Mobility Matters Daily #117 - Procurement and progress on gender equality
I apologise to all public sector workers now
Good day friend.
As I write this, I am taking my second train journey of the last 18 months (ok, technically my third, but the Bure Valley Railway was for pleasure). It is noticably busier this morning, although still some way off the pre-pandemic normal. Also, it is great to see that despite face coverings being optional, the majority are still doing it. To the news we go.
James
I’m about to make you public sector workers scream
Procurement. Told you I would.
Its constant challenge is how to procure innovative solutions well, whilst minimising risk and ensuring we secure best value for the taxpayer. This great study by the European Investment Bank shows the challenges of doing this for Intelligent Transport Systems.
Many of the recommendations are straightforward best practice. But some are very useful in that local authorities often have little experience of emerging issues related to technology that will be critically important for the next 10 years, such as:
Reference a licensing model for data sharing, such as those from Creative Commons
Or
Carry out an assessment of existing open specifications and standards frameworks (see section 1.3), and review the materials of related projects such as POSSE and SPICE.
The experience of the case studies is also very much worth a read.
A hat-tip to Suzanne Hoadley, who’s LinkedIn post made me aware of this study.
Unravelling gender biases in transport - baby steps, but good progress is being made
A couple of recent articles prompted my interest again in the issue of gender balance in transport planning and its outcomes. An article in Bloomberg by Carolynn Look and Elisabeth Behrmann focuses on how European cities are making progress, and this article in The Guardian about how men cause more climate emissions than women, mainly due to car travel*. Both challenge the predominant narrative around planning for the car-based commuter, which have traditionally been mainly male. All good steps in the right direction.
One thing that strikes out to me is how much this movement is - rightly - focussing on inclusive design and ensuring more women are decision makers on transport. On both of which great work is being done. I wonder if the next step is to build upon the work of Caroline Cradio Perez and challenge the data that drives business cases for investing in transport schemes? I, for one, would appreciate the importance of the commute and its economic velaue being cut back somewhat (or at least delivering the outcomes of the Treasury Green Book review and actually focussing on a compelling strategic case and not just the economic case).
* I must state that I have a problem with the framing of this article. The report on which it is based is incredibly selective in its sampling, focussing on single males and single females only, which is only representative of a subset of the total population. I don’t doubt the results of their analysis of that population, but such broad-brush statements about whole populations is why you should always check the report and baseline data. Saying that, evidence from the National Travel Survey in the UK does show that women take fewer car trips alone than men.
Visualisation of the Day
I just love this visual. At around 5pm-7pm UK time (depending on the time of year), 75% of the worlds population is asleep. The transport impacts of just this daily routine are incredible. I urge you to check out the full visualisation.
Source: r/dataisbeautiful
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