Mobility Matters Daily #178 - Public transport must be simpler and more innovative
This is your last chance to sign up to Mobility Camp
Good day my good friend.
The venue is set. The trains are booked. And I currently have enough hand sanitiser to sink the Titanic. Me and the brilliant organising team are ready for Mobility Camp. And from midnight tonight, we will know who is coming.
So this is my final reminder to you, because as of Midnight tonight (UK time), registrations for Mobility Camp will close. So if you are still thinking about it, I urge you to join us for the fun, and sign up today. Because if you don’t, then we won’t see you there.
Today’s newsletter is a bit of a change, and a bit of a shock to those of you who have emailed me with article suggestions and I haven’t replied yet (sorry). Today, you curated the newsletter, and they just so happen to take two sides of the same issue.
James
This free daily newsletter is sent to everyone. Paid subscribers get access to exclusive in-depth analysis once a week, and a tailored analysis on a policy issue once a month. You can upgrade at any time.
Public transport must do the basics well first
Thank you to Daniel McCool for sending this through. As he rightly pointed out, I’m usually not one for the white papers of consultants, but this one on Tomorrow’s Public Transport System by Arup is not a bad bit of work. A link to the Sustainable Development Goals is always good with me.
What I appreciate most about this is that while it does talk about customer-centricity and tech innovation (what white paper doesn’t), it puts at its core the basics of good public transport. Ideas such as good access and simple networks. Though I think that their suggestion of co-designing the core network with people won’t go down well with operators.
Public transport must do more innovation
A complete contrast to this is an article recommended to me by Stephen Joseph that puts new and innovative approaches to public transport at the heart of its future. This article is very good at articulating the challenges to installing innovation in transport, and the limits of current tech offerings (summary: great in the city centre, not much good elsewhere, and not joined up).
It does, however, touch on something often not considered. Innovation is seen as a thing for the public sector to enable the private sector to do. It’s role is far more varied than that. Government’s can, and should, be very creative in its problem solving, and simply outsourcing ideas to the private sector is not enough for successful innovation. There is some excellent historic work that should you make you think about the public sector’s role in enabling innovative solution.
Random things
Some interesting things from around the internet that you may find useful:
Rural Alaska has a bridge problem as permafrost thaws and crossing river ice gets riskier with climate change (The Conversation)
Autonomous trucking technology company Plus joins PAVE’s Board of Directors (New Mobility)
Express Rail Tunnels and Regional Rail Capacity (Pedestrian Observation)
Nearly half of Britain’s biodiversity has gone since the industrial revolution (The Guardian)
Interesting things
If you are thinking about taking your driving test in the UK, you will want to check out this map. This shows the pass rates for different test centres across the UK. Where I passed my test (Barnstaple) is above the national average in terms of tests passed. Make of that what you will.
If you do nothing else today, do this
Sign up to the transport day at COP26 (10th November). There are loads of great events on, put on by some good friends. Green Zone tickets are on sale now. I will be there, so if you will be coming, let me know and we can say hi!