ROAD DANGER REDUCTION FORUM

Destroying Traffic Myths
Exploring the Arguments which Promote Car Culture
Conference Notes

programme   biographies   speakers notes   delegates list

Programme 22nd May 2000, Westminster Central Hall

Biographies

Chair of Session 1

9.50 - Lord Berkeley - President of Road Danger Reduction Forum

Lord Berkeley is chairman of the Rail Freight Group, the representative body of the rail freight industry in the UK.

In the House of Lords, he sat as a Hereditary Peer until November 1999. He returns there as a Life Peer on 2nd May 2000. He was a member of the Select Committee on European Legislation and a Labour Transport Spokesperson from 1996/7.

He is a Civil Engineer and was Public Affairs Manager for Eurotunnel from the early 1980's until its completion in 1994.

Prior to Eurotunnel, he worked for the construction company George Wimpey on a number of multi-discipline projects.

Honorary positions: President of the Aviation Environment Federation. Hon. President of the Road Danger Reduction Forum. President of the UK Pilots Association (Marine). Member of the Board of Governors of Rail Industry Quality Certification Ltd. Director, Partnership Sourcing Ltd. Member of the Council, University of Kent at Canterbury

He is a Chartered Civil Engineer, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of the Chartered Institute of Transport.

10.00 - Professor David Begg, CfIT

Professor David Begg is Chairman of the Commission for Integrated Transport. He is also Director of the Centre for Transport Policy at the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, and he has recently been appointed as the Chairman of the National Transport Advisory Group. He advised the Government during the preparation of the Integrated Transport White Paper. Professor Begg is a member of the Scottish Office's National Transport Forum and a Non-Executive Director of the Shadow Strategic Rail Authority. He was Convenor of Transportation on the City of Edinburgh Council from 1995 to 1999.

10.30 - Professor John Whitelegg BA, PhD, FCIT, FILT, FRSA

John is 50 years old and started his career as an economic development officer in the Outer Hebrides, one of the remotest parts of Britain. Since then he has worked mainly at Lancaster University but also as an official in the Department of Transport in Dusseldorf, Germany and in India where he made a special study of non-motorised transport.

John left the University in 1993 to set up his own company and is currently Director of Eco-Logica Ltd, a Lancaster-based consultancy specialising in sustainable transport, environmental audit and review, life cycle analysis and corporate environmental strategies. From 1990 until 1993 John was head of Department of Geography at Lancaster University and Director of the University's Environmental Epidemiology Research Unit. He has written eight books and over 50 papers on transport and environment topics. His books include "Transport for a sustainable future: the case for Europe" published by Wiley in 1993 and "Traffic Congestion: is there a way out? Published by Leading Edge Press in 1992. "Critical Mass: transport, environment and society in the 21st Century was published in October 1997 and "Greening the Built Environment" (Earthscan, London) in 1998.

In March 1996 he was appointed Professor of Environmental Studies in the School of the Built Environment at Liverpool John Moores University.

John is Editor of the journal "World Transport Policy and Practice" and has acted as a consultant to the government of Australia and governments and community groups in Israel, Sweden, Denmark, Romania, Slovakia and Poland. He also works with community groups in Calcutta who are trying to improve environmental quality and persuade the state government to retain and expand the tram system and to retain cycle rickshaws and hand pulled rickshaws as an alternative to new road construction. John has worked in detail on alternatives to some of Britain's largest road schemes (e.g. the Birmingham Northern Relief Road) and on large scale infrastructure projects overseas e.g. the Oresund Bridge linking Sweden with Denmark, Trans European Road Networks and the Trans - Israel Highway.

John has worked for a large number of private and public sector clients on environmental strategies. They include British Airways, BICC Cables Ltd, Surrey County Council, Scottish Homes and Pfizer Ltd. He has been consultant to DGXI in the European Commission in Brussels on the implementation of environmental strategies in small and medium sized enterprises, and on environmental strategies in road freight transport and in the design of the 6th Environmental Action Programme for the European Union. He has produced commuter strategies and transport plans for Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, Chase Farm Hospital in Enfield, Wrexham Maelor Hospital, Surrey County Council (County Hall) and Riverside NHS Trust in central London.

10.30 - Christopher Macgowan

Christopher Macgowan joined The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders in June 1999 as Chief Executive.

He has a strong international background working in manufacturing, marketing and finance for a number of major industrial, construction and agricultural companies. He worked for British Leyland early in his career and lived in Canada for a number of years. He joined Massey Ferguson in 1973 and more recently was with Ransomes plc where he managed three subsidiaries in Japan, Germany and France.

