I ❤️ Pavements - MMD#572

Good day my good friend.

In yet more highly frustrating news, the UK Department for Transport decided to announce on Friday afternoon that it was giving the ok to putting the A303 past Stonehenge in a tunnel. I have been down that road to see my family in Devon more times than I care to count, even in holiday season. This scheme will ruin a World Heritage Site, add 2.5 million tonnes of carbon to the atmosphere, and will simply allow the traffic to get to the next roundabout more quickly.

Can someone go and do a pagan ritual at Great Minster House, please?

Mobility Camp is taking place 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

Pavement Paradise Needed 🏝️

In the world of Monty Python, the pedestrian was well-catered for with the Ministry of Silly Walks. But as this excellent article in Slate states, this love needs to move from the world of comedy into the real one. Our pavements are in desperate need of some love. The continued erosion by private property - both in ownership and in storage (still no decision on the UK pavement parking consultation yet).

This is partly why I love Lambeth’s Kerbside Strategy. It takes the variety of issues affecting pavements and the kerbside, makes the observation that this is limited space, and prioritises is as public space. That space has a role in regulating temperature, tackling social exclusion issues, and even as art. But too often the needs of people are overlooked. A case study of this is the pedestrian crossing outside the former Post Office in my town of Flitwick, which flooded after a heavy shower on Saturday. Guess who gets most of the flood water?

Flooded pavement at a pedestrian crossing in Flitwick

Death to Parking 🅿️ ❌

Some of you may know that recently me and my wife purchased our first home. The current front garden is a horrible mix of partially buried shrubs and pebbles. Our plan is to convert half of this into a wildlife garden and leave the other half to park the car (I want to get rid of the car - don’t tell my wife that). But we are very much the exception. Brits have spend, or plan to spend, £27 billion converting their front gardens to parking space.

An interesting debate on the r/CasualUK Subreddit concerned an example of a front garden conversion. My favourite comment was this one, which is both astute and passive-aggressive:

That looks like it’s maybe the wardens home at a prison.

It was a lovely home before, with a beautiful garden.

Whoever did this hates bees. I hope they get scraped knees.

People love greenery, and trees, and shrubs, and flowers. Having a front garden for such things does amazing things for your mental well being, makes your home cooler through a lack of reflecting solar radiation, and reduces rainwater run-off. Compare that to storing a 2 tonne metal box.

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.

• This AI is better than you at figuring out where a street pic was taken just by looking at it (The Register) 💻

• The Political Economics of Green Transitions (Quarterly Journal of Economics) ♻️

• How promoting women to managers catalyses gender equality at home (VoxDev) 👩‍💼

• Tourists are back. Is it time to tell them to stay away? (Financial Times) ✈️

• Civil Society Strengthens Alliances as Global Financing Summit Fails to Deliver At Level Needed for Climate Finance (Common Dreams) 🪙

Something interesting 🖼️

The population density of Egypt (Source: r/dataisbeautiful)

The population density map of Germany (Source: r/dataisbeautiful)

Two for the price of one today. Namely two maps that show that transport is a product of history and geography. In Egypt, the impact of the River Nile is undeniable, as well as the historic ports on the Mediterranean and Red Seas. Meanwhile, the spread out nature of Germany reflects its history as a collection of Kingdoms, with notable spikes around Berlin and the River Rhine.

If you do nothing else today, do this 👇

Carbon Brief is the one website that you must go to for climate news. This post on nature-based solutions (with a big shout out to sustainable urban drainage) is particularly good.