Now, call me radical, but I’d expect a “modern” bridge design intended to last for 120 years to include lifts or other provision so that everyone can get to/from all the platforms.

https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/multi-million-pound-bridge-replacement-in-bedfordshire-to-begin-next-week

#TransportPlanning #NetworkRail #FFS

How can #ActivityBasedModels support #ActiveTravel & innovative mobility services? 🚶 🚴 🚌

Webinar of the European Association for Activity-Based Modelling #EAABM on 14 May (14:00–15:30 CET) exploring 2 challenges:
👉building #SyntheticPopulations
👉ensuring #ModelUsability

2 case studies
🔹Cambridge AcBM: assessing active travel & equity impacts (Laurence Chittock)
🔹Hamburg mobiTopp: supporting MOIA’s ride-pooling operations (Gabriel Wilkes)

More: https://eaabm.org/activities/
#TransportPlanning #ABM

A thought about cars and power

The ownership and use of cars embodies one imbalance of power - that of the driver, armed and armoured by the mass, bulk, speed and noise of their vehicle, compared to the unarmed pedestrian or unprotected cyclist. It also necessitates the creation of another imbalance of power - the imposition of heavy handed and simplistic rules, oppressive bureaucracy, stringent enforcement and firm punishment, to balance and restrain the tendency for motorists to abuse their power. If the first power were not abused by some motorists, the second would not be pressed into being. Does the second power also promote the first, by creating a frame that encourages anything it does not forbid and leading those behind the wheel to probe every boundary before, emboldened, driving over it? If society could be inculcated to a mindset and attitude that would end abuse of the first power, such that the second could be done away with, would we drive differently or simply stop driving?

#Transport #TransportPlanning #TheWarOnCars #BanCars

https://occasionalducks.com/2025/04/a-thought-about-cars-and-power

I’ve been reading Lynn Sloman’s “Car Sick” and though 20 years old it still has a lot of relevance.
I’m quite taken by this diagram.

#Transport #TransportPlanning #TheWarOnCars #BanCars

This is a bad decision, and against the advice of the Planning Inspectorate (yes, the PI is occasionally right, hard though that may be to believe at times). There is no need for it whatsoever, and a very pressing need not to add to our emissions. Crisis, what crisis?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy4vg2d9v7no

Remember, #FlyingIsForDucks, and you are #NotADuck.

#TransportPlanning #LLA #LondonLutonAirport #LutonAirport #DontLookUp #CrisisWhatCrisis #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis

Random thought - pedestrians and cyclists have been repeatedly found to spend more in local shops than motorists (despite shop keepers’ often mistakenly believing the opposite), but AFAIK there isn’t currently a way to take this economic benefit into account as part of scheme appraisal (unlike health, air quality, congestion, CO2 etc in the Active Mode Appraisal Toolkit). Shouldn’t there be? How could this be done?

#TransportPlanning

Cabinet minister on the Today Programme a few minutes ago said that “anyone who has any transport needs will benefit from the freeze in fuel duty”. I wish this was his idea of a funny April Fool, given the 50% increase in single bus fares a couple of months ago, 4.6% rise in rail fares last month, and impact of the driving encouraged by a(nother) duty freeze on pedestrians and cyclists. But while if asked the government will say it “doesn’t think that transport is just cars and really wants a to encourage more sustainable transport” I think he was serious.

Hurrah for #Autonormativity, also known as #CarBrain…

#ActionsSpeakLouderThanWords #TransportPlanning #Transport #Radio4 #BBCRadio4 #Radio4Today #TodayProgramme

Once again my professional body indicates it is out of touch with the local government sector of the industry. It is at least a decade since I’ve worked somewhere with a “training budget” (yes, this is part of why we are in permanent crisis, thanks for asking).

#TransportPlanning #LocalGovernment #CIHT