Giulio Mattioli
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giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Giulio Mattioli
@giuliomattioli.bsky.social
10K followers 870 following 460 posts

Transport researcher with views on + than 1 topic - EU / Italian citizen with views on + than 1 country. Used to be in the UK. Now in Germany at TU Dortmund. Views my own https://t.co/ltfHVOHZe4

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giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 1d
We have published a new paper and it's one I'm really happy with. A collaboration with Janina Welsch of ILS Dortmund. rdcu.be/eS96s

We look at the relationship between migration background / ethnicity and travel behaviour, using UK data.

THREAD on the findings

giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 1d
Which brings us back to motonormativity ;)

giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 1d
Ahhh interesting no I wasn't aware of that. One way of interpreting our findings is that cycling seems to be a lot more loaded with "culture", "identity" (whether ethnic or otherwise) and socialisation than cars and buses.

giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 1d
Thank you Ian! It's a great dataset

giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 1d
Yes one of the interesting findings is that cycling seems to be more culturally / ethnically "loaded" than car use.

giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 1d
Yes that's one of the main vehicles of "transport assimilation" - migrants in the first few years are a lot less likely to own cars.

giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 1d
Previous literature had also found evidence of "ethnic neighbourhood effects" whereby, say, someone from an ethnic minority group would use the car even less when living in a neighbourhood where many people from the same ethnicity live.

We find little evidence of this in England.

/END

giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 1d
We try & interpret these differences based on what we know from the existing literature on cultural attitudes & socialisation, but also discrimination processes.

giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 1d
But some differences remain:

- Non-British White respondents tend to cycle the most

- Black and (particularly) Asian respondents tend to cycle the least

- Black respondents tend to use the bus the most

giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 1d
Many of these differences in travel behaviour between ethnic groups are actually due to socio-economic differences and them living in areas that are more conducive to cycling and public transport use. So they tend to disappear when controlling for that.

giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 1d
However (and even after this "assimilation" period), people from ethnic minorities keep travelling differently to some extent. In order words, the ethnicity effect is more long-lasting than the migration effect (as we are able to disentangle the two).

giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 1d
We find evidence of a "transport assimilation" effect whereby migrants travel very differently from locals in the first 5/10 years after arrival (more bus use, less car and bicycle), but then "normalise" over time.

giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 1d
We find that migrants and ethnic minority groups in England travel very differently than the average of the population.

But once you control for their socio-economic characteristics and for the area in which they live, most differences disappear.

giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 1d
Thanks to this data we can answer questions such as:

- do migrants drive less simply because of their particular socio-economic characteristics?

- do ethnic minorities cycle more simply because they tend to live in more "cyclable" places?

giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 1d
We looked into this using the UK @usociety.bsky.social dataset. It includes rich information on migration background, oversamples the main ethnic minorities, and allows us include information on accessibility by different modes & share of people by ethnicity in the neighbourhood.

giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 1d
There's a few studies on the travel behaviour of migrants / ethnic minority groups - see this review paper doi.org/10.1080/0144...

They often find that they use cars less, but the mechanisms behind it are not so clear

There are also few studies from Europe
What do we know about immigrants’ travel behaviour? A systematic literature review and proposed conceptual framework
Immigrants make up a significant population in many countries; in some countries as many as 30% of the population was born overseas. An increasing number of studies have found that immigrants are l...
doi.org

Reposted by Michael Wagner, Andy Baker, Du Toit , and 2 more

rahmstorf.bsky.social
Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf @rahmstorf.bsky.social · 1d
Collapse of key Atlantic current could bring extreme drought to Europe for centuries, study finds. @swinda.bsky.social
That's an under-appreciated impact of #AMOC shutdown, of particular concern given the recent results showing much higher likelihood of this. 1/2
www.livescience.com/planet-earth...