His priorities on being appointed Chief Executive of the SMMT are three fold. To continue the process of encouraging and promoting in the UK and abroad the interests of the motor industry. To evolve the SMMT to a knowledge based business through the extensive widening of Information Technology processes. To even further raise the profile of the Society.

He is listed in car Magazine's top 300 biggest hitters in the motor industry, is a member of the Home Office Vehicle Crime Reduction Action Team, a CBI Council member and a Freeman of the City of London.

Chair of Session 2 - Ken Spence

Ken has been Road Safety Officer in York since 1991. One of the founders of the Road Danger Reduction Forum, he has been secretary for the last three years. Ken has already succeeded in destroying the myth that he is a competent cricketer.

11.30 - Professor John Adams, University College, London

John Adams was a member of the original board of directors of Friends of the Earth in the early 1970's and has been a participant in debates about environmental risks ever since. He is currently a consultant to the OECD Project on Environmentally Sustainable Transport and a member of the editorial boards of Town and Country Planning, Safety Science, Risk Management and Environmental Values. He has published widely on planning, transport and risk management issues both in specialist journals and the British national press. He is a frequent contributor to radio and television programmes on these subjects - he co-wrote and presented the BBC 2 programme Virtual Risk (Big Ideas series, 1st August 1999). He is the author of Risk (UCL Press, 1995 - described in a review in Nature as "extremely counterintuitive… stimulating and rewarding", and in The Economist as "beguiling book"); and The Social Implications of Hypermobility, a report for the OECD Project on Environmentally Sustainable Transport, Paris, 1999.

11.45 - Lynn Sloman, Transport 2000

Lynn Sloman is Assistant Director of the environmental lobby group Transport 2000.

Transport 2000 is a national campaigning organisation concerned with sustainable transport. It works with policy makers, local authorities, businesses and community groups to provide real solutions to transport problems.

Lynn's main work is on non-motorised transport, transport & health, road safety issues, local authority best practice, and community involvement in transport decisions.

Lynn is a trustee of the Environmental Transport Association and a member of the National Cycling Forum. She has helped establish a range of transport groups including the Slower Speeds Initiative, Pedestrians Policy Group and Road Danger Reduction Forum.

Prior to working for Transport 2000 she did policy research on science and environmental issues.

12.00 Professor John Whitelegg, John Moores University (See previous)

Chair of Session 3 - Christine Mangat

Christine Mangat retired from a twenty-year career in education following the death of her 21 year old son in a road crash. Along with others, she is a founder member of RoadPeace and has represented them on the National Road Deaths Working Party. She is an active participant in young driver education initiatives in secondary schools. Currently she is an advisor to Young TransNet and Traffic Education Advisor to the Road Danger Reduction Forum. She is a trained counsellor and active campaigner for enforcement and change in Road Traffic Law, environmental and local issues.

14.00 - Graham Paul Smith DipAD, MA (RCA), MA (UD)

Graham Paul Smith is an artist and an urban designer. He has taught architecture since the early seventies teaching in both the Graduate Diploma Course in the School of Architecture and in the Joint Centre for Urban Design at Oxford Brookes University.

He contributes to and has organised, a range of short courses, conferences, working parties, research and publications focusing on the design of movement in public space and the experience of users within it. He acts as a cyclists' rights representative on a number of bodies.

Publications

Joint author, with Bentley, Alcock, Murrain McGlynn, of the urban design manual Responsive Environments, (1985), Architectural Press, now in its ninth reprint and newly published in Spanish and Cantonese.

"Traffic Calming: the second wave", Making Better Places: Urban Design Now eds. Hayward R McGlynn Freer and Long he prepared Peripheral Retail Development: The British Experience (1995) for Dutch Consultants on behalf of the Netherlands Minister of Transport.

With Sloman, Weban-Smith and Mathew, "Living Streets: a guide to cutting traffic and reclaiming street space, (1999), Transport 2000 Trust, London.

"Getting about in the City: the gap between provision for and experience in use of the city by Pedestrians" Bridging the Gaps, ed. Butina Watson G, (Forthcoming), Oxford Brookes University.

Consultancy

He was a founder member of Oxford Polytechnic, later Oxford Brookes Urban Regeneration Consultancy, specialising in advising community groups on urban design issues and the development of built form responses. With the Angell Town Estate Community Project, Brixton, the Consultancy won the Times/RIBA Community Trust Award for Partnership (1991).

