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Ideas for the Integrated National Transport Strategy
💡Dear Department for Transport (DfT), United Kingdom, here are some ideas that you called for for your new Integrated National Transport Strategy for England. Would love to discuss! I’ve indulged myself today looking in detail at the DfT’s call for ideas and preparing in turn my thoughts. The extended article below is in three sections Read more
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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as an antidote to maga-madness
As self-parody consumes inept billionnaires playing games with society, and as I read about the horrors of colonialism, my brain has found solace in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I’m reading Amitav Ghosh’s book ‘The Nutmeg’s Curse’ (Parables for a Planet in Crisis) at the moment. In talking of the War of the Worlds Read more
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The darkest of days
I know I won’t be the only person feeling physically sick this morning. How many of us will have a day today where we feel we are going through the motions, rearranging the deckchairs? As I’ve got older I’ve come to realise how complicated the world is. My privileged upbringing protected me from the dark Read more
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Concern for self versus concern for others
Controversial! Have you thought about the balance between your concern for yourself and your concern for others when it comes to behaviours affecting climate change? At the first Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation (CIHT) CLIMATES workshop, a participant who I greatly respect introduced me to the simple notion of concern for self versus concern Read more
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Question Sixty Nine
Does ’69’ have meaning for you? I’m not talking about the sexual connotations. I’m talking about what is now lovingly referred to by those of us in the world of ‘decide and provide’ planning as Question Sixty Nine. The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was published in 2012 and has seen revisions and updates in Read more
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In-group and out-group thinking to interpret white male privilege
A good friend of mine pointed me to social identity theory. In a nutshell if you belong to the in-group you begin to favour it and become hostile toward the out-group and feel superior to the out-group. Self-esteem and status increase due to belonging to the ‘superior’ in-group. This helps explain prejudice against out-groups (thanks Read more
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We are in the danger zone
Have you got 74 minutes to look at what’s behind the curtain? To see what the science has to show us? To look beyond the crap we are fed for the most part in our daily lives? If you have, and like me hadn’t seen it before, watch this documentary if you can – ‘Breaking Read more
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The aviation game
Juxtaposition. This lunchtime I was hit by two news items – Just Stop Oil targeting Heathrow Airport this morning, and the first big carrier to drop its climate goal. Why not play this game yourself? Find nine news items on a topic that has lots of question marks around it. One can imagine two world Read more
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Emissions from aviation – bunker or bunkum?
Bunkers or bunkum? Once upon a time there was a flight of fancy that aviation only accounted for 1% of UK transport emissions. Then international aviation was included and this increased to 20%. New ‘bottom-up’ research suggests the figure is more like 60%. What the hell is going on? Academic colleagues Zia Wadud, Adeel Muhammad Read more
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TAP-SWOT in a BOX – paper published
Remember TAP-SWOT in a Box? We are pleased to let you know that a paper on this serious game methodology for socialising Triple Access Planning has now been published. Triple Access Planning (TAP) sits in the ‘decide and provide’ paradigm. It is vision-led, access-focused and accommodates uncertainty. It is contrasted with (some) traditional transport planning Read more
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Roger Hallam and colleagues sentenced to prison
I woke this morning at 5am and the first thing I did was read this 12-minute account from Roger Hallam about his trial and conviction. It is harrowing and shocking. In a british court. In 2024. Please spare a few minutes to read it. “I outlined four characteristics of the effects of emitting greenhouse gases Read more
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Transport planning history in the making
It was my great honour to be part of transport planning history yesterday. The first ever cohort of transport planning degree apprentices graduated from Aston University after their five-year journey on a course that Lucy Rackliff had the vision to establish back in 2019. Huge congratulations to the graduates: Andrew Carter MCIHT EngTech, Thomas Emery, Read more
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10 reasons for the walking renaissance Following some great input from colleagues on Linkedin to my article (https://lnkd.in/e7h_SZ9), I’ve summarised below 10 possible contributing explanations for the 31% increase in walking trip rate in England (for trips under one mile) between 2015 and 2018 as indicated by National Travel Survey data: 1. Misrepresentation of actual…
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As you may know, I am a big fan of ‘Walking as a Service’ (WaaS). Thanks to Silicon Valley harnessing the power of geography in the form of Google Maps Navigation, three key questions that could stand in the way of choosing to walk can now be answered: How do I get there? How far…
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12 years ago the UK Chancellor asked Professor Julia King to “examine the vehicle and fuel technologies that, over the next 25 years, could help to decarbonise road transport, particularly cars”. Her report noted that “The global challenge is to support increases in road transport use, in a sustainable, environmentally-responsible way” [emphasis added]. It considered that…
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Like many, I have felt my awareness and concern over the seriousness of climate change growing in recent times as peaceful protest combines with substantial scientific evidence to strongly suggest we are in big trouble. I awoke this morning to the Tweet below from the BBC which shocked me. I decided today was the day…
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My colleague Paul Hammond asked me to come up with five thoughts for the future of transport planning as part of a gathering this weekend of c100 bright minds from within Mott MacDonald’s growing population of transport planners. I thought I’d share them on Linkedin and see what other people’s thoughts are. 1 Black swans…
What the hell is going on? 