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Giulio Mattioli Profile picture
Giulio Mattioli
@giulio_mattioli
Transport researcher with views on + than 1 topic - 🇪🇺🇮🇹 citizen with views on + than 1 country. Used to be in 🇬🇧. Now at @TU_Dortmund 🇩🇪. Views my own
intentionally left b_ank Profile picture Mike the Great Profile picture 2 subscribed
Apr 16 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
So the German government has now officially agreed to ditch sectoral emission reduction goals.

Does this mean that transport is now off the hook?

In the short term, maybe, in the long term I believe the opposite will happen (THREAD) In Germany as in the rest of Europe, we are reducing emissions in other sectors while not reducing them (and sometimes even increasing them) in the transport sector.

So each year transport accounts for a higher share of total emissions ⬇️
Feb 14 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Fascinating from last week

#Dortmund Police tweets that elderly woman died after being ran over twice on pedestrian crossing

Gets asked if they intend to introduce more controls / cameras

The reply is something out of a textbook on car dependence. Or on how not to do PR Image You can see the exchange for yourselves here
Nov 8, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
The astonishingly rapid rightward & xenophobic lurch of the German political debate over the last few weeks

A THREAD to which I am afraid I will keep adding

1) 20.10.23
2) 22.10.23

The leader of the Conservatives (first in the polls) Image
Sep 20, 2023 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
Every time car fuel prices go up - whether for taxes or wars - everyone seems to know exactly who suffers the most.

But which areas of Germany are most vulnerable to fuel price increases?

THREAD on my contribution to the Agora Verkehrswende & DLR report on transport poverty Image (the report is available here) agora-verkehrswende.de/veroeffentlich…
Jun 20, 2023 • 20 tweets • 7 min read
Incredibly ill-informed take on car dependence & inequality by "the leading progressive political and cultural magazine in the United Kingdom"

DEBUNKING THREAD [disclaimer: the full article is behind paywall so I am commenting on what's in the thread. There's more than enough wrong stuff there already though]
Jun 17, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I am sure many people look at images like this and think about "how hard car drivers have it"

And that kind of twisted perception is one of the most mind-blowing outcomes of car dependence... 🤯 Collectively, car drivers are taking the overwhelming majority of street space in the picture, between what they are legally allowed to take and what they illegally take over.
Jun 17, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
The problem with "market instruments" to reduce emissions. They are perceived by "economically liberal" voters as "left wing" and not "market" because they are taxes. I think we can say at the least that experts and lay people have rather different understanding of what a "market-based policy" is.

And this ambiguity is where a *lot of politics thrives*.
May 2, 2023 • 13 tweets • 4 min read
Maps showing Germany (or German-speaking countries) being exceptional in Europe: an ongoing THREAD

1. The lowest share of homeowners Image 2. Among the very few places in Europe where men attend university more than women (but careful! It might actually be due to their exceptional, two-track higher education system)
May 1, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Good summary of how Germany got to introduce a (slightly) cheaper nationwide public transport season ticket #Deutschlandticket : more by accident, as a result of a tit-for-that between litigious coalition parties, than as part of some visionary plan This sort of measures tend to divide transport experts - no clear consensus here! Here a critical take from public transport research, which I think makes some good points
Apr 11, 2023 • 18 tweets • 7 min read
Some people have high climate emissions from transport but who are they?

In my new paper with @mmbuchs & J. Scheiner we looked into this, focusing in particular on those with high emissions from air travel but not car travel (or vice-versa) doi.org/10.1016/j.erss…

THREAD Image @mmbuchs My initial motivation for this study was the impression (anecdotal + from some studies) that *some* people have very low emissions from their daily travel (as they don't drive), but then *fly a lot*. And I was curious to understand better who they are
Feb 27, 2023 • 16 tweets • 5 min read
First, a German Environment Agency study estimated the impact of motorway speed limit #Tempolimit at -2MT CO2/y.

Then another UBA study found -6Mt.

Now a study commissioned by the FDP says it's more like -1Mt.

