Sorry to bring down the mood, but if you wanted a new road safety strategy for Xmas, it looks very much like ministers have failed to provide one, despite boasting about its imminent arrival at every opportunity. transportinsights.blog/2025/12/24/m...

“The de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman - who became crown prince in 2017 - has changed the country profoundly over the past few years” FFS www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

If you want your city to be a great place for everyone, especially children, older and disabled people, to get around safely and conveniently, then don’t invite in a load of driverless cars. You’ll just be landed with a new source of congestion and serious extra chaos if there’s a power cut.

And we are tolerating this lot coming to London next year why?

…experts say this year's flu is not out of the ordinary with accusations of "crying wolf". Amid the backpedaling from the BBC, when are the hacks going to apologise for falling for the spin and hype, and when is Streeting going to resign? www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A fine mess: it seems that there is not actually a fix for the "anomaly" over smart motorway speed cameras. Can the Department for Transport be straight about anything? transportinsights.blog/2025/12/18/d...

Admittedly announcements that a scheme will be later than promised never come out and say that up front but the West Yorkshire Combined Authority press release on the delay to the region's mass transit indulges in Orwellian levels of spin. transportinsights.blog/2025/12/18/n...

A fine mess: it seems that there is not actually a fix for the "anomaly" over smart motorway speed cameras. Can the Department for Transport be straight about anything? transportinsights.blog/2025/12/18/d...

There won't be a full business case for the Lower Thames Crossing until 2028, which means Labour will continue to throw money at the project before working out whether it is worth doing and the rest of us will be kept in the dark. Downing Street memo anyone? transportinsights.blog/2025/12/17/f...

snafu stands for situation normal all [messed] up and it accurately describes the state of technology on smart motorways. transportinsights.blog/2025/12/17/l...

There won't be a full business case for the Lower Thames Crossing until 2028, which means Labour will continue to throw money at the project before working out whether it is worth doing and the rest of us will be kept in the dark. Downing Street memo anyone? transportinsights.blog/2025/12/17/f...

There has been a really bizarre outpouring of sympathy/defence in some quarters for Paul Doyle, who deliberately drove his car into hundreds of people, causing horrific trauma and injuries. This person says that he knows more than Doyle’s own lawyers because he happens to have a degree.

Another Guardian exclusive that both tells a story fed by the govt & covers one of its moral panics: "The Guardian reported last week that YouTube channels spreading fake, anti-Labour videos had amassed 5.3 million subscribers and almost 1.2bn views this year." www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

You could argue that too rigid enforcement isn't a safety issue, but if tens of thousands of drivers breaking the law cannot be prosecuted because smart motorway technology is, once again, not up to the job, that is a major safety issue. transportinsights.blog/2025/12/16/n...

Note the similarities between Macron and Starmer in the way they adopt nationalism-lite in the hope voters won't go for the full-fat version. www.ft.com/content/fcaf...

I think we can assume that ministers are definitely thinking about nearly publishing a road safety strategy, given that they think that talking about thinking about publishing one is the answer to any criticism. transportinsights.blog/2025/12/15/d...

"your pay has increased by 28.9% over the past three years" Hang on, Wes Streeting has repeatedly told us it was a straight 29% pay rise. The lying toad wouldn't be talking out of his arse, would he? And how much has his pay gone up in 2 years? www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Of course they did www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Another cracker from the author of Bring home the revolution www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Greenwood also said it is “quite shameful” that the last government “didn’t have a proper road safety strategy” – quite rich from a government that has been suppressing safety data on 14 smart motorway schemes. transportinsights.blog/2025/12/12/l...

Before making no attempt to provide the information requested, Richmond Council had already delayed responding on the grounds that it was trying to source the information internally. It obviously decided that providing the information would be too embarrassing. transportinsights.blog/2025/12/12/r...

The Department for Transport's messaging on repairs vs prevention has been mixed to say the least but the most interesting point made by the prog is that contractors have a vested interest in repairs that quickly fail so that they get paid to fill them in again transportinsights.blog/2025/12/11/p...

"It looks as if the DfT under Labour is looking for a way to bury bad news, once again. "The simple fact is if the reports contained good news about Smart Motorways they would have been released by now." transportinsights.blog/2025/12/11/m...

The premise of this piece is spot-on but its flaw - apart from headline writers getting the organisation's name wrong for a piece that is literally about that name - is a failure to appreciated that the rebranding is coupled with an intention to improve services. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I'm sure the oil tanker fired on someone first... www.theguardian.com/us-news/live...

