“We have 99% of the infrastructure that we’re going to have in 2030 or 2045 and that we have to be able to deliver net zero and a fairer transport system with. So, building new kit is not going to fix things. Transport is a behavioural issue.”
As part of our Campaign for Social Science events programme, last week we held a webinar featuring Professor Charles Musselwhite FAcSS, Dr Siobhan Campbell FAcSS and Professor Iain Docherty FAcSS, who discussed the potential carbon, health and social benefits of reduced car use and how these can be delivered in transport policy.
In the webinar, chaired by Dr Matthew Niblett, of the Independent Transport Commission, our panellists offered their insights and perspectives on how politicians can understand and shape public opinion, and what might need to happen at a population and an individual level.
Charles, of the Research Centre for Transport and Mobility (CeTrAM) at Aberystwyth University, began by describing how transport is a people-centred issue, but that transport planning currently makes incorrect assumptions about how people behave in the transport system and is therefore not working for all members of society.
He said, “We miss out lots of the older people’s journeys that are very different to the rest of the population. They might not be working, or working part time, they have different reasons for travel. And we miss out on the 22% of households without access to a car. The dominant voice in transport is still coming from vehicles and car use. It means we’re missing out on people who are already marginalised in one way or another.”
Charles went on to discuss how cars and car use are a dominant social and cultural norm in wider society and how difficult these norms are to disrupt. He referred to research with people who had an arm in a plaster cast due to injury and their behaviour change around transport options as a result. The findings showed that 18% of people continued to use their car even though that could be dangerous and of the people that did change their transportation method, well over half of those who used the bus said they enjoyed the experience but they all couldn’t wait to get back to using a car again. Based on subsequent research which showed that shifting bus timetables also impacted regular bus users’ wellbeing and health, Charles proposed that it is not car use itself which is the issue and that it is mobility and having the relevant mechanisms in place to be mobile which is key.
Siobhan, of the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland, introduced ideas around green transport and inclusivity, particularly women’s safety, and how looking at transport through a gendered lens can offer new ways to approach transport policy.
She said, “The key is what are we trying to solve here and what are the ways that we can do it? And the only way to do that is to really look through the eyes of the transport user. Without taking that person centred perspective, we’re not going to get to a place where we can achieve the really quite fundamental changes that are required in terms of our transport system.”
Siobhan went on to explain how bringing people into the decision-making process through participatory methods was key to co-designing and tailoring options that work for everyone, whilst getting buy-in from the local community. She used an example whereby people who were engaged with decision-making around low carbon and low traffic solutions became online advocates for the project they participated in because they felt they had some ownership of the problem and the solution.
She said, “Having policy with communities rather than to communities is a way to make sure that we understand and we’re looking through these lenses of people that we might not have otherwise understood the challenges they face.”
Siobhan finished her presentation by referring back to her recent work on how using a gendered lens can help with encouraging sustainable transport. She said, “Women who feel empowered and enabled to travel, can travel in a low carbon way, and can travel by public transport… Many of the challenges affecting the safety and mobility of women also limit the adoption of sustainable transport modes. Tackling one will tackle the other.”
Iain, of the University of Stirling, looked at transport policy from a wider public policy perspective, highlighting that it is often ranked very low in public opinion polls on pressing public policy issues for the UK. He also explained how transport policy to date has often focused on the idea of providing people with choice to the detriment of the wider environment and society.
He said, “Not only are we consistently undermining public transport to environmental and societal detriment, but because we’ve made driving cheaper and because we haven’t regulated any of the other aspects of what our private vehicles look like beyond the raw engine size and emissions, we’ve made them bigger, made the congestion worse and made pedestrian and cyclist safety worse at the same time.”
Iain ended his presentation by highlighting how social science was key to solving the transport problem we face, and that it was not an engineering challenge.
He said, “If we believe in the urgency of acting to make sure we don’t breach our climate budget, and not only do we meet our net zero targets, but we meet the emissions profile under the curve, as it were, then we have to change what we’re doing in the transport sector both in an unprecedented way, at scale, and also at an unprecedented speed.”
Watch the recording below to hear more from our speakers.
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