What might be going on here? (THREAD) focus.de/186830113 [Disclaimer: I haven't read any of the three studies in full - this specific topic isn't something I work on. So I can't / won't get into the details. This thread is about making a point of principle on how science works & how we should debate about it]
Nov 15, 2022 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
The Swiss press is reporting about a (I assume non-peer-reviewed) study that claims to prove that cycling is more carbon-intensive than car driving 🤦‍♂️

Quick debunking THREAD time! [NB: I didn't read the full study (there is no link to it) - just commenting on what's in the news article at handelszeitung.ch/politik/klima-…]
Nov 14, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Scientists: [do their job in they're ivory tower]

Media: "We're not listening. Come back when you learn to communicate in plain language to the public"

Scientists: [do it]

Media: "OMG you left the ivory tower, you're not credible, why should we listen to what you say" Image From wiwo.de/technologie/fo…
Oct 21, 2022 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
Who's got the most cars per head in the EU? The answer might surprise you Image By the way there *is* a positive relationship between income and motorisation (R=0.44).

But most Italian regions have higher motorisation rates that you would expect for their level of income Image
Oct 3, 2022 • 19 tweets • 4 min read
Banning super-short haul flights is getting a lot of attention as a way to reduce aviation emissions.

But how effective it would be in reducing emissions? In our new paper with Frédéric Dobruszkes & Laurette Mathieu we find: *very little*. doi.org/10.1016/j.jtra…

(THREAD) [Disclaimer: this study (and particularly the empirical analysis) is mostly Frederic's, and he is not on Twitter. I helped a little with the framing and the policy implications]
Oct 3, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
And it's another good morning with my favourite pundit #1, quote-tweeting my favourite pundit #2, saying the *opposite* of what I believe to be the case Oh and BTW: "Between 1990 & 2018, the natural & technical sciences received 770% more funding than social sciences for research on issues related to climate change. Only 0.12% of all research funding was spent on the social science of climate mitigation" doi.org/10.1016/j.erss…
Sep 29, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Oh Italy where *Professors of economics* tweet *line graphs* with a *nominal variable* on the x-axis to demonstrate a *correlation* between the *absolute number* of voters of a party and the *absolute number* of recipients of minimum guaranteed income 🫣🤦‍♂️🫣🤦‍♂️ Serious contender for "how to break as many stats graph rules as possible with a single graph"
Sep 28, 2022 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
What would be the impact of a global 'frequent flyer levy', which taxes flights at an increasing rate the more you fly?

@TheICCT @rutherdan @ZhengSola look into it in this brilliant new report (which I was honoured to review in advance) theicct.org/publication/gl…

(THREAD) Image @TheICCT @rutherdan @ZhengSola They find more evidence of huge inequalities in how much people fly. A global frequent flyer levy would correct this, shifting the tax burden from occasional flyers to frequent flyers, and from lower-income countries to higher-income countries, as compared to a flat tax Image
Sep 27, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Italy has a "familist" welfare system. In the Italian political debate, "families" is a sacred word, a holy cow. When Italy does benefits it calls them smth like "bonus famiglie". And still these people act as if they were a threatened minority. They would do it no matter what When they say "the family is the enemy" it's dog-whistle for "we feel threatened by things like LGBT people having rights"
Sep 20, 2022 • 15 tweets • 6 min read
To meet climate targets, we need to tax air travel more.

But some argue that this would be unfair towards the poor. Others argue that a 'frequent flyer levy' would avoid that.

@mmbuchs & I looked into it in our new paper (THREAD) doi.org/10.1080/096695… @mmbuchs We find in the UK that air travel accounts for a small share of emissions in the population as a whole - but a high share of emissions among 'frequent flyers' - i.e. those with 2+ return flights per year, who would be subject to a 'frequent flyer levy'.
Aug 8, 2022 • 12 tweets • 5 min read
What German Liberals should say re: free parking to be true to their free-marketeering credentials, and what they actually say about it.

A THREAD #Lindner #9EuroTicket #Gratismentalitaet #Parkraumbewirtschaftung What they should say / 1: "By making public space available for storing private cars for free, the State is losing a lot of money. Think of all the revenue that you could make by renting out that space at market prices. If we waste money that way, we'll have to cut elsewhere"