Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
of many transport planners over the last 20 years, this has not happened. The effective
transferability of good practice and a better understanding of the transitioning process towards
sustainable travel behaviours must become a central concern, together with a real focus on
the monitoring of progress against objectives and the iterative redefinition of strategy and
programme if progress is not being made.
There are also wider issues involved in the transition to different travel behaviours. Improved
networks, facilities and urban planning are only part of the rationale for travel, and the
individual motivations and the wider workings of society are also critical. It is here that some
of the emerging literature in transport planning sheds some light. There are important
psychological and social and cultural dimensions to people's choice of travel. Lucas et al.
(2011), for example, describe the motivations that may underlie individual choice processes,
including needs and aspirations, social factors (identity and norms), beliefs, attitudes and values
and behavioural intentions. These are also influenced by information and marketing, and of
course interrelate with the networks, opportunities and urban form that are more conventionally
the focus of transport planning. It is these types of factors that we tend to ignore when thinking
about and modelling transport behaviours, and also when shaping policies and strategies for
transport. This understanding can be taken further by considering the wider social and cultural
context to life and travel, often brought together under the research around mobilities (Urry,
2000; Kaufmann, 2002; Sheller and Urry, 2006; Cresswell, 2006; Urry, 2007). This wider
understanding of why people travel needs to be much more clearly understood and brought
into the development of transport strategies at the local level. As yet we only have an emerging
understanding of how these areas might combine, and, critically, the potentialities for change.
The transport sector hence needs new approaches to demonstrate and discuss the potential
pathways towards deep 'trend-break' reductions in CO2 emissions. This is more so in an era
of very difficult funding constraints and antipathy towards strategic planning. The move
towards sustainable travel behaviours needs to be progressive and area-wide; and low carbon
targets also need to be consistent with wider sustainability objectives - this demands an
effective, coordinated and consistent approach over time.
This chapter has compared different packages of measures within alternative future scenarios
and examined these against wider sustainability objectives. The INTRA-SIM model particularly
allows the exploration of the strategic policy choices in a transparent and participatory manner,
with the role playing element allowing the different options to be tested by a range of
participants. This makes explicit some of the tensions evident for decision-makers involved
in local transport planning. The central arguments made are summarised below:
1
Oxfordshire provides a difficult case study but there are several lessons that can be drawn.
There is a historic and compact central city, with good levels of walking, cycling and
public transport, and a surrounding periphery that is much more dispersed and car dependent.
This geography is common in many city sub-regions. Low carbon transport scenarios need
an integrated package of measures and to be assessed against multi-criteria impacts.
Depending on the composition of the scenarios considered, impacts are likely to vary
substantially relative to economic, social and local environmental goals.
2
Wide-ranging scenarios are required to achieve deep reductions in transport CO2, and
these should include low-emission vehicles, alternative fuels, rail, bus, walk, cycle,
