moving

Heathrow chaos: time to start digging?

The chaos at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 is an excellent example of what happens when the logic of finance interacts with the logic of large complex systems. As Will Hutton wrote at the weekend, shareholders in British Airways (its sole tenant) and BAA (which runs the airport) demand perpetually growing dividends. [continue …]

2022-11-11T14:11:29+00:00October 7th, 2021|moving|

A “Marshall Plan for tourism” – but with what aim?

The concept of sustainable tourism was invented 45 years ago – but it was added to global mass tourism, it did not replace it. Since then, although sustainable tourism brands have proliferated, mass tourism has continued to devastate its ‘destinations’ with growing intensity. So: what to do?

2022-10-04T09:23:46+00:00May 19th, 2020|moving|

Two-wheeled logistics: a city manager’s 19-point to-do list

Most of the component parts for ultra-light mobility ecosystems are on the table - from cargo bikes, to sharing platforms. But how to make them work together as a city-compatible system? My advice to city managers: First, visit India and marvel at the richness of bike-based commerce. Second, go to Indonesia and marvel at the range of services available on the Go-Jek platform. Next - well, read on

2022-10-04T10:10:10+00:00August 29th, 2018|moving|

Is Peak Car Headed for Seneca’s Cliff?

Two hundred people per second now climb onto a dockless bike somewhere in China. The bigger story? We may have reached a peak-car tipping point - a moment of system transformation - that's been slowly 'brewing' for a very long time. (This text follows my keynote at Seoul Smart Mobility International Conference).

2022-10-04T10:10:13+00:00October 23rd, 2017|moving|

Cloud Commuting

A two-year project in Belgium proposes new relationships between people, goods, energy, equipment, spaces, and value. Its design objective: a networked mobility ecosystem 

Mobilotoop taxi-van

The signs on the small van describe the services it supports: Taxi; Pick-up; Delivery; Assistance; Vendor; Security; Rental.

Seven [continue …]

2022-10-04T10:15:16+00:00March 25th, 2014|most read, moving|

A smooth journey

Two images have preoccupied me in recent days.
The first one [below] was taken in a lounge at Paris airport. I remember being struck by the intense design effort that had been made to create a controlled and insulated environment. On the tv screen were images of the popular revolt [continue …]

2022-10-04T10:29:11+00:00May 3rd, 2011|energy, most read, moving|

A Tale of Two Trains

Oslo Airport’s mean-looking bullet train reaches the city centre in nineteen minutes. At 210 kph [130 mph] it is not the world’s fastest – some of China’a new trains will soon reach nearly twice that speed – but Norway’s is surely the most macho to look at.

[continue …]

2022-10-04T10:45:39+00:00October 31st, 2010|most read, moving|

Heathrow chaos: time to start digging?

(Summer re-run: first published 31 March 2008)
The chaos at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 is an excellent example of what happens when the logic of finance interacts with the logic of large complex systems.
As Will Hutton wrote at the weekend, shareholders in British Airways (its sole tenant) and BAA (which [continue …]

2022-10-04T10:46:14+00:00August 5th, 2010|moving|

How to be global, and great, without traveling

While I’m away, would you help me promote these new editions of my book? In The Bubble has now been translated into French, Italian and Portuguese – and I’d appreciate your support in three ways:
a) buy-and-send copies for all your French, Italian and Portuguese-speaking friends around the world;
b) tell everyone [continue …]

2009-04-19T08:47:45+00:00April 19th, 2009|moving|

Now just add one more column…

CDG_screens.JPG
They’ve installed this impressive new departures board at Paris CDG airport. It lists a good number of the more than one thousand departures from there each day. Now, what it needs next is a right hand column that shows, for every flight, the [continue …]

2009-03-29T18:21:04+00:00March 29th, 2009|moving|

JT West: Experiencing Sustainability

Climate change, peak debt, peak energy: these are all stakes being driven into the body of business as usual.
The days of acting as if infinite growth were possible within a finite system are over.
Where does this leave (interaction) design?
To find out you need to attend my talk on “Experiencing Sustainability” [continue …]

2022-10-21T12:23:09+00:00January 8th, 2009|moving|

Pssst: how much do you weigh?

volvo-psst.png
California’s strategy for sustainable mobility is to run sixteen lane traffic jams on ethanol. In Sweden, Volvo have launched this hybrid-drive trash truck which I saw in Goteborg yesterday. It’s silent at low speeds when it’s collecting bins: the all-electric drive is for moving off [continue …]

2022-10-07T15:24:09+00:00May 19th, 2008|moving|

Heathrow chaos: time to start digging?

