Good day my good friend.

Yeah, sorry about the lack of a newsletter on Wednesday. This week has been rather crazy. Next week looks no better. So I will try and get a newsletter out, but cannot make any promises on anything. Sorry!

📕 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.

💼 I am also available for freelance transport planning consultancy, through my own company Mobility Lab. You can check out what I do here.

🤔 Some interesting bits

One the day I am writing this, we have had the news that John “Two Jags” Prescott, the former UK Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport, and the Regions, has passed away. He was known for two things. The first was the 10 Year Transport Plan, which is worth a re-read. Probably the most iconic transport strategy ever written, and had Railtrack not failed it would have been revolutionary. He is also known for this.

The New Economics Foundation have published an excellent report on car-centricity in new housing developments. Where they essentially say that if you want to tackle things like major social issues, being car-centric in development planning is bad. Living in the South East of England (ok, technically the East, but its as near as dammit to the South East), this graphic of car centricity in new developments I can relate to.

Car-centric developments and the green belt across the South East of England (Source: New Economics Foundation)

The Department for Transport published sea passenger statistics for the UK. I did a couple of posts on Bluesky about them. Its amazing to think that the Channel Tunnel carries the same amount of passengers to international destinations as ferries do.

In his latest video, Geoff Marshall rides the Marlow Donkey. Its a lovely service, and very unique in that the service splits in two during the peak hours.