Josephine Roper

@[email protected]
63 Followers
69 Following
94 Posts

Writing to you from a long distance train table, probably. Australian, currently a postdoc at UZH, Zurich 🇹🇭, in Urban Analytics.

Interested in access, walkability, sustainable transport in general, open source urban analytics. Transport cyclist, climber, mum, mostly plant based.

Personal pagehttps://josephineroper.com/
Publicationshttps://www.researchgate.net/profile/Josephine-Roper
Githubhttps://github.com/JosephineRoper/THERE
Climbing by bike and foot, Sydney and surroundshttps://carlesscragging.wordpress.com/
Josephine RoperJan 19
Paid a wild amount to ride a mountain railway up here, but really needed a day out of the ZĂŒrich cloud!
Josephine RoperDec 5

Whoops! Had to ride home (just 10 mins) with the lil head bobbling on my back as he'd completely passed out from our morning activities.

As any parent can guess, he woke up when I tried to carry him in and refused to nap again...

I think we need one of those comfy looking bike trailers 😁

Josephine RoperNov 3
Panorama from a Swiss bus stop on the way to do some #rockclimbing
Josephine RoperOct 10

And one cheerful update: settled in Zurich, living (for now) opposite a tram interchange/stop with 5 lines, buses, grassed tracks, the works.... the dream public transport life!

Picture from a little touristy walk through the centre.

Josephine RoperJul 26, 2025

Streetcar baby 🚋🚋 
Parenthood gives you access to whole new universes of online arguments, like about whether you should let your baby cry to learn to sleep better at night, or whether this is cruel.

Both sides tend to say at some point “ofc sometimes you’re in the car and you just have to let them cry till you get there”.


I’m refining a leap in from the side: ‘maybe this is not inevitable, but just another negative of car dependency?’
 So far mostly to confusion


Josephine RoperFeb 17, 2025

“Plowed” bike lane on Bloor with free jump at end.

(I’m fine with things taking a while to get neatened up. Snow is pretty and still novel for me. But some of the half-assed jobs make me laugh!)

Josephine RoperFeb 16, 2025
Cars: beautifully hidden
Streetcar: beautifully cosy
Show threadJosephine RoperJan 11, 2025

Made it! Nice trip down in the end, 13 hours over two days. Wouldn’t want to do it alone but that goes for most ways of travelling with a baby, even a very cute and easy one.

Less clear provision for babies on Amtrak, at least this line, than on airlines, eg no change table in the toilets. But being able to walk around any time is so good. And no security/customs/baggage waiting except a little bit at Niagara.

Show threadJosephine RoperJan 10, 2025

Hard to capture the glinting of the ice on the Hudson but it’s absolutely beautiful.

As well as catering to personal convictions and a professional interest in sustainable transport, I really like the way slower travel feels like paying respect to distance and the land you’re passing through.

Josephine RoperJan 10, 2025
Train from #Toronto to #NY with mum and the little fella. Split it into two days because not sure how the baby would go, but the first day was very pleasant. #viarail staff much nicer than #Amtrak and the US generally feels way more foreign to us as Australians than Toronto does.