The EVIDENCE project: Measure no.23 - Inclusive urban design

This article summarises a review of the literature on 'inclusive urban design', Enhancements and alterations to the public realm to help to manage the presence of motorised traffic. Key messages:• These measures can reduce vehicle speeds, fatalities and collisions.• Traffic calming coupled with public realm improvements in mixed use shopping streets increases pedestrian flows on those streets. There are some indications that this might also benefit retailers in those streets.• ‘Home zones’ also promote increased pedestrian use of streets, although that finding might vary according to national cultures and specific local contexts. The high cost of some interventions may have limited their wider application to date.• ‘Shared space’ is likely to work best (i.e. favourable public perceptions and greater pedestrian use of road space) when vehicle flows and speeds are relatively low and pedestrian flows are relatively high.• The review found insufficient source material to confirm claims made about effects of any of the interventions on economic activity or modal choice

Transport and urban housing growth – Unfinished business for Labour

This discussion paper has been written following an open invitation from Prof. Phil Goodwin for contributions to the Shadow Transport Minister’s work towards Labour’s manifesto. It draws on research by the author and others into the relationship between housing and travel behaviour and on the author’s brief experience of advising the last Labour government on the Eco-towns programme. It aims to answer the following question:How can we house more people in urban areas without increasing traffic and worsening the urban environment

The EVIDENCE project: Measure no.4 - Access restrictions

This article draws on a review of literature on 'access restrictions': removing, filtering or controlling the flow of vehicles in a street or part of a city with the intention of encouraging other modes (public transport, cycling and walking) and improving the public realm• Pedestrianisation and access restrictions can bring considerable benefits to towns and cities - although the range of quantitative evidence is limited.• Pedestrianising shopping streets tends to increase retail revenues and the value of property on those streets.• Road closures do not cause ‘traffic chaos’ as critics often fear; drivers adapt their behaviour in ways that are not yet fully understood, but which avoid the worst consequences of congestion.• Benefits include: improvements to the urban environment, reduced traffic in central areas, reduced air and noise pollution and modal shift towards sustainable mobility.• There will normally be some increased traffic on surrounding streets. The extent of traffic displacement depends upon the existence of ‘spare capacity’ on the surrounding streets

Alternatives to private car use by mobile NHS professionals

From 2009, Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Trust (AWP) introduced a pioneering scheme (Golow) offering electric bicycles and pool cars to employees based in Bristol. One team (the ‘Zero Petrol Team’) now travels almost entirely by electric bike. This study aims to evaluate the experience of the Golow scheme, and also to explore the travel patterns and needs of mobile NHS professionals more generally, using AWP as a case study. Through an online survey, telephone interviews and a focus group of the Zero Petrol Team, the study aimed to explore the travel needs and constraints of AWP staff, their travel patterns, their experience of the Golow scheme, and the factors explaining the participation, or non-participation, of individual staff and work teams.It found that much work travel can be done by sustainable modes. 60% of staff mainly used their own cars for travel, with cycling being the most common alternative, for 15%. The reasons given for driving, in most cases related to personal preferences rather than the nature of the travel itself, although most of those those who travelled by other means also reported occasional needs for a car. The reasons why some individuals and teams participated more than others related partly to social identification, with local managers sometimes playing the role of 'proto-typical leaders.

Randomised Controlled Trials, Evidence Hierarchies and Smarter Choices

A growing body of literature aimed at policymakers as well as researchers criticises the quality of much transport research and advocates a methodological hierarchy with randomised controlled trials at the top as the solution. This article critically analyses the justification for such hierarchies, in the context of voluntary travel behaviour change programmes, whose effectiveness has been called into question. It proposes 5 criteria for the valid application of experimental methods, which suggest that such methods are only relevant to a limited range of transport research questions. It finds no valid justification for a methodological hierarchy and concludes that attempting to apply such a hierarchy would generate misleading advice for policy makers

Filtered and unfiltered permeability: The European and Anglo-Saxon approaches

Unfiltered permeability refers to road layouts which provide equal permeability for all modes. Filtered permeability means separating the sustainable modes from private motor traffic in order to give them an advantage in terms of speed, distance and convenience.Following the New Urbanist movement, unfiltered permeability tends to be favoured in North America and the UK, whereas filtered permeability is more common in the cities of Northern and central Europe. This article contrasts the two approaches

Sustainable travel and team dynamics among mobile health professionals

© 2016 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. This study explores the potential for more sustainable patterns of travel by mobile health professionals. It also explores the relationships between their travel for work and their modal choices in commuting and private travel. It uses as a case study a health trust in the UK that introduced a pioneering scheme involving the use of electric bikes and pool cars designed to reduce the use of employees' own vehicles for work travel. Using self-categorization theory, it explores the role of work group social norms in explaining the differential take-up of the scheme. The study used an online survey completed by 306 staff, telephone interviews, a focus group, and analysis of carbon emissions. The main alternative to private car use was cycling, used by 15% of staff. Several operational constraints were identified, but the differences in participation were also strongly related to work group cultures. Local managers embodying prototypical norms exerted a significant influence on the work groups that had embraced the scheme. A focus group with a team using electric bikes found evidence of increased staff motivation, and benefits to client groups, due to strengthened in-group social identity. The findings suggest considerable potential for modal shift in the travel of mobile health professionals in urban areas

Car clubs in new developments

This report provides a review of good practice and the experiences of key local authorities in implementing car free and low car developments over the ten-year period 2003-2014. It found that car clubs are more likely to be successfully established within a development (or in a neighbourhood adjacent to a development) if consideration is given early enough in the planning process to its viability as a location. In evaluating this, there are several key factors which help to identify where car clubs might be successfully established in new developments. These include: population density, PTAL rating and availability of public transport, parking constraints, car ownership levels and other cultural and socioeconomic/demographic characteristics

What happens to travel behaviour when the right to park is removed?

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd What happens to travel behaviour when the right to park at a destination is removed? This question, fundamental to travel demand management and land-use planning, has only been partially addressed in the literature so far. The impacts on travel to the destination concerned have been studied, but not the impacts on wider travel behaviour. This paper reports on a natural experiment related to destination parking, where a university removed the right of most undergraduates living off-campus to park on its main suburban campus. A survey was conducted to compare the travel behaviours of two groups of undergraduate students: the first group started before and the second group started after the introduction of the parking restriction (n = 858). The survey captured licence-holding, car availability during the term and vacation periods, and the mode of transport used to travel to campus and for the last trip to another location. The parking restriction was associated with a fall in the modal share of driving to campus of nine percentage points. Car availability during term-time fell by 14 percentage points and licence-holding fell by nine percentage points. The policy change was associated with greater changes amongst females than males. Overall, the results suggest that removing the right of young adults to park at a frequent destination delayed their acquisition of driving licences and cars. These findings may explain part of the fall in licence-holding observed amongst young adults in Great Britain in recent decades

Editorial

Improving the urban environment for these vulnerable and excluded groups will be a key challenge for the planners of the future. So how can any interested readers reflect this in their own work? We argue here that the design of urban land use and public transport access for such heterogeneous populations demands collaborative multi-professional working between urban designers, urban planners, users, researchers, campaign groups, policy-makers and managers.Taking up this challenge, this themed issue on ‘Disabilities and vulnerable road users in the urban environment’ draws on insights from European research leaders and campaigners