Psychological perspectives on drivers and driving have been with us for since before the advent of mass motoring. The car’s unique potential to afford freedom and compromise safety has been a focus of formal psychological study for almost as long. This has resulted in a canon of excellent research, the shaping of interventions and legislation, and the saving and enhancement of lives. In seeking to prevent collisions, it has had quite an impact!
Cars contribute to local air pollution, traffic danger, congestion and poor physical health due to lack of exercise. If the final goal of sustainable development is to sustain or improve the quality of life for all, now and into the longterm future, the current growth in private car use is clearly unsustainable. Understanding why most people prefer using a car over other modes of transport for their daily travel, and how they can be persuaded to use their cars less or even abandon them altogether, is therefore an important goal for psychology.
It is clear that young people have the highest crash involvement of any group. What are the direct and indirect factors associated with these high crash rates? How do biological, personality, fatigue and experiential factors affect risky driving behaviours? And what potential countermeasures can be deployed?
Atkins was commissioned as part of a multidisciplinary project team which includes MVA Consultancy, Phil Jones Associates and TRL to carry out evidence based research into the factors which influence the design and operation of segregated and unsegregated pedestrian and cyclist shared use facilities. The research project helped inform the preparation of a new Local Transport Note on shared use routes for pedestrians and cyclists.
There is a widely held perception that there is a war being waged on motorists and that government is using motorists as a ‘cash cow’. There are frequent calls – often granted, as in June 2012 – for delays or reductions in fuel duty and other motoring taxes. These are often juxtaposed with calls for greater spending on roads. This paper sets out the costs of motoring both to individual drivers and to the public purse, compared to the cost of living and the costs of alternative transport modes.
It is widely recognized that there is a need to increase levels of active and sustainable travel in British urban areas. The Understanding Walking and Cycling (UWAC) project, funded by the EPSRC, has examined the factors influencing everyday travel decisions and proposes a series of policy measures to increase levels of walking and cycling for short trips in urban areas.
People have always wanted to reach destinations quickly, safely and efficiently. But as the UK transport environment has become increasingly complex, transport’s impact on health has become unnecessarily harmful - to the point where it is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality.
Our aim is to show the positive effect that integrating health into transport policy will have and we propose areas for action that prioritise health for all relevant transport sectors.
The Netherlands have a tradition of high bicycle usage and a long history of research on effective policies for promoting cycling. Findings in Dutch studies can be useful in the Danish Bikeability-project that has the objective to increase the level of knowledge in relation to bicycle based transport and to contribute to more efficient and qualified urban planning and management. This report discusses a number of Dutch case studies on the effects of investments in bicycle infrastructure.