He contributed the Traffic and Travel section to the DoE discussion document, Quality in Town & Country (1994) and the User Friendly Travel section of the final report. He was a founder member of the research team for the review of Residential Road Guidance, DoE NI(forthcoming).
Research

With Dr Mary Joshi:
Cyclists' Perceptions of Risk (1992), Health Education Journal.
Cylists and other Road Users' Perceptions of Risk (1993) Velo-City VII, Nottingham Road Users' Perceptions of Risk (forthcoming), Journal of Risk and Society.

With Graham Freer:
Mixed-Use Main Streets: Managing Traffic within a Sustainable Urban Form (1996).
With Sue Mc Glynn, Abigail Goldberg, Carolyn Dumonteil:
The Qualitive Impacts of The Oxford Transport Strategy, (forthcoming) Oxford Brookes University in association with Oxford City and Oxfordshire County Councils.

Advocacy

Speaker at Streets for People and Homezones conferences ( 1997/8).
Contribution of ideas and illustrations to the pamphlet: Homezones: reclaiming residential streets, (1998). Children's Play Council, London.

He helped to organise and lead the first Homezones study tour for activists and professionals to the Netherlands and Germany, (1999) with Transport 2000 and the Children's Play Council.

He is leader of the second Homezones tour, (forthcoming 2000) with Sustrans.
He plays a role in the video film "At Home on My Street": exploring home zones in the Netherlands and Germany, (1999), director Adrian Sinclair, Transport 2000 and the Children's Play Council London.

14. 15 - Dr Robert Davis, Principal Policy Advisor, RDRF

Robert Davis is a founder member of the Road Danger Reduction Forum He is the author of "Death on the Streets: cars and the mythology of road safety" (1993) and "Is It Safe?" described by David Begg in October 1996 as "essential reading for anyone interested in road transport". Dr Davis has written and broadcast on transport policy and road safety for 18 years. He has worked as a transport planner in local authorities and is now an independent transport consultant.

14.30 - John Stewart Chair of the Slower Speeds Initiative

John Stewart is an experienced campaigner. For 10 years he was the Chair of ALARM UK. He has worked at a local level for Lambeth Public Transport Group. Currently, he is the Vice Chair of Transport 2000, the Transport Adviser to RoadPeace and the Chair of the Slower Speeds Initiative.

Chair of Session 4 - Belita Clahar

Belita Clahar has been Road Safety Officer for the London Borough of Camden since 1978. Before that she worked for the London Borough of Hammersmith. She represents the Association of London Boroughs Road Safety Officers on the PACTS Environment Working Party and is also on the Steering Group for the Young TransNet Project. She is the current Chair of RDRF.

15.45 - Dr Mayer Hillman, Policy Studies Institute

Dr Mayer Hillman is Senior Fellow Emeritus of the Policy Studies Institute where he has been engaged in research since 1970. His studies have been concerned with transport, urban planning, health promotion, and energy conservation and environment policies. He has written extensively on these subjects. His major publications (some with co-authors) relevant to his paper are: Danger on the Road: the needless scourge, 1984; One False Move… a study of children's independent mobility, 1991; Cycling: Towards Health and Safety, 1992; Cycle Helmets: the case for and against, 1993; Speed Control and Transport, 1996; 'Fallacious assumptions underpinning road safety policy' in Transport Safety: what do we want from an incoming government? 1997.

16.15 - Sara Jones, Media Consultant

Sara Jones has a background as a freelance journalist, working on radio programmes such as You and Yours, the Today Programme, the World at One and Woman's Hour for Radio 4, as well as being a senior producer at LBC. She has worked for the printed press writing for City Limits, the London Newspaper Group and the Cambridge Evening News. As a media trainer she has worked with a wide range of clients including local authorities, the Labour Party, community groups and charities, and trade unions. She also taught journalism at Sheffield Hallam University and Anglia Polytechnic University.

Speakers Notes

Myth One: Technology will Solve All Our Transport Problems
Professor John Adams University College London

Let's grant the techno-optimists their wildest dreams - imagine a pollution-free perpetual-motion engine. The result would be cheaper, and therefore more, motorised travel, with the following consequences. Society would be more polarised (greater disparity between rich and poor). More dispersed (more suburban sprawl). More anonymous and less convivial (fewer people will know their neighbours). Less child-friendly (children's freedoms will be further curtailed by parental fears). Less culturally distinctive (the McCulture will be further advanced). More dangerous for those not in cars (more metal in motion). Fatter and less fit (less exercise built into daily routines). More crime ridden (less social cohesion and more fear of crime), subject to a more Orwellian style of policing (more CCTV surveillance), and less democratic (the majority will have less influence over the decisions that govern their lives).

