Taking a break
Let's skip this week.
Hey Friend,
Sorry.
No bi-weekly dose of Makeshift Mobility for you today.
I’m currently swamped and maybe suffering a bit of malaise from this exhausting pandemic year.
As Yoda said, “Do or not do.”
So, it’s not do for me for this week.
If you really need an informal transportation fix, head over to my friends at Pop Transport. They just put out their fourth issue.
I was going to leave you a list of newsletters I recommend but I realized all of the newsletters on my list are written by men.
That will not do at all. I need to correct that imbalance.
I promptly signed up for:
Michele Kyrouz’s Smarter Cars;
Sarah Barnes’ Along for the Ride;
It’s not that I don’t follow women who write about cities, design, and transportation. I do, but for some reason they are not in the newsletter crowd.
Cassie Robinson did start Monthly Multitudes but she hasn’t put out an issue.
I consume whatever Bianca Wylie publishes. And I would be first in line if she ever creates a newsletter. (She is the “Jane Jacobs of the Smart City.”)
Clearly I need to expand my reading list.
Are there any newsletters written by women that you’d recommend?
Here’s the list I started with.
Bryan Boyer’s Urban Technology at the University of Michigan (Substack)
Anthony Townsend’s On the Ghost Road (open source)
Jorge Arango’s Informa(c)tion (MailChimp)
Andrew Salzberg’s Decarbonizing Transportation (Substack)
Dan Hill’s But what was the question? (Medium)
Noah Smith’s Noahpinion (Substack)
Ok. Catch you in two weeks after I (hopefully) get some rest.
You should get some rest, too.
I’m Benjie de la Peña and I’m the CEO of the Shared-Use Mobility Center. I co-founded Agile City Partners, and I am the Chair of the Global Partnership for Informal Transportation.
I’m a little tired this week. I’ll take a deep breath and get back to you soon because I’m convinced that informal transportation can be the single greatest lever to decarbonize the urban transport sector.