Mobility Matters Daily #381 - An important announcement, plus the usual newsletter
Good day my good friend.
Today, I am going to extend the usual introduction with a special announcement. Paid subscribers will already know this, as I messaged them in the Extra newsletter yesterday. But this message is for YOU.
I think you all know what is going on in the world right now. And this winter is looking to be really tough. The lowest income families in the UK are going to face a horrific winter. And I mean horrific. In my area of the country, which is relatively affluent, there has been a 200% increase in the use of food banks in the last 3 months. In my role as a Town Councillor, I have had people come to me begging for help so they can pay their bills. A sight I never thought I would see in an affluent area in the 6th largest economy in the world. So I have spent some time thinking about every little way I can help, and how I can encourage others to help.
From that, I decided that with your help, there are two things that can be done over the coming months to help.
The first thing I will do is take all the income I have made from subscriptions and sponsorship of the newsletter this year - about £600 in all - and donate every penny to the Trussell Trust, who provide 1200 foodbanks across the UK. That will help feed families who most need help.
The second thing, I need your help on. From now on, every penny made in subscriptions and sponsorship will go to the Trussell Trust. I want to raise an extra £400 by April next year, and I need your help in doing that. What can you do? Its simple:
Sign up to be a paid subscriber, or recommend that your friends become a paid subscriber for only £5 a month. You also get ad-free daily newsletters, and an Extra newsletter on Sundays. Or;
Have your company sponsor the newsletter (with an ad in every free newsletter) for £20 for 4 weeks. To help this more, for every free newsletter from 1st September there will be two sponsorship slots instead of the usual one.
Every single penny raised by this between now and April will go to the Trussell Trust to help them help families in need. If you don’t want a paid subscription or sponsor the newsletter, I do urge you to donate directly to the Trussell Trust should you so wish (if you are a UK resident, remember to Gift Aid your donation so they get more).
If you are a free subscriber who wants to upgrade to a paid subscription, go to the Mobility Matters page on Substack and follow the prompts to upgrade you a paid subscription.
If your company wants to sponsor the newsletter for 4 weeks, with an ad in every free newsletter, simply email me to find out more. Sponsorship slots will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, with a maximum of two slots per 4 week period.
Also, over the coming months, at the bottom of each newsletter I will publish a tracker showing progress in meeting this goal, and encouraging people to become a paid subscriber or sponsor the newsletter.
I know that you are all amazing readers, and you are all incredibly kind and generous. I know that times are tough for many of you right now, and many of you maybe having worries going into the winter. But even if we can do this small thing, it could help some really vulnerable people through a tough time. Thank you for your time, and hopefully your generosity.
If you have any suggestions for interesting news items or bits of research to include in this newsletter, you can email me.
You should also join a lot of like-minded people at Mobility Camp in Bristol in September. Get your tickets now. Sponsorship slots are also available.
James
The economic value of walking and cycling is proven yet again
Honestly, are we at a point whereby the economic value of walking and cycling is an established truth of transport planning? I mean, if people who walk and cycle aren’t spending more money in local shopping streets, and cycle parking allowing 5 times more retail spend than the same amount of car parking space, it is generating a rate of return on investment that your average road scheme can only dream of. And that is just from the health benefits. But sometimes you just really need to nail home a point, right?
That is what this study from Italy does. Though it focusses purely on health, and it also includes e-bikes in urban commuting. Before you get too excited, the benefit is variable, from 0.32 Euros/km for walking to 0.02 Euros/km for e-bikes. And where pollution is high, the benefits of e-bikes are negligible due to less physical effort. But the evidence is still clear. Active travel is good for the economy.
The Dead Cat that is more interesting than originally thought
Everyone in the UK will know how the intervention of our glorious Transport Secretary last week saying that bicycles should be registered and cyclists should have insurance caused somewhat of a stir. And its a perfect example of the Dead Cat Strategy. But despite my initial disappointment last week, it did lead to a question: is there actually any merit to the idea? And has it been studied?
Naturally, on matters such as legal compliance and safety, there is the square root of no evidence of any impact at all. But one area where the evidence is strong is the impact of registration - primarily to voluntary registers - on bike theft. There is evidence that it can reduce bicycle thefts alongside other measures. Certainly when compared to those who do not register. There are also many motivating factors for registering bicycles. I mean, compulsory bike registration is still a rubbish idea, but that doesn’t mean there is no value in it.
Random things
These links are meant to make you think about the things that affect our world in transport, and not just think about transport itself. I hope that you enjoy them.
Since 1989, threats to Salman Rushdie have sparked support and debate on free speech (NPR)
Chipmakers caught in the crossfire of rising US-China geopolitical tensions (Financial Times)
Why Lithium Power Politics Are Playing Out Very Differently in Chile and Bolivia (Counter Punch)
What will be the future of the Thames Estuary settlements? (Al Jazeera)
Electric aviation startup Beta Technologies raises $375 million (Axios)
Something interesting
I’ve only put this video in because its funny. When a YouTuber pranked every landing passenger at Gatwick Airport.
If you do nothing else today, then do this
Thank you to Tim Gent for sharing this with me. In what is arguably the greatest use of the Freedom of Information Act ever, somebody got hold of all the automated announcements on ScotRail trains, and produced a website that allows you to mix them with different ambient tunes. It’s brilliant.