Myth Two: Traffic Restraints are an unfair Constraint on the Freedom of Motorists
Lyn Sloman Transport 2000

MYTH THREE: New Roads = New Jobs
Professor John Whitelegg Liverpool John Moores University

Myth Four: Reducing Road Space for Cars will Cause Chaos
Professor Graham Smith Oxford Brookes University

Local Residential Streets

· Car flow in local streets is generally so low that no more than a dustcart width will accommodate all traffic movements.
· In most situations not even a passing place is necessary and residents can benefit from the reclaimed space.
· New developments can benefit from the best experience gained in using continental shared-surface designs in traditional areas.

· Traditional linked-up grid systems can be a successful model for modern development.
· The linkage and appropriate densities that can be achieved, supported by effective planning restrictions on large scale peripheral development, can make walking and cycling attractive for more journeys.

Local High Streets

· Reduced widths, leading to reduced speed and capacity, can result in more pleasant, safer and more vibrant local High Streets. This reduction can then lead to a reduced demand for motor vehicle travel, a large proportion of which is local anyway.
· Loading space can be reduced to a minimum and can take priority over moving traffic.
· Parking can take place on the highway to reduce running space. A car, parked, can represent a user of local facilities.

The connected up network: the rat run myth -

· More journeys are short so an urban area may benefit from reduced motor vehicle presence.
· The negative behaviour aspects of drivers can be successfully ameliorated by known traffic calming methods.
· The benign modes become more attractive if destinations are conveniently within reach.

The Open Road

· The open road's width can be constrained to improve the safety and convenience of benign and slower traffic.

Conclusion

Counter-intuitive provisions can often be seen to achieve benefits in a surprising manner and as an alternative to current ("safety-audit") practice.

Myth Five: UK Roads are Safer than Ever
Dr Robert Davis Principal Policy Officer Advisor RDRF

A road is not "safe" because people have not been hurt or killed on it - very often the opposite may be true.

Gross Road Traffic Accident (RTA) numbers do not tell you about the experience of the road user - casualty rates might. Casualty rates for some user groups are not good in the UK compared to other European countries or the past.

Even casualty rates may not be good because they do not tell you what steps have to be taken to avoid danger, or who kills whom.

Danger can be measured by collisions, whether parents allow children out, evasive action taken etc. These numbers are different from RTAs.

The RDRF therefore believes that we should at least look at casualty rates, preferably who hurts/kills whom numbers, and to consider measures of danger. It is also likely that reducing danger at source - the normal method of approaching safety in other areas - will probably reduce casualties and their severity as well.

However, it should not be the exclusive aim of road safety. If we are to consider lumped together numbers from a public health perspective, life years lost in a highly motorised society like ours are mainly associated with issues like noxious emissions, greenhouse gas emissions, poor health from lack of exercise provided by walking and cycling, investment diverted from health care etc.

We also need to understand that although some road safety interventions may well have reduced casualty rates for some road users, there have often been adverse effects on other road users from such interventions. Other factors (such as superior trauma care) have contributed more to such reductions.

No number describes the injustice of endangering others. Any low number is never justification for accepting injustice.

Myth Six: Speeding is a Necessity on Today's Roads
John Stewart Chair of the Lower Speeds Initiative

Looking at the way most of us drive, you would get the clear impression that speeding is necessary part of everyday life. 70% of us admit to breaking the 30mph speed limit, despite the fact that 97% of us understand it and we are regularly breaking the speed limit on motorways and rural roads as well.

The results of illegal and excessive speeds are devastating. On Government figures, a third of all fatal crashes are caused by excessive speed. That's around 1,200 lives a year. There is one TRL report, constantly quoted by the Association of British Drivers (ABD), which suggests that only a small proportion of crashes can be put down to speed, but it merely suits the ABD's purposes to quote this report. In reality, it appears to be a rogue study, out of synch with all other studies in Britain and across Europe. If anything, the British Government's figure of a third of all fatal crashes caused by speed looks like an underestimate.

The argument is put that it is driver error rather than speed that causes fatal crashes. Of course, driver error is the basic cause of crashes, but excessive speed aggravates the error - that is why speed is so dangerous. The figures bear this out. A pedestrian or cyclist struck by a vehicle travelling at 40mph has an 85% chance of being killed; at 30mph, there is a 55% chance of death; at 20mph, it is only 5%.

