Viewpoint: Transport's digital age transition

Lyons, Glenn

doi:10.5198/jtlu.2014.751

Cited by 54 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 34 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Mokhtarian 2002;Farag et al 2003;Wang and Law 2007;Zhang et al 2007). A typical characteristic of this field is that it is rapidly evolving in response to technological development (Lyons 2014). Whereas about a decade ago, most advanced ICT applications were based on communication using land lines (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Apps, activities and travel: an conceptual exploration based on activity theory

Ettema

2017

Transportation

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

With the continuous advancement of (mobile) ICT devices and applications, their impact on travel, activities and time use becomes more diverse. This holds in particular for apps developed for mobile devices (smartphones). In this paper, we argue that the effect of ICT on travel and activities should be analysed at the level of a single specific device or application, rather than for broad classes of ICT devices. We propose activity theory as a framework to analyse the impact of smartphone apps on travel and activities. Activity theory describes how subjects apply tools (such as apps) to work on an object and achieve an outcome that is in line with the subject's motive. The application of the tool is embedded in an activity system which includes a community, formal and informal rules and in which a division of labour exists. We apply activity theory to analyse the effects of Whatsapp and travel feedback apps, based on existing literature about these apps. The analyses suggest that the activity systems of each app differ greatly in terms of object, motive, outcomes, community and rules, with implications for their use and impact. Both apps have an impact on travel, but differ with respect to whether this effect is intentional. For both apps contradictions in the activity system can be identified, which may give rise to further development of the activity system. These seem, however, to be largest for travel feedback apps. Based on our exploration, we argue that quantitative research on the impact of apps should be complemented by qualitative research based on activity theory. In particular, activity theory may help to gain a better understanding of underlying mechanism by which apps influence travel, to strengthen the theoretical underpinning and interpretation of the results of quantitative research and to explore changes in the development and use of apps and their impact on travel behaviour.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Apps, activities and travel: an conceptual exploration based on activity theory

Ettema

2017

Transportation

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Technologies (in particular mobile ICTs) are fast changing the landscape of both travel demand and behaviour. Lyons [38] has taken this further in examining the hypothesis that something even more fundamental is happening -namely that society is in transition from the regime of automobility into something else as the 'motor age and the digital age collide'. Transition is coming about by the permeation of an increasing number of digital age technology advances and capabilities into social practices and everyday lives and norms.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technopolis, shared resources or controlled mobility? A net-based Delphi-study to explore visions of future urban daily mobility in Norway

Julsrud

Uteng

2015

Eur J Futures Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

It is widely recognized that transformation of urban areas are urgent to meet the demands for more efficient and environmental friendly transportation in the future. Although there are general agreements on the need for change, different ideas and visions for the future dominate across different groups of stakeholders and academics. In this paper we explore various views on the future of everyday travelling in urban regions, 30-40 years ahead, focussing in particular on four larger urban areas in Norway. Based on an innovative web-based Delphi-study, involving 280 national experts, various conceptions of future urban travelling is explored. An explorative factor analysis (principal component analysis) is applied to reveal three slightly different understandings of how the urban future may look like in 2050. These three visions -labelled as BControlled mobility^, BTechnopolisâ nd BShared mobility^-suggests slightly different scenarios' for the future of urban travelling.

show abstract

“…Indeed, critiques have sharpened further as concepts such as journey quality and utility -it is easier than ever in the ICT age to spend time 'on the move' productively (Lyons, 2015) -and the impacts of commuting stress on health and wellbeing gain more attention (Lyons, 2016). Aware of such criticisms, the Labour governments of Tony Blair introduced a New Approach to Appraisal (NATA) that recognised the need to ascribe more weight to qualitative judgements in the appraisal process (Walton and Shaw, 2003).…”

Section: Project Delivery and Appraisalmentioning

confidence: 99%

The curious death – and life? – of British transport policy

Docherty

Shaw

Marsden

et al. 2018

Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article analyses the transport policy record of the 2010-2015 ConservativeLiberal Democrat Coalition and 2015-16 Conservative majority UK governments. We argue that the style of policy making under these administrations departed significantly from that of previous decades, which had been characterised by the ascendancy of specific technical disciplines and decision making norms about how transport planning should be carried out. Our key contention is that despite abandoning the idea of a single, overall narrative for transport policy, these governments (perhaps unwittingly) gave new life to broader debates about what transport investment is actually for and how investment decisions should be made. We interpret this as a shift away from the longstanding idea of a 'deliberate' strategy of intervention to a more 'emergent' approach, which raises important new questions about the future of transport policy both in terms of the objectives it seeks to realise and the relative influence of professional/technical and political actors in the policy process. 2 IntroductionFor more than 50 years, UK governments of all political persuasions have published a succession of documents heralding a brave new age of transport policy. Highlights include Buchanan's Traffic in Towns in the 1960s (Ministry of Transport, 1963), which correctly predicted how the insatiable demands for more road space arising from mass car ownership would impact upon historic towns and cities; Roads for Prosperity's 'biggest road building programme since the Romans' in the heady days of the 1980s economic boom (Department of Transport, 1989); and the immodestly titled A New Deal for Transport, which promised a transformation that would "give transport the highest possible priority" (Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR), 1998) such that its accompanying £180bn Ten Year Plan would "deliver radical improvements for passengers, motorists, business -and all of us as citizens concerned about congestion, safety and a better environment" (DETR, 2000).The contradiction in all of this is that despite a plethora of highly ambitious policy statements, Britain's transport system remains underdeveloped compared with those of other major European economies because Ministers of whichever party have all-too-often been unable to turn policy rhetoric into action (Table 1). The collapse of the Blair government's New Deal for Transport demonstrates this especially well. Despite deliberately referencing Roosevelt's massive public works programmes of the 1930s, the New Deal and its ambitious delivery programme actually failed to deliver very much at all on the ground. Instead of light rail in 25 cities across the country, only one new system 3 and the extension of one other were actually achieved; congestion charging failed to move beyond London despite ambitions to have systems operating in eight cities by the end of the Ten Year Plan period; the domestic rail network had to be rescued from a maintenance crisis rather than expanded and ...

show abstract

Viewpoint: Transport's digital age transition

Cited by 54 publications

References 34 publications

Apps, activities and travel: an conceptual exploration based on activity theory

Apps, activities and travel: an conceptual exploration based on activity theory

Technopolis, shared resources or controlled mobility? A net-based Delphi-study to explore visions of future urban daily mobility in Norway

The curious death – and life? – of British transport policy

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About