MMD#73 - Read about 15 minute cities and mental health
Mobility Matters Daily #73
5, 15, 20 minute cities? Lets talk about appropriate proximity
You have probably seen the time variants on the 15 minute city, and the concept that day-to-day services should be within walking distance. A sound concept, but what is often missing is the role of strategic services, and how to effectively plan for these. This is a more complicated question.
After all, every neighbourhood cannot have a hospital, and planning for these is important. Taking a service-based approach to planning involves making decisions on the appropriate accessibility of different types of services. We know some strategic services will take longer to get to. Can we start from the assumption that this is ok?
What makes a successful 15 minute neighbourhood? | UK Journey Time Statistics
For mental health, transport needs to show a softer side
A story of a female freight train driver on the BBC really moved me. It is how she used her experience of a teenage boy jumping under her train to encourage men to open up to their mental health issues, and how she is changing lives as a result. I have been in the position of having mental health issues, and the value of a softer edge cannot be underestimated.
Just in the UK, 283 lives were lost in 2019-20 by people jumping in front of trains. There is no data for the road network. Ignore the human side of things, transport should treat this as the safety issue that it is. This is one that is hard to engineer out, and so perhaps our safety engineers should be working with the likes of the Samaritans (as Network Rail are doing) to deliver initiatives that help tackle this most difficult of subjects.
A train driver asking men to open up | Train suicide approach methods and the application of a barrier approach