Joe Lodge

In September we moved to Halifax—our new home back in the UK. We now live less than a 10m walk from the railway station, a wide range of shops and supermarkets, the library, coworking spaces, cafés, restaurants and community centres, and it's wonderful. Forget 15m cities; it's all about 10m towns 😍

This looks great! Having lived abroad for nearly 10 years it's exciting and encouraging to see changes like this in places that I have known.

Old train with fairly modern interior. All the visible seats are empty. It is clean and tidy.

This Northern train has thankfully had a makeover since I last took the route 10+ years ago. Seats are comfortable now and there is USB power available.

An accessible bus interior

Two trains waiting at a railway station. A departure sign lists Bradford Interchange as the destination. The train is on time

A concourse with an escalator. There is a sign saying Welcome to Bradford

A mostly full bus

Excellent experience taking public transport from Golcar to Saltaire today. We went bus-train-bus via Huddersfield and Bradford.

Transit in the UK makes it clear to me just how much there is to improve in Mauritius. Thankfully much is low-hanging fruit, e.g. better signage, card payments etc.

A landscape with trees and mist in the lower half of the image, and glowing clouds above which are themselves casting shadows on wispy cirrus clouds at the top of the image.

Spectacular and strange skies here above the Pennines this morning. Very atmospheric.

Hand holding Gareth Dennis' book How The Railways Will Fix The Future in front of a blurry Christmas background.

Stoked (pun intended) to receive @garethdennis.bsky.social's How The Railways Will Fix The Future from my brother today. A few pages in and I'm hooked!

The problem is known as induced demand.

Induced demand is actually desirable for active and public transport because they scale much better and their high usage is much better for communities, health, and the environment.

Also better for drivers, emergency services, etc. as congestion is relieved.

Seems we're waiting for a national "rock bottom".

Sorry to hear that. Are there any alternative formulas?

I'm sure you're aware but this serves as a good reminder to the rest of us who *can* get vaccines, why it's so important that we do, to better protect those who cannot.

The irony is that it is these very mobility schemes that are important for that attitude to change. The more we isolate ourselves, the stronger British exceptionalism becomes.

If this country made the slightest bit of sense we'd be beating Europe's doors down to secure a youth mobility scheme.

inews.co.uk/opinion/brex...

A collage of 16 photographs, each containing an image of a hand holding a book about city planning in front of an urban streetscape.

Reclaiming our communities from the car is about more than saving the planet. It’s about saving ourselves from the unsafe, unjust, unhealthy, unloveable places where we live.

Sixteen books we read this year that changed how we think about the process of building cities: an #UrbanismBookClub thread.

Change of the seasons
Where would I be without you?
There's no place like home

Yeah I can see that. Perhaps a couple more well-placed bollards would help.

Yes, transport should be active by default.

Yeah, there has to be a viable alternative. But to get there we reluctant drivers need to make our voices heard, especially when the media are so keen to drum up a "war on cars".

Come to think of it, we should coin a term to describe the "reluctant driver", who would rather have choice.

Excellent. This gives me some ideas.

Love this. I'd never thought about it that way. If anything, pedestrian and cycling infrastructure should take priority since it is truly accessible to everyone. Once that is established then we can negotiate car access!

It's really disappointing that after all these years their appetite is apparently so small. Wish they would think bigger regarding both HS2 and Brexit.

I fear we're witnessing the ugly and stifling effects of an Overton window that has narrowed steadily since 2010.

By status quo in this context I mean economically liberal and socially progressive but also a perceived elitism and lack of concern for the common man.

This is of course opposite to the other 'status quo' which liberals might observe: racism, misogyny, nationalism and other discrimination.

I'm guessing here but Trump feels 'different' and that's presumably why he appeals to those who feel let down/disillusioned by the 'status quo'. The new billionaires are different billionaires and give the impression of disruption, overhaul and change, which again is perhaps seen as a positive.

That's one moral. A couple more: (1) Drivers should take particular care. They have more responsibility due to their outsized impact & potential for harm. (2) Roads shouldn't be meant for cars only. Proper infrastructure gives options & freedom for people to choose the mode of transport they prefer.

Wraparound?
Smart stack?
Keystone?
Lighthouse style?

For us it was moving to an apartment with just one parking space.

It appealed as a challenge in moderation, with the added benefits of reduced costs and admin.

It can of course be inconvenient but also makes us think twice before driving & leads to interesting active/public transport adventures :)

As someone who does not cycle in Bristol I share their concern. Senseless violence.

Finally, it's worth noting that in their electio manifesto the incoming Alliance du Changememt government promised free public transport for all.

Let's see whether this is realised and what its effects are on a system that needs work to become a realistic alternative to driving for most.

8/thread

A shout-out to the indie creator of Mauritius-Buses.com who has done a fantastic and important job making sense of official data and providing a route planner.

I hope that more useful data is forthcoming from the bus operators (APIs, anyone?) so we can see more projects like this one.

7/

Bus stop with a beautiful res-flowered "Flamboyant" tree in the background. The concrete bus shelter has a cutaway for seeing arriving buses, and a beautifully detailed white-painted cornice.

4. Mobile/card payment would be more convenient but having a conductor taking cash payments does work well to eliminate boarding delays.
5. Bus stops are ok and have nice details (cutaway to see arrivals, painted cornices), but info missing. Some have e-ink displays but these were not working...

6/

Walking between buses in Port Louis. Traffic is controlled by a police officer. Mopeds are visible in the foreground.

My takeaways for increasing ridership:

1. Better info needed, especially online and at bus stations. Must be clear which bus to take, where to find it.
2. More express options, esp. in the north, would make buses more competitive as a mode
3. Gare du Nord must be safer, more accessible
...

5/

A view of fields and sunny skies in north Mauritius. Not visible: the sickly sweet smell of fertiliser (or pesticide?) blustering through the windows.

The bus was less comfortable than the first, and slow due to the number of stops. Total journey: 56 mins (scheduled as 45)—much longer than the 30 mins promised by my original plan of route #22.

Again we relied on open windows for cooling, which was less effective in the sun-drenched north... 4/