No Tech Reader #42: Transportation

Ticket prices of planes versus trains in Europe (pdf). [Greenpeace] “By analysing 112 European routes and comparing air and rail fares on 9 different days for each route, this report shows the extent to which European citizens are being encouraged to fly. It also identifies the reasons for these outrageous price differences and proposes solutions to make rail competitive on all routes.”

Crosswalks and pedestrian safety: What you need to know from recent research. [Journalist Resource]

The relationship between cycle track width and the lateral position of cyclists, and implications for the required cycle track width. [Journal of Safety Research] “Given a cyclists’ lateral position while meeting, common variations between cyclists’ steering behavior, and vehicle width and circumstances, a cycle track width of 250 cm is needed for safe meeting maneuvers.”

“Electric Vehicles”: Arthur Berman, Simon Michaux & Pedro Prieto. [The Great Simplification] “Are current EV initiatives taking a science-based systems approach towards this massive economic, environmental, and cultural shift or are they rooted in energy blindness?”

Retro Style Velomobiles (video). [Glowing Ray] “Velocar was the name given to velomobiles made in the 1930s and 1940s by Mochet et Cie of Puteaux, France and colloquially to the company’s recumbent bicycles.”

Dreaming of Electric Airplanes

“The ability to fly away to nearly anywhere in the world on holiday or on business within a day is cherished by many who are in the fortunate position to be able to do so. The prospect of electrification making a meaningful reduction in the environmental impact of aviation (which remains a blind spot for many politicians and citizens alike) is therefore a tantalising one.”

“In this report we make an attempt to evaluate the potential for electric aircraft to contribute to reductions in the sector’s greenhouse gas emissions. Reliable global data is difficult to obtain, but the UK keeps particularly high quality records of air traffic movements. Using data covering the UK aviation industry we assess what level of performance electric aircraft would need to attain in order to have a meaningful impact on the sector’s greenhouse gas emissions in the UK.”

Read the report: Electric dreams: the carbon mitigation potential of electric aviation in the UK air travel market, Fellow Travelers, December 2018. Image: NASA’s N3-X concept.

A Tourist Monoculture

barcelona tourism 5

“This is not a city to live in. It’s a theme park where there’s no local life left. It’s all decoration.”

“Tourism is not going to be forever, and it’s destroying other ways of life.”

“We cannot live with those floods of people day after day.”

These are some quotes from Bye Bye Barcelona (59m, with English subtitles), a shocking documentary about tourism’s destructive effect on the culture of a city. Barcelona in Spain is the fourth most visited city in Europe after London, Paris and Rome, yet it is much smaller than those cities. The 1.5 million Barcelonians received more than 8 million tourists in 2013, most of them flown in by low-cost airlines. This compares to “only” 3.1 million tourists in 2000.

Bye Bye Barcelona, Eduardo Chibas, March 2014. Thanks to Adriana Parra.

Airplanes & Volcanoes

Screenshot Low-tech Magazine web traffic analysis

Stop searching. They don’t exist anymore.