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‘He lied and lied’ – an attack on climate policy?
“He lied and lied”. This is a bold headline to level at a sitting prime minister. A reminder of the Seven Principles of Public Life: Selflessness, Integrity, Objectivity, Accountability, Openness, Honesty, Leadership. They’re important aren’t they? A bedrock upon which we should expect politics of any colour to be founded? Of course if you don’t Read more
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Hurry the hell up – or not: a stocktake on road transport decarbonisation
I know – you can’t take any more. Madness reigns. But here’s a slide deck on how we’re doing on road transport decarbonisation in the UK. Mark Frost asked me to present today at an Urban Design London online event, alongside Aoife Dudley & Esther Kurland. Mark sensibly suggested adding ‘timely’ to the title. I updated the slides again Read more
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What the hell is going on? The Plan for Drivers
In today’s edition of ‘What The Hell is Going On?’ we take a look at what the 50 million driving licence holders in Great Britain have been waiting for – “The Plan for Drivers”. The cover message to this policy paper states that “The plan includes a list of actions that government will pursue with Read more
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Seeking advice on buying an electric vehicle
I’m a car owner and driver (though it will come as a shock to the Government that I am pleased where I get the chance to drive less and only want to get from A to B without any frills). The car dependent system depresses me and I’m looking for leaders to change the system Read more
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Let’s scrap the sustainable travel hierarchy
Welcome to today’s edition from Paris of ‘What The Hell Is Going on?’ in which we ask… WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? We consider the scrapping of the Sustainable Travel Hierarchy – naively advocated by so-called experts – and its replacement, the Sustainable Power Hierarchy. To any half-decent campaign manager, spin doctor or newspaper Read more
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Rosebank oilfield given the go-ahead – hurrah for profit and power
Rose-BANK $$$ given the go ahead. Congrats to the oil and gas industry, their lobbyists and shareholders. 09:26 news today – “Shares in Ithaca Energy, which will partner with Norway’s Equinor to develop the huge Rosebank oil field, 80 miles west of the Shetland islands, have jumped more than 8% on news of the approval of the controversial Read more
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Public Service Announcement: Polite reminder about ‘The Seven Principles of Public Life’
Public service announcement – a polite reminder to all concerned about ‘The Seven Principles of Public Life’. I appreciate that they were published nearly 30 years ago but it appears they are still meant to be in effect. I wonder whether in hindsight these should have been called ‘The Seven Practices of Public Life’ as Read more
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Metal mashup of a prime minister’s speech
I know you’ve been concerned about a range of worrying heavy metal proposals and today I want to confirm that they’ll never happen. The proposal that all Radio One listeners should be forced to listen to heavy metal. I’ve scrapped it. The proposal that you should be forced to listen to seven different types of Read more
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Short-term decisions for a political future
I didn’t sleep well last night. Bad news day yesterday and a chance to talk about it on BBC Radio Bristol this morning. Media interviews tend to be short lived and you don’t quite know the angle that the interviewer will take. I was on the John Darvall show an hour ago. The motivation for Read more
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You say scenario, I say scenario
Scenario planning is now entering the mainstream of transport planning – great! But hang on, now people are discovering that scenarios are not so easy-peasy when you try and develop and use them. You say ‘scenario’, but I say ‘scenario’. Oh dear, confusion is starting to creep in. What a mess! Last week at the Read more
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Death Plunger – our family’s new (imaginary) black metal band
Our family has created a sensational new black metal band called ‘Death Plunger’. Our debut single is ‘The Final Minute’. In this exclusive announcement we are able to share the artwork for the single and the song’s lyrics. Unfortunately the band is currently an imaginary one though we are all committed to its success. I’m Read more
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My journey by train from the UK to Southern Spain
My family left our rented villa in southern Spain at 7am this Saturday morning. A few hours later and they are already home. They flew. I will arrive home two whole days after them IF things go to schedule. Today it’s Malaga-Madrid-Barcelona, youth hostel overnight. Tomorrow is Barcelona-Paris, hotel overnight. Monday is Paris-London-local station. Some Read more
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www.mottmac.com/futures The challenge Mainstream transport planning has been and continues to be in the ‘forecast-led paradigm’. Yet we are confronted by deep uncertainty about the future as we bear witness to significant behaviour change and technological innovation – brought about in part by the collision and merging of the digital age with the motor age.…
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So its out! Amid the political turmoil in Westminster, we have a Government document setting out its strategy for the future of urban mobility. Having contributed my views as part of the Mott MacDonald submission to the call for evidence and views on the Future of Mobility last summer, I was curious to see what the Strategy has to say. Here…
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From traffic-flow theory to people-flow theory. This is what happens when a transport professor has insomnia! Thoughts welcome – I’ve posted this while still sleep-deprived!! This is my musing regarding how highways dominated by cars compares with highways dominated by buses. If speed were a crude proxy for convenience then its self-evident that while the…
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Driverless cars – it can be a divisive topic. Some people love them. Some people hate them. The lovers and the haters are like oil and water in my experience. They just don’t come together well – they don’t like mixing. Yet oil and water can be helped to mix by adding an emulsifier. Hence…
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There is a burgeoning volume of literature on autonomous vehicles. We wanted to cut to the chase and identify the most important issues for our clients (especially those in the public sector) to be aware of and addressing. We have produced a crowd-sourced report that draws upon our thinking across Mott MacDonald globally which we…
What the hell is going on? 