🙂 Positive News - MM#632

Good day my good friend.

Short and sweet intro today. Lets go…

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James

😊 Ending on a high

If you look any form of social media, or most news sources, you can be forgiven for thinking that everything is awful. What is more frustrating to me is how many people sell this as being “realistic.” For me, being realistic is too often mistaken for being cynical.

Being realistic is seeing both the good and the bad in the current situation, the reasons for optimism as well as the reasons for fear. With that in mind, and in the interests of actual realism, I’m going to list some of the news stories that should give you cause for hope. Let them fill you with festive joy.

Note to all: These are mainly UK-based stories. I am working on more content from elsewhere!

• The 20mph urban speed limit in Wales has reduced average traffic speeds

• You can now be fined for pavement parking in Scotland

• The UK has passed the Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate - the biggest bit of climate change legislation since the Climate Change Act 2008

• Despite the rise in SUVs, the energy intensity of new vehicles is lower now in most countries is lower than it was in 2000

• Cycling levels in the UK are up (slightly) over the last 5 years

• Cycling journeys in London are 20% higher than they were in 2019

• LTNs are popular

• Oxfordshire County Council voted to keep their new LTNs in place

• The UK Government has expanded the £2 single fare cap for local buses to December 2024

• The £2 single fare cap is resulting in more trips on buses and is helping people with the cost of living

• Bus franchising has started in England outside of London, with the first routes going live in Manchester back in September

• Rail use is back to 90% of what it was before COVID-19, and even motor traffic levels are not back to their pre-COVID levels

• In the West Midlands, 600,000 free “try before you buy” bus tickets are being made available

• Montpellier has joined a growing list of cities that are offering free public transport

• There has been a huge expansion of the European night train network

• One of the first transatlantic flights using lower carbon fuels took place this year

• Cargo bikes are faster and emit less than traditional deliveries in cities

• The Transport Data Commons Initiative is starting to fill holes in data on transport emissions from countries in Africa and South America

• The gender pay gap is lower than what is was before COVID-19 (but more work needs doing)

• There are more women in the highest income brackets than ever before

• There has been a decline in support for the traditional roles of men and women to support of traditional roles (like women looking after the home and family) now being in single figures

• There has been a significant increase in support in the UK for non-traditional families

• Karnataka in India has launched free bus rides for women

• Women in Transport continue to be amazing

• The Scottish Rural and Islands Transport Community is going from strength to strength in representing the needs of rural communities

• The US Federal Government has announced $645 million in funding to improve rural transport across America

• DigiGo, a demand responsive transport service in rural Essex, has been extended until 2026

• The world is installing 1GW of solar capacity every day, and demand for new installations is 50% higher in 2023 than it was in 2022

• An organisation notably conservative on the impact of carbon reduction efforts is predicting global carbon emissions will start falling in the next 2 years

• Global levels of deforestation have halved since the 1980s despite there being more people and greater demand for goods

• Carbon emissions are not following the worst case scenario for climate change

• The Swiss showed that climate change legislation is popular

Finally, a reflection from me. We like to talk about how hard it is to change people. But from my experience, this is not the case. There are many hundreds, even thousands, of people working hard and positively to enact change - whether on social justice or on climate change. They do not seek the headlines, or the kudos on social media. They work away, making changes in their part of the world to make things slightly better.

People expect that huge, radical shifts that are announced with a blaze of headlines and publicity change the world. In my experience it is not that simple. In fact, one person giving a female colleague the support they need, or another seeing the installation of that electric vehicle charging point to completion can be more meaningful than any big policy.

There are many people working against those wanting to change the world. But know this. There are many, many more of us working to make the world a better place. And we will win eventually.

Just keep being awesome, all of you!

🎓 From academia

The clever clogs at our universities have published the following excellent research. Where you are unable to access the research, email the author - they may give you a copy of the research paper for free.

Should I wait or should I go? Encouraging customers to make the more sustainable delivery choice

TL:DR - Charging for the least sustainable option can encourage people to choose the more sustainable delivery option.

Will people prefer future travel with battery-powered airplanes?

TL:DR - Yes.

Safety Evaluation of the First Bus Rapid Transit System in Tanzania

TL:DR - Drivers need to be more careful around pedestrians.

Spatial dynamic analysis and thematic mapping of vulnerable communities to urban floods

TL:DR - White people are moving away from flood plains.

📺 On the (You)Tube

What happened when Market Street in San Francisco banned cars? I’ll give you a clue, the results were mostly good.

🖼️ Graphic Design

One of my favourite posters (Source: London Transport Museum)

I have this classic London Underground poster, produced by Alfred Lette in 1927, on my wall in my office. The thing is, I don’t know why its so brilliant. It just is. Mind you, seeing the dog, policeman, and robber being sucked into the Underground station is amusing.

Alfred Lette also created another classic poster that many people in the UK are very familiar with.

📚 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.

• Self-Repair Manifesto (iFixit)

• Is AI leading to a reproducibility crisis in science? (Nature)

• Tiny Electric Vehicles Pack a Bigger Climate Punch Than Cars (New York Times)

• The rise of the middlemen: Why are traders gobbling up LNG in a moribund market? (Energy Flux)

• What colour do you see? (aeon)

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