Decide and not Provide - MMD#563
Good day my good friend.
A couple of you rightly pointed out that the link to the Women in Transport Equity Index didn’t work yesterday. Let me sort that. The LinkedIn post with all the details is here, and the form to sign up is here. You and your company should sign up, obviously.
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
What to do?
Let me ask you this. What needs to be done for transport to tackle the climate emergency, rising inequalities, and shift towards a more just society? You can probably list the solutions like more bike lanes and more EVs. You may even mention policy approaches like Avoid - Shift - Improve, or Decide and Provide. The boring reality is all of the above, with a suite of mutually-beneficial policy measures achieving social outcomes.
Why, because travel is complex. The challenge is discerning what will have the great impact as policy measures. This new research shows quite how hard achieving that really is. Our evidence base for the impacts of what we do is poor, but its even worse when considered as packages of measures. We really, really need to do something about that.
Why do people hate clean air?
You will have probably seen the reaction to the ULEZ proposals in London. Ranging from conspiritorial to actual reasoned objection. No doubt you have your own view as to why and who objects. But…who objects to it actually? Or more accurately, who is the more likely to object to clean air zones?
A study of a Clean Air Zone in Bradford gives some insight. People in ethnic minority groups were more likely to oppose the Clean Air Zone. The paper gives limited insight into why, just pointing to ‘policy factors’ through a limited qualitative analysis. But regardless, still an interesting study.
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.
Heterogeneous Paths of Industrialization (Review of Economic Studies)
Do Municipal Bond Dealers Give Their Customers “Fair and Reasonable” Pricing? (Journal of Finance)
AA backs travel rationing as ULEZ case hits court (Transport Network)
California Strip Malls To be Upzoned Saturday (The Discourse Lounge)
How uploading our minds to a computer might become possible (The Conversation)
Something interesting
I think it is time that we reduce that market size, don’t you?
If you do nothing else today, then do this
This toolkit on engaging young people in transport projects was presented at TPM last week. You should both check it out and use it.