"I’m forever near a stereo saying, ‘What the f*** is this garbage?’ And the answer is always, ‘The Red Hot Chili Peppers’."

Nick Cave, 2006

😜

I was at Cramlington hosp. for a meeting on Monday. Northumbria NHS Trust are working on sustainable travel for staff and patients to reduce demand for car travel. Housing can be delivered without increasing car use. I cycled from Seaton Deleval station and there is no safe cycle route. Priorities?

A sign for an optician that you can't read isn't exactly a ringing endorsement...

The North East's polycentric nature might make a cordon-based congestion charge quite tricky but I do think a Nottingham-style workplace parking levy might be an effective stick to reduce car demand and generate revenue for sustainable alternatives.

Can't disagree with any of that! In our @darehub.bsky.social we're building a modelling framework to try to test some of these policies, including infrastructure and land-use policies, using an agent-based model. We definitely need to massively expand our portfolio of policies to accelerate change.

We also have consumption, of transport at least, governed by time budgets. Some people have the choice of trading time for money, whilst some are forced to sacrifice their time to save money. Would carbon budgets also help equalise that slope too?

Hmmm, good point. Tradeable quotas are clearly preferable to rationing. But doesn't it ultimately boil down to a maximum carbon budget per person, whether you can trade it with others or not?

@catherinemitchell.bsky.social at #Tyndall25UEA makes the v.important observation that, in the UK, the ‘first past the post’ political system reinforces short-termism. Without changes in this it’s difficult to see how the scale of change to deliver on our climate commitments can be achieved.