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Rosie Jones is a national treasure
Rosie Jones IS a national treasure, and – to quote Annie Macmanus – is a f**king legend. Susie and I had the great privilege and belly-laughing experience to see her ‘Triple Threat’ stand-up show last night. “If you’re not disabled or gay you won’t be leaving here tonight until you are” she joked. What an Read more
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Take the risk or lose the chance
Take the risk or lose the chance. Just over six years ago I started my current role with Mott MacDonald. I was stepping into the unknown and leaving a role I was well established in at my university. While weighing up this key decision in my life, my eldest daughter Florrie bought me this sign Read more
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Changemakers – a podcast with the wonderful Annette Smith talking about FUTURES
Annette and I first started working together in the last century! We were once ‘young professionals’ and part of the Transport Visions Network. Years later we’ve found ourselves taking on the future together again. I’m delighted to be part of this new podcast from the University of the West of England in which Annette Smith and I reminisce about Read more
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Happy valentines day, I’d fly anywhere just to be with you
Happy valentines day, I’d fly anywhere just to be with you. Taylor Swift’s private jet use puts carbon credits, personal choice and personal influence under the spotlight. Taylor Swift is making headlines, and not just attracting the attention of swifties. For those in the dark, it seems she now has only one private jet. This Read more
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From ugly to beautiful – the case of Le Plessis-Robinson
Want some hope and inspiration? Wondering if it is possible to change things from awful to beautiful? Then step away from what is at the top of your to-do list and spend 13 mins watching this video. To those who have opportunistically weaponised ’15 minute city’ in pursuit of political populism and profit, stop stealing Read more
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It never ceases to amaze me how Antonio Guterres continues to come out with ‘clarion call’ statements
It never ceases to amaze me how Antonio Guterres continues to come out with ‘clarion call’ statements that you’d hope would galvanise unified and collective action for survival as we stand on the brink, but don’t. Here are some examples: 🔥 “We are in the fight of our lives, and we are losing” (COP27) 🔥 Read more
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We are operating here in privatised public space – our ‘club membership’ can be revoked by the club at any time
I’m a metal-loving transport nerd and wondering what the future holds for this platform which is why I set up https://glennlyons.blog/. If you regularly use this platform as your primary means of keeping in touch with your professional network and getting involved in exchange of knowledge and opinion, how would you feel if your account Read more
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10 years ago today I began my secondment as Strategy Director with the New Zealand Ministry of Transport
10 years ago today I began my secondment as Strategy Director with the Te Manatū Waka – Ministry of Transport (New Zealand). I flew over 11,000 miles to get there. I ended up making the NZ trip four times – over 90,000 fossil-fuelled miles. It was one of the great privileges of my career working as Read more
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Please don’t tell the Government that I spent three hours IN my working day in an event on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Please don’t tell the Government that I spent three hours IN my working day in an event on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. For those of you who may be alarmed by this admission, please be assured that no productivity was harmed in my taking part in this event – my first workshop of the day Read more
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Madness lies in doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result – from transport planning to Triple Access Planning
Madness lies in doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result. So instead of transport planning in the paradigm of predict and provide, we bring you Triple Access Planning (TAP) in the paradigm of Decide and Provide. While transport planning has continued to evolve, it has remained tethered for too Read more
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Götterdämmerung Syndrome
Götterdämmerung Syndrome – “as death approaches, they [narcissists] do their best to destroy as much of the world as they can”. I’ve just reached the half-way point of The Ministry For The Future and the passage in the image below stands out. A quote from an article on the website Psychology Today called ‘How Narcissism Read more
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Trustee of the Global Warming Policy Foundation
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 Read more
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Do you know I was a setting out engineer on a by-pass construction in the 1990s? I also worked in a consultancy designing by-pass schemes in Wales then. Both as a student civil engineer. I haven’t strongly associated myself with highways in the many years in between. However, more recently I’ve had the honour of…
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More climate action comes from more people taking climate action. I’ve not been brave enough to expose myself to risk of arrest. I think I may be more use to the cause by taking action through being a constructively challenging professional alongside changing my personal behaviours. What action are you taking or would you like…
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If you haven’t heard about The Plan for Drivers then you must have been asleep this week under a pavement-parked super-sized vehicle. To end this farcical few days in transport planning in the UK (England), I have had the privilege of being asked by The Planner RTPI to write an opinion piece on this vote-chasing fodder that…
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“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…
What the hell is going on? 