Mobility Matters Daily #173 - Noise, fax machines, and heritage

Plus a shout out for Final Fantasy VII

Good day my good friend.

Recently, I was asked what tunes I listen to when travelling around. Whilst podcasts and some old school metal or grunge albums were always the favourite, recently that has given way to something strange - video game soundtracks. Specifically the official soundtrack to Final Fantasy VII, one of my favourite video games of all. Walking down the road to One Winged Angel is an amazing feeling. Hey, great music is great music.

Here are today’s curated links just for you.

James

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How transport planners can stop that racket

Transport makes a lot of noise, lets be honest. The World Health Organization does a far better summary of its impacts than I can, but suffice to say its annoying and a bad thing. But what do we do about it? Well, a European research project called PHENOMENON (I am not even going to comment on how they came up with that acronym) wrote its final report, and the results are in.

In summary, there is a lot we can do and should do. We can make roads quieter, vehicles quieter, insulate homes better, ban planes from flying over cities during the night, and electrify everything as well. Travelling less isn’t presented as an obvious option, but hey this is still good research.

Turn the engines down will you? Image credit: Wikimedia

Japan’s love affair with the fax machine and the culture of transport

This article in The Conversation fascinated me. Not because I am a fan of fax machines, but how it covers the issues of attaching technology to a country, group, or perspective on the world. As the article concludes:

If renewed attention on Japan’s love affair with the fax machine tells us anything, it’s perhaps less that Japan is mired in the pre-digital past, but rather that the age when Japan defined its relation to modernity through advanced technology may be coming to an end.

I can’t help but think of the role that various modes of transport play as a status symbol. The car is well researched in this regard. The bicycle’s role in various sub-cultures has also been attracting attention in the research¹ and is being tied into the first taste of freedom. Meanwhile, there is no such research for trains and buses (although the old grey matter does recollect a study into brand loyalty in the bus industry that i cannot find anywhere online). What will transport’s next cultural phenomenon be?

Places of historical value in cities have different dynamics that affect their vitality

What factors influence the success of a historically significant area? Some commentators will say things like character and adaptability, and heritage-led regeneration is a whole field in itself. But a really cool paper by Wu et al uses machine learning and big data to conclude that the forces at work in historic areas of cities are different, and differ by city. By taking geospatial data and analysing it, they concluded that…

…the land use pattern group has a more substantial impact on heritage areas than the ground plan and building form pattern…

…while…

…the building form pattern has little influence on the vitality of heritage areas, mainly through the building's 3D patterns.

Simply, it is the historic land use in heritage areas that plays more of a role in the vitality of a place than the buildings themselves. Having recently walked around Castlefield in Manchester, and seeing the successes (and otherwise) of land use planning in the area, I can’t help but agree.

Random things

Here are some random things that I found across the internet that you may find interesting.

• US road safety watchdog decides against probe into Tesla battery fires (The Register)

• PwC to Employees: Work for Us, Live Anywhere (New Geography)

• Denmark legally binds farmers to reduce GHG emissions by half in 9 years (Down to Earth)

• Net Zero: lets recognise the importance of spatial planning (Centre for Cities)

• Climate Advocates Voice Concerns Over Fossil Fuel Handouts in Stalled Infrastructure Legislation (DeSmog)

Interesting things

This video is probably the best explainer of induced demand I have seen.

If you do nothing else today, do this…

Use the MobiliseYourCity Emissions Calculator to calculate the transport emissions of your city. Then apply it.

1. The abstract is free, but you may need to pay to access the article.