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Compulsory National Service – FFS
[Apologies. The image for this post may cause offence to young people who care more about climate change than empire.] It appears the Prime Minister (or one of his SPADs) has been watching his box set of Yes Prime Minister desperately hoping to find inspiration to win a few votes. Nothing like looking back to Read more
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Archeologists are baffled
Archeologists are baffled by discovery of an ancient document that supposedly offered a guiding light in a bygone era. “We’re still unclear whether or not these principles were meant to be put into practice or just a nice theory” said Professor Xavier Rumpus, a specialist in public discourse and protest. His colleague Professor Beatrice Profitte Read more
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From Hell I Rise (and I’m NOT talking about Predict and Provide!)
Predict and Provide just keeps rising from the dead, doesn’t it? Bear with me. The album ‘From Hell I Rise’ has just arrived. A little of what you fancy does you good. Calling all my metalhead connections – this is a BIG hashtag#MetalFriday. I remember going with Robin Lyons to see Slayer for their final Read more
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Amazing women in the construction industry
Storytelling, personal journeys, and leaders walking the walk help us to nurture talent, embrace diversity and foster an inclusive working environment. But we have a long way to go. I have been at the annual Construction Industry Council (CIC) conference today on behalf of Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation (CIHT) – a gathering of Read more
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Let’s get interrailing – place your bets now
I’ve never been to Glastonbury Festival but I’m guessing getting your summer rail journey planned across Europe is on a par with the stress of whether or not you’ll get a Glasto ticket when they become available. Last year for the family holiday in southern spain I went by train (while the others flew). The Read more
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Decarbonising transport – buckle up!
Here’s your progressively zoomed-in May 2024 update on decarbonisation: globally as a whole, globally for transport, globally for direct emissions from transport, for direct emissions from transport in the UK and for car driving and flying. The story goes like this in brief: We need to reduce emissions globally by 45% compared to 2010 levels Read more
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People at the heart
Our journeys through life and careers are about people at the heart. I am increasingly aware of this as I reflect. It was therefore a most welcome opportunity this weekend to head to The Black Heart in Camden Town, London. Will Pedley will be known to many of you as the current Transport Planner of Read more
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We’ve been told so often that economic growth is a good thing that we can’t see past it
Cognitive fluency is an unconscious bias whereby things that are harder to understand are less believable. For most of us, we’ve been told so often that economic growth is a good thing that we can’t see past it. The idea of NOT wanting economic growth is unthinkable, even blasphemous to growth worshipers. I found this Read more
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Should I give up Black Mass or going to the annual Transportation Research Board conference to fight climate change?
Should I drink 5000 cans of beer each year or fly to the Transportation Research Board annual conference in Washington? The myclimate website suggests that “In order to stop climate change this is the maximum amount of CO2 that can be generated by a single person in a year: 0.600tCO2”. I’m not sure what ‘stop Read more
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Are the UK political parties in listening mode on transport? The CIHT manfesto has been launched today
BREAKING NEWS 📢 Vote for us and we’ll ensure transport gets worse more slowly than the other parties. This was Phil Goodwin’s observation years ago on why transport does not tend to feature strongly at election time. Now, beyond addressing traffic congestion, there are bigger fish to fry. So will the UK’s political parties give Read more
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Meeting someone for the first time when you feel like you’ve know them for years
Meeting someone for the first time when you feel like you’ve know them for years. I had the great pleasure of spending some time at home with Tim Sullivan today and his wonderful family as they passed through on their way back to Australia. It was impossible in the space of a couple of hours Read more
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You can ‘fly off on holidays and eat steak’ under net zero
Chris Stark – thank you for all your immensely important work with the CCC. But I’m totally non-plussed by “you can still fly off on holiday each year, and you can have a steak if you want to. There’s not a huge shift here”. I’d genuinely welcome an explanation so I understand. The message to Read more
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Thank goodness this at least means he isn’t gunning for being chair of the Climate Change Committee, an appointment that isn’t being rushed following the departure of Lord Deben. It seems he is a trustee of the Global Warming Policy Foundation. I once listened to one of their webinars just to keep a check on…
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EDI is so woke isn’t it? I mean it is only relevant to…..oh, well, hang on…..everyone! We are now online for the event below on 1 February. It’s free to attend (assuming you have the time and means) and open to all – even to politicians who are concerned that EDI may be getting too…
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It is quite chilling to read of such developments below – a “First they came for…” sensation. I find myself once again oscillating between chasing deadlines amidst a pile of day-job work and opening my eyes wide in shock at what is happening around us. “They shouted up: ‘If you don’t come down and open…
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We’re planning to get solar panels and a battery installed – do we take the Mr Spock or the Homer Simpson approach? Having catapulted ourselves into EV ownership at the start of 2024, we’re now sizing up options for installing solar panels and a battery. Wow, you really do start to enter super-geek territory once…
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Are you a civil servant wasting too much time on EDI, abusing your position as a ‘servant’ and comprimising productivity? Of course as a servant you will not be allowed to answer that here. I hasten to add that no productivity was harmed in the writing of this post: I am doing it on a…
What the hell is going on? 