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Roads to Net Zero
“However well we think we are doing, we aren’t doing well enough”. This quote from Stephen Elderkin captures for me the essence of our Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation (CIHT) national conference yesterday focused on ‘Roads to Net Zero’. Given the political headwinds “don’t shit in your own nest” (a latin phrase Steve assured Read more
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Remembering the father of transport planning
Paying tribute to the father of transport planning. A remarkable man who stopped flying or cruising because of his care for the environment. His last words, reflecting his approach to work and life, “it’s been a pleasure”. I had the honour last night to attend on behalf of the Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation Read more
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Are you consciously weighing up the difference around you?
Karen McShane is one of the most inspirational women I know. I am proud to know her as a friend and colleague. It therefore saddens me that she has been given an amplified sense of being othered by a recent supreme court ruling. We have been taking important steps forwards towards a more inclusive society Read more
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What news following Earth Day 2025?
22 April was Earth Day – so what big news has broken since? Let’s take a look to Scotland, China and the USA. One saddens me, one inspires me, and one defies emotion. We can all relate to the often unbridgeable ‘policy-action gap’ but without having in place a bold policy position in the first Read more
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Deafening silence is the sound of a thousand silent screams
You hear that? It’s the sound of thousands of silent screams. When news breaks and people who know a thing or two about the subject aren’t saying anything it’s the deafening silence that results. Sometimes we find ourselves between a rock and a hard place. The best we can do to be our authentic selves Read more
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Trump is now coming for metal – prepare the shield wall metalhead!
⚠️ URGENT calling all metalheads – prepare the shield wall 🤘 Trump is taking the fight to metal. Stand strong warriors of the world, as well all know, metal is a worldwide community around which you cannot build walls. I was shocked this week to see Trump contemplating metal tariffs. Having just got my ticket Read more
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Tea ladies
No disrespect to tea ladies, but have you been mistaken for one? Our brains can be very quick to judge and form impressions. When you go into a meeting or interview, how conscious are you of being wrongly judged or of being too quick to judge others? Search online for ‘mistaken for the tea lady’. Read more
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Teaching doublespeak to children using DEI as an example
Imagine trying to educate children on helping create a better world. Would you use doublespeak to do so? Let’s consider an example. Good morning class. We’re going to be talking today about diversity, equity and inclusion. It’s a phrase that has three parts. Let’s look at each one shall we? Diversity is about is all Read more
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Mother Nature issues Consecutive Disorder prohibiting list of words
In a remarkable turn of events, Mother Nature has issued a Consecutive Disorder in which she has identified a list of words that now appear to be prohibited from being used. The courts are scrambling to establish whether or not this is legally enforcible with many businesses and politicians nonplussed and angry at what this Read more
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Making difference invisible – an enduring feature of society?
Making difference invisible seems to be an enduring feature of modern society, as does making sure privilege is protected. I remember the posts I’ve put on LinkedIn that get unusually high traction. In March 2021 I posted (https://lnkd.in/edE8p7HR) while I was half-way through reading ‘Invisible Women’: “Half the population hidden in plain sight. Essential reading Read more
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Digital Genocide
I have been an academic throughout my career. I am shaken to the core by what I have just read. A researcher in the US federal system has just had an opinion piece published in the BMJ (one of the world’s oldest general medical journals – formerly called the British Medical Journal). It has been Read more
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The Gulf of Fragile Masculinity
It’s like being forced to watch the second series of a poorly produced Netflix drama. I had a look on Google Maps and it currently says ‘Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)’. I found the meme below on Bluesky. And the four-year period is barely underway. Today is a day of love. Whatever your gender Read more
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As many of us stagger into Christmas, dazed by the surreal existences we now lead where we simultaneously get on with the day job while facing the extential threat of climate change, peaceful protesters are being imprisoned. When I began my career in transport over 30 years ago I could not have imagined the digitalised…
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On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me…. six triple access futures, and a mental model in a pear tree. Daniela Paddeu and I are pleased to share our new paper (free to access) which sets out how systems thinking can be used to make sense of the Triple Access System we…
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COP28 or COPOUT28? On the day the thrashed-out result emerged, I have been proudly attending the graduation ceremony of my son Robin Lyons. Alongside running Ergon Theatre (one of the UK’s leading climate theatre companies) and his own carbon literacy training company ‘Climate Leadership Training’ (https://www.climateleadershiptraining.co.uk/), Robin has studied full-time for his Masters in Environmental Governance at the…
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Just Stop Oil. How much plainer could it be? We are up shit creek. Oil lobbyists, right through into the heart of COP28 and with their tendrils into governments and the media, are fighting like cornered rats. They are banking on the fact that most people seem either ambivalent, in denial as the first stage…
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Climate action, Equality, diversity and inclusion, and Professionalism. And Megadeth🤘 The Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation (CIHT) Annual Luncheon is a gathering to behold. 1700+ people together in one sitting to reflect upon the year gone by and the imperatives ahead that require our attention. Our President Karen McShane was stateswomanlike in her speeches with heartfelt and eloquent…
What the hell is going on? 