Reposted by Giulio Mattioli

ianwalker.bsky.social
Prof. Ian Walker @ianwalker.bsky.social · 1d
"Support for cycling infrastructure and traffic restrictions [but] particularly opposed the removal of car parking... Cyclists and drivers favoured segregated cycling infrastructure"

New UK study has some nuanced insights into what the public might support www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Traffic restrictions and the construction of cycling infrastructure are effective strategies to reduce private car use and promote active travel in urban areas. However, implementing these measures often involves reallocating existing street space, which can lead to public resistance. This study employed a Best-Worst-Scaling (BWS) profile case approach to examine preferences for different types of street space reallocation to encourage cycling and to explore how these preferences are influenced by psychological factors such as driver and cyclist identities, perceived infringement on freedom, and place attachment. A Britain-based sample of participants (N = 509) evaluated images depicting various configurations of bike lanes, traffic restrictions, and cycle parking, where road or pedestrian space was reallocated to accommodate cycling infrastructure. Participants identified the most and least preferred features of these designs. The findings indicate broad public support for cycling infrastructure and traffic restrictions, although preferences varied significantly across street layouts. Participants particularly opposed the removal of car parking and showed a strong preference for reallocating road space rather than pedestrian space. Both cyclists and drivers favoured segregated cycling infrastructure over painted bike lanes on roads. While place attachment had limited impact on preferences, perceptions of cycling infrastructure as infringing on individual freedom emerged as a significant factor shaping space reallocation preferences. These findings offer insights for policymakers and urban planners, highlighting design strategies that may be more publicly acceptable and identifying areas where resistance to urban redesigns is likely to emerge.

giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 5d
Great example of motonormativity
rosiemund.bsky.social Bread and Rosie @rosiemund.bsky.social · 5d
I think another weird facet to this is if you say "I was driving today & there are so many terrible, dangerous drivers," people tend to be like "ugh, I know" but if you say "I was cycling today & there are so many terrible, dangerous drivers," they furiously disagree & imply it was your own fault.
gravelinfluencer.bsky.social Gravel Influencer @gravelinfluencer.bsky.social · 11d
Something I've been thinking about a lot lately is how when a driver does something wrong, the public and media don't smear all drivers as reckless assholes. But when a cyclist — and especially an e-biker — does something wrong, all bicyclists get attacked and blamed.

Reposted by Giulio Mattioli

rosiemund.bsky.social
Bread and Rosie @rosiemund.bsky.social · 5d
I think another weird facet to this is if you say "I was driving today & there are so many terrible, dangerous drivers," people tend to be like "ugh, I know" but if you say "I was cycling today & there are so many terrible, dangerous drivers," they furiously disagree & imply it was your own fault.
gravelinfluencer.bsky.social Gravel Influencer @gravelinfluencer.bsky.social · 11d
Something I've been thinking about a lot lately is how when a driver does something wrong, the public and media don't smear all drivers as reckless assholes. But when a cyclist — and especially an e-biker — does something wrong, all bicyclists get attacked and blamed.

giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 8d
Transport and energy researchers, for years: "Please for the love of all that is holy, do NOT incentivize plug-in hybrids"

The German government: "How about we incentivize plug-in hybrids again?"

Reposted by Giulio Mattioli

electricfelix.bsky.social
Felix Hamer • electricfelix @electricfelix.bsky.social · 8d
@giuliomattioli.bsky.social:
"One more year of selling fossil fuel vehicles will fix it"

#alwaysbecharging
www.linkedin.com/posts/electr...

giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 12d
The fascinating thing about it though, is that it is both: a necessity (for some) and a problem to avoid. And the problem to avoid the most is that it becomes a necessity for some. How does that happen? How could we make sure that it doesn't? It's not either or, it's more complicated than that.

giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 12d
Are those even concepts, "clean air dependence" and "food dependence"? I don't think they're in common use. Typically when we call about "dependence" on something (for example "car dependence") is precisely because such dependence is seen as problematic.

giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 12d
You can advocate for that for sure - but I do research, not advocacy so if I focus on this problem that's entirely fair, it doesn't mean I "normalize" it.

giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 12d
Awful feedback loops it's what I am interested in. Someone's got to do it :)

giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 12d
Sure that's the kind of reasoning you did. But most migrants do fly to visit their families, and that's the kind of processes I am interested in when studying "flight dependence"

giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 12d
What about people who have family over the world though

giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 12d
How would it "kill" such family?

giuliomattioli.bsky.social
Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 12d
It increases more in relative (not absolute) terms: it more than doubled over that period, holiday didn't.