The chaos at Heathrow’s Terminal 5 is an excellent example of what happens when the logic of finance interacts with the logic of large complex systems. As Will Hutton wrote at the weekend, shareholders in British Airways (its sole tenant) and BAA (which runs the airport) demand perpetually growing dividends. [continue …]

2022-10-07T15:28:12+00:00March 31st, 2008|moving|

The movement dilemma

Can transport and tourism ever be sustainable? The movement of people and goods around the world consumes vast amounts of matter, energy, space, and time – most of it non-renewable. Could transport intensity be de-coupled from economic progress – and if so, how?

This event in October’s series of Dott [continue …]

2013-07-25T08:08:12+00:00August 17th, 2007|moving|

New concept of mobility – in three lines

I was asked by Seung Yoon Lee, at Korean Design Research Institute, for a three line quote on “a new concept of mobility due to ubiquitous technologies”. (It’s for an upcoming issue of Asian Design Journal).
So I sent this: “Reducing the movement of matter – whether goods, or people – [continue …]

2007-07-05T07:52:39+00:00July 5th, 2007|moving|

Design and sustainable tourism

interferenze.png
The next Dott 07 (Designs of the time) Explorers Club meeting on Thursday 14 July, to be held at the Robert Stephenson Centre in Newcastle. Our focus this month is Sustainable Tourism.

In terms of someone’s carbon footprint, a single holiday in New Zealand is equivalent [continue …]

2013-07-25T08:09:42+00:00June 23rd, 2007|moving|

My long walk home

I chose a bad place to read George Monbiot’s new book Heat – the transit lounge of Bangkok’s new Suvarnabhumi Airport.

I already knew that flying is an indefensible way to travel because of its contribution to global warming. But I’ve comforted myself over the years with the [continue …]

2013-07-25T08:12:38+00:00October 17th, 2006|moving|

Designing naked streets

When Paul Barter posted a link to a video of a chaotic looking Indian intersection, back in April, it provoked debate on the merits of traffic discipline versus chaos. A discussion ensued on issues about shared space or “naked streets” approaches to streets and the public realm. The video [continue …]

2022-10-07T19:20:56+00:00August 12th, 2006|moving|

Mobility, death, and progress

How was the traffic on your vacation drive home this year? Any near misses? Twenty thousand citizens are killed in traffic accidents in Europe each year, so you probably saw more than one car crash or its aftermath.

For the European Commission, these deaths are a price we must pay for [continue …]

2013-07-25T08:15:07+00:00August 10th, 2006|moving|

From my car to scalar

To a car company, replacing the chrome wing mirror on an SUV with a carbon fibre one is a step towards sustainable transportation. To a radical ecologist, all motorised movement is unsustainable. So when is transportation sustainable, and when is it not?

Eric Britton, an expert on the subject, had the [continue …]

2013-07-25T08:18:56+00:00February 6th, 2006|moving|

Trans-Siberian mobicast

If mobility is a new place, then this event is the place to be.

Capturing the Moving Mind is a conference on board the Trans-Siberian train. It’s about new forms of movement and control, war and economy, in the current situation. An opening discussion of the blurring borderlines between art, [continue …]

2013-07-25T08:19:39+00:00September 6th, 2005|moving|

The true costs of mobility

As a system, mobility is locked into a mode of perpetual growth in a world whose carrying capacity is limited. The status quo policy of ‘predict and provide’ promises more travel (of people and goods), forever, but using new technologies and integrated systems to make mobility more efficient.

A second design [continue …]

2013-07-25T08:26:46+00:00April 29th, 2005|moving|
Go to Top