Mobility Matters Daily #137 - Symbolism and bikes on trains
With some useful hints on how to survive a plane crash
Good day friend.
I spent much of this evening talking to members of the public about how local bus services can be improved. It’s times like this that make me feel optimistic that significant change can come about. When the public come up to you and (unprompted) say “we need to make buses quicker, so we need to put in bus lanes” and they still hold that position after you say that removes parking spaces, there is hope.
Democracy in transport planning is an unequal process. Russell Dalton likened the town hall debate to something that gives a veneer of participation to an unequal process. Simply ‘providing’ democracy isn’t enough, because it assumes that people have the same access to democracy. María Somuano makes the point, however, that by opening up the process more, you are simply benefitting yourself and not others.
But there is something great about democracy in action, and a wide range of views being presented. So maybe more democracy is needed in transport planning?
James
The importance of symbolism in transport
I had to laugh at this. The UK Department for Transport has appointed a design team to deliver an ‘iconic design’ for UK electric vehicle charging point infrastructure. Ignoring the fact that whilst good design is nice, functionality is better (and the track record of our own Prime Minister when it comes to design over substance), it goes to show that symbolism can often play an outside role in designing new transport things generally.
A great recent paper from UCL indicates that symbolism around transport modes can be an important determinant in travel choices, although the authors recognise that more work is needed to research this at scale. But whilst we can recognise symbols of transport investment (think big iconic projects like the Forth Bridge), there is actually very little research into its importance as a policy driver. Maybe the desire to open a big project as a politician may not be as big a political driver as we think it is?
For what its worth, I have an idea. Across the UK there are at least 40,000 assets, plugged into an electricity supply, that are unwanted by their owners. They are sat there, doing nothing, by the roadside in many cases, and all they need is an upgrade to take charging infrastructure. Their design is classic in every sense. So, Mr Shapps, where’s my £500,000 to make this a reality?
As an aside, I tried researching where these phone boxes are. There is no map, sadly, but there is a map of the 8 remaining Police telephone boxes in the UK (think the TARDIS in Doctor Who). Going to see them is my mission next year.
Bike-friendly carriages on trains become a reality in the UK
UK trains really don’t do cycle-rail integration well. What the railways consider integration is “leave your bike at the station, but we’ll (grudgingly) carry your folding bike” that, to me at least, removes the attractiveness of integrating your bike with rail*. But ScotRail appear to be doing something different, by customising their trains on the route from Glasgow to Oban to carry more bikes, and even having a plug-in point for e-bikes.
I will be investigating this further when I go up to Glasgow for Mobility Camp, and have a few days afterwards to explore the Highlands. This is great to see. Parking at the station is ok. But taking your bike on the train and cycling at the other end opens up a whole new world at the other end. Please do more of this, UK rail companies. Oh, and fix your antiquated cycle booking system so that people can actually book their bikes onto the train at the same time as buying their ticket.
*Yes, I know there are very good reasons why bikes are not brought onto peak hour trains, but I’m talking about a prevailing attitude in railways.
Visualisation of the Day
This is not one visualisation, but one of a great series by Information is Beautiful on how to improve your odds of not dying in a plane crash. Apparently, you should sit at the back, avoid flying in a DC-9, don’t fly in August, and avoid Aeroflot. Before not worrying about it because you are more likely to be killed in a nuclear accident.
Source: Information is Beautiful
If you do nothing else today, do this
Read this amazing post on the Storytelling with Data blog on the difference between exploring data and explaining data. Transport planners can learn a lot from this.