Cycling, bread and circuses? When Le Tour came to Yorkshire and what it left behind

In the summer of 2014, there was no way of getting away from it: Le Tour de France was coming to Yorkshire. The message from tourism was that this was great for Yorkshire because businesses would be making money; politicians were also telling local people to feel happy that they had won the right to host Le Tour. In this paper, I will reflect on what happened when Le Tour came to Yorkshire through an analysis of newspaper reports, photographs taken by myself two years on from the two days Le Tour arrived in Yorkshire, and an auto-ethnographic account of what it was like to be there. I will argue that Le Tour allowed local communities to embrace a cosmopolitan European identity alongside their existing northern English or Yorkshire identities, and that the race itself allowed spectators to be proud about the northern English landscape through which the cyclists battled

Evaluation of wider economic impacts of light rail investment on cities

Transport plays a critical role in facilitating competitiveness in post-industrial economies. High quality transport services and infrastructure enhance internal and external connectivity. This research examines published and unpublished evidence of economic impacts of modern light rail (tram and light metro) systems in the United Kingdom and globally. Evidence is considered relating outcomes of investment in light rail systems to: unlocking previously hard to reach sites for development; triggering fresh growth through elimination of significant transport constraints; stimulation of inward investment; extension of labour market catchment areas; reorganisation or rationalisation of production, distribution and land use; and land and property value increase and capture. Urban light rail investment can help regenerate Central Business Districts and boost employment and property prices. Similar rail investments in different locations may not however have the same economic impacts - geography matters. Other conditions in addition to transport investment are required for positive externalities

Transport\u27s historical, contemporary and future role in shaping urban development: Re-evaluating transit oriented development

This paper reviews transport\u27s historical, contemporary and future role in shaping urban development since industrialisation. Previous definitions of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) starting in the late 20th century are challenged. Three distinct eras of TOD are identified: from the mid-19th century to early 20th century; Planned TOD in the mid-20th century; and TOD for urban regeneration and/or urban expansion since the late 20th century, now featuring rail and bus rapid transit, cycling and walking, shared use mobility, and automated transport. Future links with disruptive transport technologies are highlighted as themes that must be examined for assisting TOD\u27s further development. The authors make the case, using empirical evidence from selected TOD applications from around the world, that high frequency transit service is essential for successful contemporary and future planned TODs. TOD is then redefined for the 21st century and best practice policy recommendations are made

Prolog and deductive databases

The logic programming language Prolog has been shown to be a very suitable language for implementing database concepts. However, current Prolog implementations are limited, and the database examples used have all consisted of relatively small sets of clauses. The reason for this is that existing Prolog implementations do not scale up to handle large databases. This paper describes a project whose aims are to develop the links between logic programming and databases. The prime aim is to develop a Prolog system which is capable of handling large sets of clauses. The second aim is to implement a deductive database management system in Prolog, while a third is to evaluate the effectiveness of parallel logic languages for implementing database applications. Ke ywords: Prolog, Parlog, logic programming, deductive databases Within the field of database systems several different approaches have been used, but of these the relational database has emerged as the most popular. The clean, uniform approach of the relational data model, and the power and simplicity of relational query languages have been the main reasons for the success of relational databases. These, in their turn, owe much to logic, as the relational calculus is a restricted form of first order predicate calculus. With the growth of interest in knowledge processing, and in expert systems in particular, a need has been developing for more powerful database systems- systems which can store and retrieve knowledge; such systems are generally referred to as ’knowledge base management’ systems, or ’expert database ’ systems. One of the formalisms used for representing knowledge is first order predicate calculus. In view of the role of logic in underpinning relational databases and in describing knowledge, a natural successor to relational database systems, in the form of logic or deductive databases, has been proposed. Such systems are natural extensions of relational databases based on a more general form of first order logic. One particular form, known as a definite deductive database, has been studied in some detail1. This form of database i