

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😃 Good things going on

The experiment with bus franchising continues apace in Greater Manchester, with Oldham, Rochdale, Bury, and Salford now part of the Bee Network.

Lower Wick in Worcester is about to get a new zebra crossing to improve life for people in the area who want to use their own two feet.

Solihull is also getting in on the zebra crossing game.

While parents of a school in Hitchin really want one, and have set up an online petition to get one installed (go and sign it please).

Speaking of which, Active Travel England are continuing trials on side road pedestrian crossings, which if successful could be rolled out across the UK.

Transport for Wales is doing some amazing work with helping people who are hard of hearing within their staff. So much so the team is winning awards for it.

Remember that fire at Luton Airport a few months back? Turns out it wasn’t an electric vehicle as reported by some halfwits desperate to savage electric vehicles. It was most likely due to an electrical fault or component malfunction in a diesel vehicle. Take that, EV-haters.

With ferry services hanging in the balance, Brittany ferries is trialling services to the Channel Islands.

If you are thinking about where to go cycling over the Easter weekend, the 250 mile Wolf Way has just launched in Suffolk.

The longest cycle track in Edinburgh has just opened, 10 years after it was first proposed.

🎪 And now for something completely different

Nope, not that. This.

I love Jon Stewart. His interview with Ian Hislop of Private Eye is one of my favourite interviews in the last 10 years. He recently returned to the Daily Show where he made his name, and in his opening show he covered politics in America. You can listen to all of it, but his final monologue in this about how change happens should be repeated everywhere. And you should hear it and read it, because it is so, so true.

I’ve learned one thing these last 9 years…the work of making this world resemble one that you would prefer to live in is a lunch pail f**king job day in and day out where thousands of committed, anonymous, smart, and dedicated people bang on closed doors and pick up those who are fallen and grind away on issues til they get a positive result. And even then have to stay on to ensure that result holds.

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