Josephine Roper @jroper@transportation.social

From Pete Dyson’s ‘Transport for Humans: Are we nearly there yet?’, which I haven’t yet read, but looked like a good read from the parts I flicked through at #utsg2023

Anyway, the current energy that appears to be in the Welsh government to pivot transport planning towards meeting access & climate goals rather than increasing mobility was impressive.

(5/5)

wouldn't have been able to get to Paris, from anywhere in Germany or Switzerland, the next day - it was a Friday in summer, and absolutely every high speed train that would get in by the time I needed to be there was fully booked.

So I did a 16 hour bus trip - not fun but seats were available, and I'm sure nearly always available, because the bus companies can scale demand up and down to the holidays quite easily. Perhaps this is possible in theory with trains but not in Europe right now?

(4/)

That one was interesting. I try to go everywhere by train in Europe (7000km, 98 hours over the past 2 months...) and I love having that opportunity compared to Australia, but you also start to see the issues, especially inflexibility to cope with problems or periods of increased demand.

Like I had a night train cancelled in Germany because of storms - doesn't happen to buses. I could get on another one a few hours later (an uncomfortable overnight seater not a sleeping bed) but then

(3/)

Someone asked about closing Cardiff Airport and he said that's not on the table yet - still perceived as too many economic + 'national prestige' reasons not to stop subsidising air travel until the rest of the UK does

In his opinion, in a state of climate emergency, investment in buses is going to give much more climate reduction per dollar, quicker, than investment in rail in Britain

(2/)

At #utsg2023 (a UK transport conference in Cardiff), and had one of the best and most relevant opening talks I’ve been to - from Lee Waters, Wales Deputy Minister for Climate Change and also Transport - because they've put transport under climate change.

Among other interesting things - they've just changed the default urban speed limit in Wales to 20mph rather than 30. Done a major review of road infrastructure investment.

(1/)

Saw a classic example of excessive turn radius / curb extensions needed today - corner of Queen Margaret Drive and Kelvin Drive, Glasgow.

Kelvin Drive is 20mph in both directions, so just a local road. But set up like people are trying to turn into it at 50. I was quite nervous to cross the first time, but eventually realised hardly anyone was turning in.

Found some plans to fix it as part of a bike lane project a few years ago, but not yet implemented.

Someone once told me that after you get a complex #Python environment working, you just keep that stable till the end of your PhD, don't fuck around with it.

Today I am fucking around. Wish me luck.

Took the train to Salzburg on the weekend to see a friend from Slovenia.

The historic centre of Salzburg is a pedestrian area controlled by bollards, but with some car access as you can see.

From what I can find: disabled people with a Euro-key can park inside, taxis can enter anytime (saw quite a few) and the bollards are down for deliveries before 11am. I guess before 11am the risk of confused/lazy tourists driving in is considered lower.

It seemed like a good balance.

It's an example of how a suburb built within a 2.5km ring of a train station can easily be made very bikable, and this could be a great way to retrofit existing suburbs.

But it doesn't necessarily make it highly walkable, which is sometimes assumed or sortof glossed over ... the two things are really very different.

that reduces the walk from 30 mins to 15 mins. The bus comes every 20 mins. It goes to the train station - otherwise a 20 min walk from our place.

Normally those kind of distances would be fine for me, but I have a knee injury (from excessive rockclimbing) and am trying to rest it and feeling a bit trapped.

I really recommend leg injuries to walkability people, they always give you a new perspective!

🧵

Staying in Gilching, a sort of commuter village 30 mins outside Munich. I always find it interesting as a place that seems very bikable, but not that walkable.

First picture is the triplex we are staying in, middle building. Right is a duplex (I think), not sure about left. Sneaky density that looks like traditional houses.

Others show parts of my route to the climbing gym. On a bike it would be great - straight, flat and fast. On foot... eh, it's a little bit dull and far.

I took a bus 🧵

And then there was lightning, and now we are stuck. Germany!!!

Ed- underway on a new train, apparently will get to Munich an hour and a half late. Luckily it’s our last major train of the day.

Train of the day: Paris to Munich, ~8 hours including local connections

Train snack: cake salée with nettles and brie, from my belle-mère, coconut, from the station

French boyfriend complaints: the reduction in train speed after crossing the border. “Germans are *paying* to go this slow?”

Some pretty streets without street parking I've seen on this trip 😍

Though the Japanese ones are much more pleasant to walk or cycle than the French ones. Perhaps partly design - speed limits and the French street having a tiny footpath, implying that pedestrians should stay there, versus small Japanese streets often having either wide painted footpaths or no footpath - but a lot of it is just the driving culture.

At least the interminable Eurostar line has a pleasant view of Gare du Nord

Aside: you can play spot the dog here, and compare to the number of humans waiting. Whenever the topic of pets on public transport comes up in Sydney, people seem to imagine every carriage full of fur. But in places it’s allowed, I usually see proportions like this - perhaps 1-2% of people with a pet. And this is off peak - long distance lines at 11am on a Thursday. I imagine on commuter services it’s even lower.