Thread by @shoshannasaxe

New paper: we looked at how long it takes to go from idea to reality for transportation infrastructure in #Toronto, Canada and #London, UK. journals.open.tudelft.nl/ejtir/article/…

Short answer: a long time
What's going on? Dithering on priorities and funding
Is red tape the issue? Not so much

This paper was supported with funding from the UCL - U of Toronto Call for Joint Research Projects and Exchange Activities. @BartlettUCL @global_uoft @UofTCities

We found on average 18 years pass from when a project is first proposed to when construction starts (caveat we only looked at projects that did actually start construction).

"A key insight from this study is that the longest phase of project delivery, the gestation period, is not filled with time spent radically innovating to invent new technologies or ideas that make a project viable."

"Nor was the time spent finding ingenious technical fixes to complex delivery or operation requirements. Rather lengthy and often unpredictable planning processes are actually a result of the ways in which political power is mobilized, wielded + legitimized"

"Long project planning periods and delays in the delivery of major projects are indicative of the fragmented and often fractious ways that communities make decisions and allocate scarce resources."