All Change - MMD#381
Good day my good friend.
Last week, I ran a little poll asking you, good subscribers, what the future of the newsletter should be. The results are in, and the consensus is that change is good. Reflecting on this, and on some conversations had with some of you at Transport Practitioners Meeting this week as well as numerous emails, I have made some decisions about the newsletter.
Firstly, the frequency of the newsletter will reduce from every day to 3 times a week, with a bit more content in each one. So you will get a newsletter every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from me.
Secondly, and this is one for paid subscribers. There will be no more paid subscriptions. I had tried this, plus advertising (more on that in a second), as a way of raising enough to keep things ticking over. Yeah, it didn’t work out that way. And despite promoting it, the numbers are not rising. Its not worth the extra effort, so everyone will be free from now on. For those of you who have paid a full year already, I will arrange refunds.
Thirdly, advertising. The next few weeks I will run some paid adverts, but after that, that will be it. For the same reasons above. The effort needed to get advertisers is not worth the pay off. So this newsletter will become ad-free very soon.
By the way, I am still looking for people who want to write things in the newsletter, and I am still willing to pay you for it. The articles from John and Jessica have gone down really well with you, so that I do want to continue doing.
All of this will take place starting from issue 400. So you have a fair few more daily newsletters yet. I thank every one of you for continuing to subscribe, read, and importantly provide your feedback to me. I honestly never thought I would still be doing this nearly 3 years after launching. In that time I have experimented a lot, but now I feel that there is a decent understanding of what does and doesn’t work. And what does work is you lovely lot!
Thank you all once again. You all make it worth it. Anyway, you need at least a bit of transport content today. So here we go….
If you have any suggestions for interesting news items or bits of research to include in this newsletter, you can email me.
Mobility Camp is taking place on 29th September 2023 in Birmingham. It would be great to see you there. Get your tickets now.
James
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.
Is liberal society making us ill? (Unherd)
Start-ups are adding antacids to the ocean to slow global warming. Will it work? (Nature)
The Lasting Effects of Early-Childhood Education on Promoting the Skills and Social Mobility of Disadvantaged African Americans and Their Children (Journal of Political Economy)
Oil Prices, Oil Profits, Speculation, and Inflation (Institute for New Economic Thinking)
What Drives Undocumented Immigration Policy, Economic, and Social Factors in the US and Mexico (Economics That Really Matters)
Something interesting
Its true. The future of transport of transport does not lie in a pod. Mostly, anyway.
If you do nothing else today, then do this
Watch this public information film from 1948 called Charley New Town. How many of these things are we still looking to achieve today?