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.
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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
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@jroper What Wales is doing re climate and transport is indeed an inspiration.
We are working to reach a similar reckoning in Denmark: https://concito.dk/en/concito-bloggen/groen-omstilling-kraever-ny-tilgang-til-infrastrukturbeslutninger
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?
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