"It looks as if the DfT under Labour is looking for a way to bury bad news, once again. "The simple fact is if the reports contained good news about Smart Motorways they would have been released by now." transportinsights.blog/2025/12/11/m...

Pravda knows how to frame a story; when our leaders talk about reducing our rights, it wants you to think about small boats

Come to my free to read, free to subscribe Transport Insights blog for the alliterative headlines, stay for the transport news and analysis. transportinsights.blog/2025/12/10/m...

The Department for Transport has helpfully told me that the data issue that led them to postpone the publication of Road Conditions in England to March 2025 is an issue in a small amount of data. Good to see them concerned about the credibility of their stats. transportinsights.blog/2025/12/08/r...

The Department for Transport has helpfully told me that the data issue that led them to postpone the publication of Road Conditions in England to March 2025 is an issue in a small amount of data. Good to see them concerned about the credibility of their stats. transportinsights.blog/2025/12/08/r...

"I took it to Mayor Anderson over 20 times. I sent him 20 or 30 emails saying 'please help me, look at this, can you look into this?' and it even got to the point where I asked if the council would pay for this to be investigated properly. "And Joe said no..." www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I've noted before that roads minister Simon Lightwood has come under pressure to justify his claim that ongoing "assurance" is holding up a stack of evaluation reports on smart motorways. Now he has resorted to citing a made-up process of "wider assurance". transportinsights.blog/2025/12/08/m...

I think I am the only world leader *who* has decided to communicate in this way. FFS can you not just pretend you’re a person?

I had an email (begging letter) from Labour Party chair Anna Turley with “let me explain” in the subject line. I assume the young person who did it has never seen Fawlty Towers and in any case has no idea how patronising it sounds 🙃

Imagine falling for this crass triangulation. Vote for people who are only a little bit right wing and therefore perfectly placed between the left and the really right wing…

People (me included) slag off AI, but when I asked co-pilot if it is legitimate to call today's repackaging of existing bus funding a "boost", it gave an answer that I agree with... transportinsights.blog/2025/12/05/s...

Imagine thinking that giving this tech to the racist, trigger happy, institutionally corrupt Met means it’s in the right hands 🙃 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The then transport secretary Grant Shapps implicitly told Parliament that the A1 Morpeth to Ellingham scheme was in development, even though it had been paused. But the DfT claims that the official status of the scheme is not information for the purposes of FOI transportinsights.blog/2025/12/04/d...

Starmer has a right go at Trump: "And my worry is, and this is how history tells us, is that a rightwing proposition like that, with fantastical ideas, leaning towards Russia, if it gets into power...it won’t nudge towards the centre, it’ll be go to the right, to the right, to the right." Oh, wait

how tf is this person spinning for the govt a source? “We are happy to have a clear date for this change. Now the House of Lords need to get on and pass this landmark bill so business can get the clarity they need and workers can get the security they deserve.” www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

As a tunnel, the Lower Thames Crossing presents many opportunities for jokes about getting into a hole, getting the scheme under the ground etc. As a scheme whose costs keep going up, the Lower Thames Crossing is both a farce and no laughing matter... transportinsights.blog/2025/12/03/t...

We are very much in The Thick of It “this is exactly the sort of thing we should be doing” territory here, as Department for Transport officials assert what should happen before smart motorway reports can be released rather than what is happening. transportinsights.blog/2025/12/03/d...

If the Crisis Christmas Appeal is so urgent, I wonder whether they should have done it earlier.

This is brilliant journalism (again) - albeit about some very poor and lazy journalism. pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/d...

More blood money required to sportswash the Saudis? www.bbc.co.uk/sport/footba...

We are very much in The Thick of It “this is exactly the sort of thing we should be doing” territory here, as Department for Transport officials assert what should happen before smart motorway reports can be released rather than what is happening. transportinsights.blog/2025/12/03/d...

As a tunnel, the Lower Thames Crossing presents many opportunities for jokes about getting into a hole, getting the scheme under the ground etc. As a scheme whose costs keep going up, the Lower Thames Crossing is both a farce and no laughing matter... transportinsights.blog/2025/12/03/t...

Analysis of a really important issue spoilt by classic BBC framing. The people raising concerns are labelled “critics” (one step down from moaning minnies) but (all) consumers like them. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I’m struggling to believe that a grown up cabinet minister - and the government’ best communicator according to all the centrist pundits - used this childish phrase. www.bbc.com/news/article...

It’s almost as if a very cynical government put pressure on him to quit to ease the pressure on her www.theguardian.com/business/202...