Policies for promoting walking and cycling in England: A view from the street

Pooley, Colin G.; Horton, Dave; Scheldeman, Griet; Mullen, Caroline; Jones, Tim; Tight, Miles; Jopson, Ann; Chisholm, Alison

doi:10.1016/j.tranpol.2013.01.003

Cited by 83 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…The improvement of general health, saving money, less contribution to atmospheric pollution, reduction of noise, ecofriendly lifestyle-example for children, and convenient transportation and parking were the most important positive factors that positively influenced residents to cycle. Similar evaluations were found in four cities of England, which cited benefits to heath, saving money, and decreasing air pollution as most important [9]. In contrast, Indian residents of small-sized cities evaluated physical fitness as the most important factor to influence cycling [18].…”

Section: Factors Influencing Residents To Cyclingsupporting

confidence: 53%

“…In England, actions to promote cycling have focused on making this form of travel easy and attractive through the development of new infrastructure and the provision of cycling training, especially for children. Underlying all these activities is an assumption, often implicit, that if cycling is made sufficiently easy and attractive, people will automatically shift short journeys from the car to more active modes like cycling and that they can be nudged into travel behavior that is better for them and the environment [9].…”

Section: Evaluation Of the Existing Infrastructurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The most common forms of active transportation are walking and cycling. Many cities of the world have given substantial emphasis to the promotion of active travel with a series of reports from government and other bodies making the case for people to walk or cycle for short journeys [9,10]. Bicycle sharing schemes have become increasingly popular in countries throughout Europe, Asia, and America to encourage cycling as an alternative means of transportation in urban areas [11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cycling as a Smart and Green Mode of Transport in Small Touristic Cities

et al. 2018

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Abstract:Cycling as a mode of transport is a low-cost, health-improving way to travel and offers environmental benefits for the cities that promote it. It is only recently, though, with concerns over climate change, pollution, congestion, and obesity among others, that have cities throughout the world have begun to implement policies to promote cycling. In Greece, however, the use of the bicycle is limited. In Preveza, a small touristic city in Northwestern Greece where the use of the bicycle is prominent when compared to other Greek cities, there are efforts to promote cycling. Through the aid of a structured questionnaire, the residents evaluated the suitability of the city for cycling, the existing infrastructure, appropriate education, and behavior of cyclists and drivers. More than half of the residents use bicycles as their transportation and stated that bicycles are an inexpensive way of transport in the city and had the opinion that the state should encourage bicycle use by supporting subvention in bicycle acquisition. Two-thirds of the residents evaluated the cycling facilities of their city as adequate, but unsafe for young cyclists who do not follow the rules of transport. Adult cyclists, in contrast, were more loyal to the code, but stated that drivers did not respect their presence on the roads. This research provides important information on the perceived shortcomings of cycling as a transport mode in Preveza that may be of interest to towns/cities with similar characteristics.

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Section: Factors Influencing Residents To Cyclingsupporting

confidence: 53%

Section: Evaluation Of the Existing Infrastructurementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cycling as a Smart and Green Mode of Transport in Small Touristic Cities

et al. 2018

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“…Yet while this might motivate some decision-makers, it cannot be consistently adopted. In transport, as perhaps in other areas, the claim that choice should be protected and expanded is difficult to sustain as a coherent rather than a rhetorical argument, since some types of choices (physically) constrain those available to others (and so arguably prevent even negative liberty Policy choices that promote a more car dependent culture produce conditions which restrict or remove the possibility of choosing other travel modes, and can affect other choices, such as choice over land use and maintaining good health (for instance, Appleyard 1981;Mullen, 2012;Pooley et al, 2013;Schwanen et al, 2012, p. 523). If the reason for limited action on carbon reduction is an aim to protect choice then it is only in the sense that one set of choices is being privileged.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon reduction and travel behaviour: Discourses, disputes and contradictions in governance

et al. 2014

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Prospects for mitigating climate change require decarbonisation of the energy sector over relatively short time periods, coupled with significant changes to the way we consume energy. This is particularly true in the transport sector given the current levels of transport related greenhouse gas emissions, the heavy dependence on fossil fuels, and the uncertainty surrounding transition pathways to ultra-low carbon vehicles. There are policy responses aiming to reduce carbon emissions by changing travel behaviour, but prominent approaches share a common theme of seeking to change behaviour by focusing on the individual and their choices. These are the object of critics who maintain that effective change requires collective action at social, economic and cultural levels. This paper questions whether decision-makers are relying on these choice-based approaches to change travel behaviour and, if so, how effective they expect them to be. We address this through analysis of over 50 interviews with policy stakeholders in England and Scotland. We find dominant policy approaches do focus on individual choices, but significantly it is not because decision makers have faith in their effectiveness. These approaches persist in policy on carbon reduction for two reasons. One is appeal to a politically powerful, but incoherent, discourse of individualism. The second is that decision-makers do not want significant behavioural change. There is an imperative of economic growth and a firm belief that a strong economy is linked to higher traffic levels, and that to reduce the demand for travel is to risk economic damage. We argue that these beliefs about the relation between travel demand and prosperity are narrowly defined and contestable for empirical and normative reasons. If there is to be a significant change in the approach to intervening in travel demand there is an urgency to engage in the politics of behaviour change a meta-level behaviour change challenge.

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“…Bicycle infrastructure along distributor roads (separated bicycle paths, see Figure 1; and marked lanes, see Figure 2) has been suggested as an effective means to encourage cycling and thereby improve health at the population level (Handy et al, 2014;Heinen et al, 2014;Hoehner et al, 2005;Pooley et al, 2013;Pucher and Buehler, 2010), but the application has been debated by adherents to so-called "vehicular cycling". The term "vehicular cycling" was coined by Forester to suggest that "cyclists fare best when they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles" (Forester, 2001b, page 557) meaning that they should share the road with other vehicles.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%