Vote Mobility Matters - MMD#375
Good day my good friend.
An announcement, if I can have your attention for just a few minutes. As you know, I love your feedback. And much of the feedback that I have been getting from you has been that it is too much. As in, you can’t possibly read everything, every day. Which is valid. Nor would I expect you to! But I would like your views on what happens next with the newsletter. And I want you to be honest with me on this.
Here, I pose some options for you. Would you prefer that I write more content in each newsletter, but only send them out twice a week? Or, would you prefer slightly less content in each newsletter, but every day? Or maybe something else - if you have a suggestion please email me it! Or maybe you like things as they are. Simply indicate your preference in the below poll.
If I am being honest with you, any of these options suit me. I guess that when I started with a daily newsletter I thought that at some point there would be a natural end to posting every day - if only through personal burnout. I am nowhere close to that position yet, as I love writing for you and there is no end of content out there. But, as a lot of you have provided feedback on this, i thought I would ask you all your opinion. Whatever the majority choose will happen from the 400th edition. So please vote!
If you have any suggestions for interesting news items or bits of research to include in this newsletter, you can email me.
Mobility Camp is taking place on 29th September 2023 in Birmingham. It would be great to see you there. Get your tickets now.
James
Active travel means active people
Well, that’s obvious isn’t it? We know from the technical studies underpinning the HEAT tool for assessing the health impacts of active travel measures that when people give up walking and cycling, they often don’t substitute that activity for another physical activity. For reasons unknown, though I personally theorise that travel time may play a role - its hard to find time for the gym when you are spending an hour commuting by car instead of by bicycle. But, does it work the other way?
Very simply, a new analysis shows that yes, getting people using active travel does increase other physical activity. Well, maybe. Its hard to be absolutely 100% certain, and the evidence is more mixed than a definite. And people certainly don’t reduce their other physical activity in response to walking and cycling more. So maybe a good way to get more active more generally is to start walking and cycling to work more?
The who pays planning merry-go-round
Currently in the UK, the Government is consulting on changes to the planning system that will see the introduction of a new infrastructure levy on developments to pay for things like highways infrastructure. It has been met with some - shall we say strong opinions? Personally, I have no firm view apart from the current system of developer contributions negotiated on a scheme-by-scheme basis and the Community Infrastructure Levy is very open to developers ducking out of paying for things promised. So what would work?
That is a very hard question to answer. The private benefit of a public decision (to grant planning permission) is well understood in terms of capturing the value of that land. Instead of thinking about the precise mechanism, lets think about first principles. Certainty and transparency are critical elements of successful value capture for public infrastructure (something developer contributions often doesn’t do). Minimising the points of failure is also a good thing, where the current system is reliant solely on planners to achieve wider social aims. No system will ever be perfect, and different groups disagree on what its aims should be. But that doesn’t mean that it can’t be changed.
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.
Singapore to roll out (literally) more Robocops (The Register)
The body’s predictive processor (Science)
Social cost of carbon estimates have increased over time (Nature Climate Change)
Against expectations, oil and gas remain cheap (The Economist)
Something interesting
Ever wanted to know what city you would need to visit to have air quality so bad you can almost eat the air? Apparently, this is Lahore in Pakistan. The concentration of particulates is WAY above recommended safe levels.
If you do nothing else today, then do this
The World Economic Forum and Connected Places Catapult collaborated on a report on data for the cities of tomorrow. You should read it.