Good day my good friend.
This week has been a good week. Mainly because it has involved getting back to normal following a crazy couple of weeks. Sometimes life just being normal for a while is fine. But also because, hopefully, some good things are getting going both at work and at home. Let’s see how the next few months go.
Mobility Camp is back, and the number one transport unconference is heading to York on Friday 20th September. Book your tickets now! 🎫
I have co-authored a book on Mobility-as-a-Service, which is a comprehensive guide on this important new transport service. It is available from the Institution of Engineering and Technology and now Amazon. 📕
👩 Supporting women by supporting people who stand up for them
Reading articles that report that more women are reporting being sexually harassed and being subject to violence on public transport always give me mixed feelings. On the one hand, its good that more women are having the courage to report and speak up about their experiences. On the other, it still shows quite how far we still need to go to help women feel safe on public transport. So I guess this is good news? Maybe?
I am very sure that most of you know of the nature of problem, either through your own experience or, like me, through listening to the experiences of the women in your life about this. As guys, it is imperative that we take all necessary action to challenge awful behaviour when we see it, and to foster environment’s welcome to women.
But there is a difficult truth to this, that for the purposes of moving to a place where we can make things better I do not mind sharing. Challenging such behaviours is scary. When you do so, it can be a very lonely experience, and I am confident in saying that the only person who is more lonely and scared than you is the woman subject to that behaviour.
I speak from personal experience of this. I have been unfortunate enough to have heard guys say and do inappropriate things to women in front of me, including to my own family members. And when you immediately challenge them on it, you have no idea what is coming. Will they just walk off? Will they give you a mouthful? Will they get violent? How much will you have to back up your words with something that may result in you getting hurt? All thoughts that have run through my head whenever I have plucked up the courage to directly challenge people.
This is not to take away anything from the experience of the woman or women who were originally subject to the inappropriate behaviour, by the way. Clearly they are the victim here, and are deserving of the support that they need.
What I am focussed on here is something slightly related. Namely, that it is not enough to provide an environment where women can share their experiences and feelings, and look to provide solutions. But we need to provide an environment whereby those who challenge bad behaviours are supported, whether they be women or men.
I am guessing that most of you are not like me, where I can use the fact that I am tall, rather stocky, and can put on a deep voice to make myself seem slightly more threatening. But there are very practical steps that you can take to be supportive of people who challenge indecent behaviours when it arises. A few examples include:
- When someone is challenging such behaviour publicly, provide some words to support them. It doesn’t even need to be threatening (a good “Mate, you are acting like a dick to be fair” is one that I have found works well).
- Protecting whistle blowers when they do come forward with reports of bad behaviour, including doing all you can to ensure that their identity cannot be guessed.
- Just physically standing next to the person challenging such behaviour gives the impression of support, and that you have that persons back
Too many people think that change is the result of snappy slogans, a group standing up for itself, and lone warriors. In reality, we need to do a lot more as a profession to make both the profession and transport spaces and services feel safe for women. This is not just about protecting women, but protecting allies who stand up for them as well. And considering that all of us should be allies to women, that means its something we must all do.
What you can do: If you want to know more about being a good ally for women, this excellent post from the Greater Good Science Centre at the University of Berkley is a good start. 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.
Opinions Matter: Contrasting perceptions of major public transit projects in Montréal, Canada
TL:DR – Academic study states the obvious on public engagement.
A National Survey and Roadmap on Complete Streets Infrastructure Asset Management Policy
TL:DR – Asset management doesn’t consider the whole role of streets, just the condition of the asset. This seeks to change that.
TL:DR – If you are satisfied with buses, you are less likely to own a car.
TL:DR – Playing games is fun and can build empathy.
✊ Amazing people doing amazing things
Wittering is not something that boring people do when they won’t stop talking. It is in fact a village in Cambridgeshire that lost its bus link to Peterborough. But after a concerted campaign by residents, the bus has now been restored, and initially has proven to be extremely popular as well. Well done to the people of Wittering!
📺 On the (You) Tube
Geoff Marshall released a video this week where he toured different signalling systems, which is cool on its own. As for why do we still have semaphore signals? Simple: its because in some instances they work.
📖 Bedtime Reading
Over the last few weeks, I have managed to read a lot of books – its what happens when you have some time on your hands.
I started with Laura Laker’s Potholes and Pavements. A brilliant tribute to the good and the bad of the UK’s national cycle network. You can see the conclusions coming a mile off, but its a fun read regardless.
Then I really got into some books on rewilding. Starting with Wilding by Isabelle Tree. This is an inspirational story of how a country estate in Sussex fundamentally changed from simply farming to rewilding the entirety of it. Actually re-introducing species was the easy bit. The hard bit was convincing their neighbours and the government that they were not insane.
Then I moved onto Wild Fell by Lee Schofield. It shows his experience with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) to change their farming practices on a hill farm in the Lake District to work with nature. This book made me angry at how our designations intended to keep things “natural” like National Parks do nothing of the sort, and instead keep a way of doing things fixed in time. The idea that sheep farming in natural is stupid.
Finally, I read The Lost Rainforests of Britain by Guy Shrubsole. This focuses on the loss of temperate rainforests in the UK. 15% of the land area could support such diverse habitats, yet less than 1% of the UK is covered by temperate rainforests.
All of this made me reflect on how, despite things like Biodiversity Net Gain and the like, we truly do not understand what is needed to work with nature and the benefits of doing so. Rewilding needs to be a huge part of how we improve our infrastructure in the future, and we still design based upon an approach that does not consider that at all.
📚 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.
- Arts and crafts seem to boost well-being more than employment (New Scientist) – as someone married to an art teacher, I say “no s**t, Sherlock.”
- Confronting low fertility rates and population decline (VoxEU)
- Eating Disorders Can Strike Anyone (Scientific American)
- The weirdest ‘3 billion people’ data breach ever (The Verge)
- Challenges and responses: Economic downturn’s influence on urban policy, planning, and transportation (City Monitor)
📰 The bottom of the news
I know that some people will do a lot to get a good bottle of bubbly, but looting a shipwreck for champagne is something else. But a wreck just south of Sweden has been protected because wine merchants are contacting divers to get samples of the sunken treasure, and the Swedish government is having none of it.
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