Where to go for your blogging needs
Well, it’s goodbye, then.
Sorry not to be here for you in future, but luckily there are folks out there with more staying power.
So you’re not left bereft, I’ve been researching alternatives for you.
Some of these I read religiously myself, some I’ve never looked at but know people who recommend them highly and some I check every month or so.
Buses
Roger French is the King of bus blogging. Yes, I know he covers trains as well, but you can tell his heart isn’t really in it. As the former MD of the only place in Britain to have seen consistent bus patronage growth for both of the last two decades (someone challenge me if this stat is wrong), his opinions on buses are well worth listening to. For example, this recent tour de force on why - if someone’s prepared to pay you for advertising space on the buses - those same spaces could earn even more revenue-generating fares on the buses themselves.
There aren’t many one-man bands who publish a daily blog. As someone who’s done it for the last eight months, I can confirm just how much hard work it is. One who does is Public Transport Experience; and it is richly detailed and opinionated. I’m not a subscriber (I’ve been too busy writing my own daily blog to read a daily blog!) but it comes recommended by people embedded in busworld.
Policy
Not strictly a blog, but Smart Transport is always good for policy - and contains detailed policy. Intelligent Transport occupies a similar niche. I try to dip into both every month or so to check out the latest that’s going on.
Infrastructure
London Reconnections was always the best blog for detailed, richly researched commentaries on London infrastructure projects. It’s gone a bit quiet recently, though does still do a twice-weekly round-up of interesting blogs and news articles on transport and mobility topics around the globe.
Cities
Bloomberg CityLab has an overwhelmingly American focus but covers a lot of territory. And I’ll love them forever because they covered my desperate attempt to save Snap by pivoting into open-top commuter buses. (spoiler alert: it didn’t work).
If you want to balance Bloomberg’s American focus with a European one, then Eltis is your place.
Mobility
Finally another “not strictly a blog” but James Gleave does an excellent email newsletter with random mobility stuff in it.
I have absolutely loved creating Freewheeling. Thank you all so much for reading it, engaging with it and - sometimes - arguing with it. In its short life, I hope it has made a tiny contribution to one of the most important debates of our time: how to enable continued human connectivity while cutting humanity’s contribution to the carbon crisis.
I’m starting a new role as Innovation Director at TfL on Monday so do stay in touch!
