♀️ Girl Power - MM#597
Good day my good friend.
I spent too much time waffling in today’s newsletter. So the introduction is short.
Not long now until, we are talking ‘changing the narrative’ on sustainable transport at Mobility Camp on 26th September 2023 in Birmingham. It would be great to see you there. Get your tickets now.
If you like this newsletter, please share it with someone else who you think will love it. I will love you forever if you do. ☺️
James
👩 Components of a feminist city
The structure of cities has been subject to much in the way of thought and debate. Many students of geography have been taught about the Burgess model - also known as the concentric zone model - based on Chicago from the 1920s. I also remember reading about a post-modern urbanism when studying for my undergraduate degree at university. And struggling a lot with the subsequent assignment (thanks, Dr Southern!).
Understanding city structures is important for transport planning for a simple reason. We need to understand where people are or are likely to travel to and from, and that is inherently tied to where activities are located, which is determined by land use. Some of the finest minds in urbanism like Jane Jacobs understood the interface between transport and land use.
It needs noting that formalised city planning is a relatively recent thing. In the UK, Town Planning only got its own Ministry in 1943 (the Ministry of Town and Country Planning), though the case can be made that town planning itself has existing much before that. Most notably the somewhat regulated rebuilding following the Great Fire of London in 1666 and some the planning acts passed in the interwar period. But this is an aside.
The challenge with this is something that has challenged planning of land use and transport since its inception. A load of men get in rooms with large plans (and a bit of science) and decide how cities with hundreds, thousands, even millions of people should look. Thankfully, now there is a challenge to this orthodoxy - the feminist city.
My reading on this has only started in earnest in the last few months. But my understanding of this concept is that such a city is based upon broadening access. It is based on the understanding that creating an effective city means working with vulnerable groups, and critically across silos. Particularly on matters of violence, safety, and use of space.
Much of the work to date has centred on community-level initiatives. Things like removing cars, more inclusive play spaces, and removal of cars, as is being done in Barcelona, are often cited as examples of feminist work in cities. So far, so agreeable in the most part. As well as being based on a significant realisation that restructuring our existing urban fabric is hard (though not impossible) and so re-purposing such space is essential to us achieving our sustainability goals.
But a more interesting proposition, for me at least, came from this article from Kirsty Watt. How does a feminist city structure an urban area? Her diagram, reproduced below, shows this profoundly. Such a city is not just based on types of land use, public parks, and community engagement. But on structure that enables community networks and access to services, not on maximising developable land.
Imagine a city based upon that, and how its transport networks would operate, and how we would plan for them. To me, that is a gentler, naturally evolving city form with a focus on people. Much better than what we have now. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe for a second that there will be no downsides and only significant upsides (sorry ladies, been burned by utopian visions before). But this is a more human vision of a city. And I cannot wait for the impact analysis of cities who are dipping their toes into this new approach.
What you can do: To start with, read. Leslie Kern’s book is a good start (there is a free e-book if you want it). Read about the work in Barcelona and Glasgow, though the latter is still at an early stage at the moment.
Then, get it into practice. And guys, let the ladies lead on this. But a couple hints as to what could be good to consider are as follows:
Collect data that understand the impacts upon issues faced by women and marginalised groups. Not just on how they get around (though this is important) but to support assessing the impact of your policies. For example on safety. A good indication is that the data helps you understand those issues more.
Take a more feminist approach to plan development. Maybe provide dedicated sessions with women of all ages and backgrounds, for example. Have a blank sheet of paper, and use an activity like drawing together to understand current experiences of places and developing solutions.
🎓 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.
Mapping synergies and trade-offs between smart city dimensions: A network analysis
TL:DR - Lots of buzzwords that essentially say: make sure things are complimentary in smart cities.
TL:DR - Women in the transport industry need more support than men, especially in Africa.
Exploring Logistics-as-a-Service to integrate the consumer into urban freight
TL:DR - Personalised logistics by another name.
Performance Measure–Based Framework for Evaluating Transportation Infrastructure Resilience
TL:DR - You are what you measure when it comes to resilience.
✊ Awesome people doing awesome things
Its been too long in getting to this great guy, but Benjie de la Peña of the Shared Use Mobility Centre has been some amazing work for years on what is often called ‘informal mobility,’ but perhaps should be called ‘how most of the world gets around.’
The newsletters he curates or assists on, Makeshift Mobility and Pop Transport, are well worth subscribing to and going through the back catalogue of. It will open your eyes to the importance of informal transport around the world, and will make you think about transport differently. And the transport world needs people like him.
📼 On the (You)Tube
The Fully Charged Show has been a must-watch on YouTube for a long time (it has Kryton from Red Dwarf in it, for pity’s sake). But this video on the importance of expanding and balancing the electric grid is accessible and insightful, and shows the revolution happening which we cannot see.
What you can do: Looking to install some electric vehicle charging points? Make contact with the local electricity network (in the UK, that’s UK Power Networks), and talk to them at an early stage about your plans and the impacts on the energy grid. Also talk to them about any demand flexibility work they are doing, and whether users of your service could be part of it.
🖼️ Graphic Design
Hopefully this will be the end of the discussion. Battery electric vehicles are better for emissions over the course of their life compared to fossil fuel cars, but in some specific aspects their emissions are higher than fossil fuel cars.
📚 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.
The end of the Googleverse (The Verge)
What Tokyo Learned From the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake (Bloomberg)
Empire of Dust: What the tiniest specks reveal about the world (The Guardian)
Can we imagine a world without borders? (Rolling Stone)
What Hubert Horan has said about Uber’s first ever profit (The Gig Economy)
✍️ Your Feedback Is Essential
I want to make the calls to actions better. To do this, I need your feedback. Just fill in the 3 question survey form by clicking on the below button to provide me with quick feedback, that I can put into action. Thank you so much.
Thanks for the shout out, James!