The presidential election that is underway right now in France is playing out exactly as one might imagine. The first round of votes took place on April 10, and the second and final round -- which is now between Macron and Le Pen -- will take place on April 24.
How people voted in the first round can be mostly explained by geography. If you live in an urban center, an attractive tourist center, or have reasonably good rail connectivity to either of these two kinds of places, you likely voted for Macron.
On the other hand, if you live in a poorer rural area, you were more likely to vote for Le Pen. Our spiky unequal world remains, even in France, where more wealth tends to be redistributed compared to places like the UK and the US.
But there's another potentially correlative factor that should interest readers of this blog (even if it is somewhat obvious). If you voted for Macron in the first round, you were also less likely to rely on a car to get to work. Here are two charts from the Financial Times:
This point is perhaps obvious because geography and built form largely determine whether or not you want/need to drive. And the way to not drive is to live in a dense city. But I think it's also a useful reminder that owning a car does not necessarily need to correlate with high economic status.
In fact, when I look at these charts, not having to drive to work feels like a good thing.
My unscientific Jimmy the Greek Reopening Index has led me to believe that flexible hours have resulted in more people working from home on both Mondays and Fridays. The middle of the week seems to when demand peaks for delicious lunchtime souvlaki.
But that may only be half right. According to some recent transit data from New York City, which looked at weekday subway ridership between October 2021 and March 2022, it seems to only be Mondays where people really prefer to stay at home:
What you are seeing here is subway ridership per day (with any holidays removed from the data set). Mondays, on average, saw 2,815,166 rides per day, whereas the average for non-Mondays was 3,026,371 per day. So over this particular 6 month period, Monday ridership was about 7% lower.
I was driving to the office from the Junction last week, and I passed a brave individual waiting at this bus stop on Parkside Drive:
The presidential election that is underway right now in France is playing out exactly as one might imagine. The first round of votes took place on April 10, and the second and final round -- which is now between Macron and Le Pen -- will take place on April 24.
How people voted in the first round can be mostly explained by geography. If you live in an urban center, an attractive tourist center, or have reasonably good rail connectivity to either of these two kinds of places, you likely voted for Macron.
On the other hand, if you live in a poorer rural area, you were more likely to vote for Le Pen. Our spiky unequal world remains, even in France, where more wealth tends to be redistributed compared to places like the UK and the US.
But there's another potentially correlative factor that should interest readers of this blog (even if it is somewhat obvious). If you voted for Macron in the first round, you were also less likely to rely on a car to get to work. Here are two charts from the Financial Times:
This point is perhaps obvious because geography and built form largely determine whether or not you want/need to drive. And the way to not drive is to live in a dense city. But I think it's also a useful reminder that owning a car does not necessarily need to correlate with high economic status.
In fact, when I look at these charts, not having to drive to work feels like a good thing.
My unscientific Jimmy the Greek Reopening Index has led me to believe that flexible hours have resulted in more people working from home on both Mondays and Fridays. The middle of the week seems to when demand peaks for delicious lunchtime souvlaki.
But that may only be half right. According to some recent transit data from New York City, which looked at weekday subway ridership between October 2021 and March 2022, it seems to only be Mondays where people really prefer to stay at home:
What you are seeing here is subway ridership per day (with any holidays removed from the data set). Mondays, on average, saw 2,815,166 rides per day, whereas the average for non-Mondays was 3,026,371 per day. So over this particular 6 month period, Monday ridership was about 7% lower.
I was driving to the office from the Junction last week, and I passed a brave individual waiting at this bus stop on Parkside Drive:
The probable takeaway: People seem to like to ease into the week.
I immediately thought to myself, "what an undignified and silly bus stop." There's a little bit of paving so you have a place to stand while you're waiting, but how do you even get there?
There are no sidewalks actually leading to said bus stop, and so you really only have two options: 1) jaywalk or 2) cross at some far away intersection and then walk unceremoniously on a narrow strip of grass and dirt on the side of a busy street.
Not surprisingly, this was the first time I had ever seen anyone waiting at this stop even though I take this route all the time on my way to and from Junction House.
I recognize that I was operating a motor vehicle when I saw this guy waiting for the bus. But I also took transit last week. And I know that we have it in us to do much better than what you're seeing in the above street view photo.
It's also a reminder that while High Park is really great, we need to work on its edges. Both the urban edge that I'm describing above, and the built form that surrounds our magnificent park. High Park is an urban park, but we seem to be a little uncomfortable with that idea.
The probable takeaway: People seem to like to ease into the week.
I immediately thought to myself, "what an undignified and silly bus stop." There's a little bit of paving so you have a place to stand while you're waiting, but how do you even get there?
There are no sidewalks actually leading to said bus stop, and so you really only have two options: 1) jaywalk or 2) cross at some far away intersection and then walk unceremoniously on a narrow strip of grass and dirt on the side of a busy street.
Not surprisingly, this was the first time I had ever seen anyone waiting at this stop even though I take this route all the time on my way to and from Junction House.
I recognize that I was operating a motor vehicle when I saw this guy waiting for the bus. But I also took transit last week. And I know that we have it in us to do much better than what you're seeing in the above street view photo.
It's also a reminder that while High Park is really great, we need to work on its edges. Both the urban edge that I'm describing above, and the built form that surrounds our magnificent park. High Park is an urban park, but we seem to be a little uncomfortable with that idea.
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog