Transportist: March 2024
Welcome to the latest issue of The Transportist, especially to our new readers. As always you can follow on Mastodon or RSS.
This month
How vulnerable is Australia’s infrastructure to climate change?
Is the 30 Minute City Dystopian?
Posts
News
How vulnerable is Australia’s infrastructure to climate change?
I was interviewed by Sinéad Mangan, Presenter on the ABC Australia-Wide, available on the ABC Listen app and the internet about
How vulnerable is Australia’s infrastructure to climate change?
Over the last 3 years major flood events have severed key freight and transport links around the country. With climate change expected to bring more extreme weather events, how resilient is our national transport infrastructure and how much is the climate factored into its planning? Guest/Audio: David Levinson, Professor of Transport in the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Sydney
Is the 30-Minute City Dystopian?
No. Why would you ask such a stupid question?
Because I got quoted in the this piece in the non-prize winning Washington Examiner:
Australia wants to pursue a dystopian agenda by creating a ’30-minute city’
The author is clearly having trouble with the English language, so let me introduce the distinction between Cannot, Can, and Must.
Cannot - it is impossible
Can - it is possible
Must - it is required.
The idea of the 30-minute city is to move from Cannot to Can, NOT from Can to Must. That is, all things being equal, it would be better if people can reach more things in less in time by all modes, including walking, biking, and public transport, than if they cannot. This is freedom-increasing. Why The Washington Examiner has taken to advocating against freedom of movement and against increasing opportunity is beyond me.
I know, COVID-lockdowns have broken people’s brains, and were largely a strategic error (especially the second time). And making more things closer rather than farther may make lockdown more bearable, but for the 99% of the time we are not in lockdown, it is also better. You may want to blame capitalism, but capitalism doesn’t care.
Instead, remember it is the Fascists who really wants ghettos and lockdowns. This entire discussion is just one more case of projection.
Posts
Access Delayed is Access Denied
The maxim "justice delayed is justice denied" is a well-known principle in the legal world, emphasising the importance of timely justice. We should extend this concept to the realm of access. Delayed access equates to denied access, with all of the efficiency and equity losses that follow. The timely provision of access is crucial for individuals to ad…
Light and Heavy Transport
It’s the heaviness of the Mac that allows iOS to remain light. - John Gruber What a computer is to me is it’s the most remarkable tool that we’ve ever come up with, and it’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.” - Steve Jobs (originally c. 1980, read the article by
Submission to the “Inquiry into current and future public transport needs in Western Sydney”
I recently made a submission to a NSW Parliamentary Inquiry. The text is below. My testimony is available on YouTube. Introduction I am pleased to respond to the “Inquiry into current and future public transport needs in Western Sydney” I am a Professor of Transport at the University of Sydney, and have worked in the field for 35 years. I lead the TransportLab Research group in the School of Civil Engineering.
On Universities and Plagiarism
There has been discussion lately about University Presidents and life on American university campuses. American University Presidents (1) It is always good to see overpaid university presidents justifying their high salary by leaving their posts due to their inability to perform verbal gymnastics and their failure to appear to be on both sides of every issue. [
News and Links
Luna
Odysseus Moon lander `tipped over on touchdown’ [Remember, Homer warned you, everyone on Odysseus’s crew died the first time, why in Gaia’s name would you name a lander after this man?]
London
New London Overground Line Names were announced. (Liberty, Lionesses, Suffragette, Mildmay, Weaver, Windrush). A bit politically correct, the lines are already disproportionately female-named: Victoria, Elizabeth, and Jubilee (after Elizabeth II’s Jubilee), Metropolitan after Mother City. Seems sexist given all the complaints public transport gets, like when hurricanes used to only be named after women.
Above average names include Liberty and Windrush; Middling names include Weaver, the others deserve a rethink. (Though naming a shopping centre along the Suffragette line Suffragette City might be cool, the historical links are nebulous at best). Seriously, naming the line after the women’s footie team that cheated their way to victory over the Matildas? I suppose typical. [Diamond Geezer with another POV]
New York
99% Invisible Podcast is running a series on reading the Power Broker about Robert Moses by Robert Caro. I read this book in elementary school (my New York-based Aunt Maitie (short for Mathilda) gave it to me when I told her I was interested in planning, along with Jane Jacobs and a few other things.) I am not going to read it again, it’s long and my attention span is far shorter than it was when I was 9, but it is good to hear the discussion.
Germany
Why Germany has 11 Fake Bus Stops. [Video]
California
Waymo recalls self-driving cars after two hit the same truck.
Separately: Waymo Robotaxi Set on Fire in San Francisco
Apple still increasingly testing self-driving vehicles, 4x between 2023 and 2022, 30x 2023 vs. 2021.
Rebecca Solnit: In the Shadow of Silicon Valley: Losing San Francisco
Minnesota
Minnesota boosters (you know, the kind Sinclair Lewis’s documentation of won him a Nobel Prize in Literature) want to build a Hyperloop now. [StarTribune]
Perth
China
Safety
BBC: Car Sizes Embiggening. Research: This is killing people.