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Jul 31

How the everyday commute is changing who we are

The Conversation, 31 July 2018
Few activities that bead our everyday lives have earned such dubious notoriety as commuting. That the words “hell” and “nightmare” are sometimes invoked to describe journeys to and from work indicates just how disparaged this part of our lives often is. The commute has often been depicted in dystopian terms, standing for all that is stressful and wearying about our contemporary daily routines. These journeys are often so deeply routinised that we rarely stop to think about them. Researchers have explored topics such as the link between commuting and our well-being – with the former significantly compromising the latter.
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Jul 25

Neighbours’ lives turned upside down by Airbnb and other ‘disruptors’

The Age, 25 July 2018
Defecating in the sauna. Breaking bottles in the apartment tower’s swimming pool. Leaving running taps on so apartments flood. Vomiting in the foyer. This is just some of the behaviour Katherine Hughes has seen from short-stay guests in her A’Beckett Street apartment tower.
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Jul 23

Global pilot shortage hits Australia, with cancelled regional routes just the beginning

ABC News, 22 July 2018
Passengers are becoming used to flights being cancelled due to weather, or even volcanoes, but now a new trend is beginning to upset travel plans across the country. Airlines are having to cancel flights, and even entire routes, because there literally isn’t anyone available to fly the plane.
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Jul 16

Plans for first set of 11,000 units to go near Sydney Metro stations

Sydney Morning Herald, 15 July 2018
The first detailed plans for new units to be built on government-owned land along the Metro Northwest train line have been released. Tallawong Station south in Rouse Hill will get about 1100 units in an area near The Ponds, with buildings up to 8 storeys tall. The plan includes parking for 1015 cars and 1210 bicycle spaces. One of the “key principles” of the development is to encourage greater use of cycling by residents. A minimum of 5% of the units will be used to provide affordable housing for at least 10 years.

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Jul 16

Why plastic bag bans triggered such a huge reaction

The Conversation, 16 July 2018
Woolworths’ and Coles’ bans on plastic bags have been applauded by environmental groups, but were reportedly met with abuse and assault and claims of profiteering. Even comedians saw value in the theatre of the bag ban. This reaction is due to supermarkets breaching their “psychological contract” with customers. When both major supermarkets appeared to back flip in the face of irate customers it only compounded the problem”.
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Jul 12

Can the share bike business survive in Australia?

ABC News, 12 July 2018
After months of damaged and discarded bikes on city streets, it now looks like three of the four major firms who launched app-based bike sharing schemes last year have pulled up stumps.
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Jul 11

No sugar coating oil shock pain

Business News, 10 July 2018
Celebrations to mark the breakthrough in Western Australia’s long-running GST dispute might be premature because another, perhaps more economically damaging, problem has returned as a growth-blocker – an oil shock of the sort not seen since the 1970s. In what looks like a repeat of actions taken in late 2011 through 2012, Iran is threatening to close the world’s most important shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz at the eastern end of the Persian Gulf.
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Jul 10

Social housing protects against homelessness – but other benefits are less clear

The Conversation, 4 July 2018
Social housing, managed by governments and the community sector, provides a safety net to vulnerable Australians. A person living in social housing is far less likely to experience homelessness than someone battling it out in the private rental market.

And some argue social housing comes with a host of other benefits, such as improvements to employment, education, incarceration rates and health outcomes.

But our research failed to find evidence of social housing residents achieving better outcomes in any of these other areas than similar residents in the private market – at least in the short run.
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Jul 10

Driverless cars really do have health and safety benefits, if only people knew

The Conversation, 5 July 2018
Driverless cars promise many benefits, including an improvement in safety, but new research shows many people are still not aware of this. A paper, co-authored by me and published today in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, reports that almost two thirds (63%) of the 1,624 people surveyed had neutral or negative attitudes towards driverless cars.
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