This is why I am so critical of the Government's refusal to replace 30mph with 20mph as the norm on all urban roads. Tony Blair announced a tough target to halve the number of children killed and seriously injured on the roads by 2010. But half these children are killed or seriously injured on main roads. Without a 20mph limit on main roads, the Government is fighting with one hand tied behind its back.

But looking at the way authorities fail to enforce the speed limits, you would believe that they, too, see speeding as a fact of modern-day living. The Police admit that they rarely stop people and don't prosecute them unless they are driving well in excess of the given speed limit. But the Police just don't have the resources. Their political masters in the Home Office have decreed that traffic policing is not one of the Core Objectives of the Police. To concentrate efforts on burglaries, Police budgets for traffic operations have been cut back from 15% to 6% in the last 10 years. Yet more people are killed and hurt by bad driving than by all other crimes combined. And 'Crime and Disorder Audits', carried out by the country's Police forces, show that 86% of people think road safety is as important as mugging and burglary.

But perhaps the economic consequences of slowing down are too high for the country's economy to bear? The relatively small amount of work that has been done in this area indicates that lower limits on urban roads and on 'B' roads in the country would only add a very few minutes to journey times. And if that saved lives, the savings to the economy would be great, as the Government estimates that each fatality on the roads costs the country around £1 million.

So, isn't it, then, that slowing down is a necessity on today's roads? It would mean fewer casualties. It would also mean greater freedom of choice about how we live and travel - fewer children would be cooped up in their homes, their parents fearful of the traffic on the streets; older people could once again move around their neighbourhoods; many more people would be able to choose to cycle, walk or go horse-riding again. Slower speeds have a crucial role to play if the Government is serious is serious about modal shift.

Myth Seven: It's Not Safe to Walk and Cycle
Mayer Hilman Policy Studies Institute

Analysis of annual road casualty statistics indicates that the risk of death or serious injury by distance travelled by cycle or on foot is much higher than by car or public transport. From this, it would appear logical to discourage travel by the non-motorised modes, particularly if the Government's new targets on casualty reduction are to be met. Closer attention to the subject reveals how misleading it would be to follow such an approach.

This paper is aimed at demonstrating why that is so by highlighting a wide range of myths surrounding this area of policy. The myths will be classified under three key headings: the adequacy of the techniques used in compiling the statistics the consequences of their application in policy; and a reappraisal of the issue of risk management.

It will conclude by setting out a brief agenda on revisions to current practice to make it more likely that society gains the maximum benefits from enabling people to make a rising proportion of their journeys by the non-motorised modes.

Selling the Message - Using the Media to Win the Argument
Sara Jones Media Consultant

Using the media is one of the cheapest ways of getting your message across to a large number of people. But it is easy, especially when your message runs counter to the prevailing climate of opinion. There are no magic formulae to improving your media profile. It will take an investment of time, and possibly money. It is, however, possible, as various campaigning groups have proved.

Understand the media. Find out what journalists are looking for. Stories need to be based on a simple message. They need to be about outcomes not processes. It needs to be clear how ordinary people will be affected.

Spoon-feed the journalists. Find out about their deadlines and ensure you meet them. Discover what format they like their pictures in. GreenPeace turned their media image around by making themselves media friendly. They produce video News Releases which provide television programmes with pictures they would not otherwise have.

Make a journalist your friend. Make friends with transport correspondents or even a general journalist who has an interest in transport. They want someone they can ring who might not always be interviewed but can provide background information.

Be available. Make sure your spokespeople are the ones who can always do the unsociable interview.

Become a familiar face. By limiting the number of people who speak on your behalf you ensure the message is consistent; give them the practice they need to become proficient; make them familiar figures so that journalists, and the public, think of them first when there is a transport story.

Be sure of your research. Do not go to the press until you can back up your research. Friends of the Earth achieved a high level of media recognition by creating what they called 'an alliance with science'. Their message was irrefutable.

Use third party endorsement. Your organisation might be unknown outside the field and therefore carry little public clout. If you can persuade a celebrity to promote your message the media are more likely to be interested. The use of stars such as Brigitte Bardot and Joanna Lumley by some of the animal rights group has helped them differentiate themselves from the radical activist groups and ensure they get coverage.

Piggyback other stories. Be very aware of what else is in the news and what is coming up. If you know Prescott is going to be making a statement in the House of Commons or there will be a launch of new research send out a press release linking this with your message.

Remember - each interview is not a threat but an opportunity to get your message across.

Delegate List