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pies and buckets
The interesting thing about the pieing of Jeremy Clarkson is the wave of anti-Clarkson sentiment that is sweeping through parts of the media in the aftermath. Did you ever hear anti-Clarkson jokes on Radio 4 comedy programmes? Well there have been at least 2 in the last week. Even the normally sensible Local Transport Today newspaper had a jokey column, and overall the papers have presented a balanced view of the incident giving thought to why it might have happened. Perhaps it marks a turning point in his career, and it would be great if the BBC commissioners were taking note.
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cycling in aberdeen
Scotland could do with some of the cycling initiative money announced the other day. Aberdeen, probably like all Scottish cities, seems at first glance a bad place for cyclists. Old and narrow arterial roads, gardenless tenements with no parking except a narrow street outside, a lack of canals and disused railways to make traffic-free shortcuts, cobblestones, and missed opportunities where redevelopment (eg retail parks) has occurred. And here's a theory to add to that: Scottish roads are so well made with their granite - tar mix that they never need resurfacing. They get endlessly patched up and bumpier.

On the plus side, the relative lack of congestion seems to make drivers more patient than in English cities, and those narrow arterial roads allow favour assertive cycling: deciding when a car will be let past.
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M74 again
Stephen Purcell, Glasgow council's new Labour leader, probably chose his words in a deliberately slippery way when he said of the proposed M74 extension, "We think there is a social benefit to the communities that currently suffer the traffic, congestion and pollution that will be moved out of residential areas and on to the motorway". Point one: the Public Inquiry pointed out there is no evidence of measures to "lock in" any benefits, so space will generate new trips: a Red Queen's race which will soon push traffic levels back up again. Point 2: pollution does not stay in a narrow corridoor above a road; gases diffuse.
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ferry good
A day-long seminar on "The Science of Transport" was held at Kirkwall, capital of the Orkney Islands. A lot of discussion centred around ferry travel. The Orkneys are currently served by 4 ferry services: 3 from the north coast of Scotland and a big one from Aberdeen. The presenter from Pedersen Consulting argued that the future lay in consolidating the shortest route or routes: in exchanging sea miles for road miles to short, high frequency routes. A couple of points arise from this. The higher the petrol price, the more attractive become the cheaper sea miles to the traveller. But more importantly, what about the effects on the roads and towns en route to the short routes? Bypasses and dualling? The Isle of Man service from Heysham was held up as a short route model: was the presenter unaware of the Lancaster Northern Bypass demanded certainly in part due to surges of traffic from the ferry?
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LTP2
Most local authorities have now made their provisional 2nd Local Transport Plans available on the web, usually as a large pdf file or a number of small pdfs corresponding to chapters. Most are inviting comments, some by a specific date. Many contain roadbuilding plans: skip to the Major Schemes sections. The government will comment on major schemes and their compatibility with the LTP2 strategy when they give feedback on the provisional plan in December 2005, and it is possible that some major schemes could be rejected then, although more likely that schemes would continue at least to the point of getting their detailed economic case together. The picture nationwide is starting to become at least somewhat clearer.
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