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Category Archives: Active transport

Why Do Non-Drivers Say No to Cars?

Sunday, March 24th, 2013 | warai03p | No Comments

By Beck Eleven and Diana Dekker at Stuff

Non-drivers 1

Nearly 90,000 nervous people sat their learner licence tests last year, and close to 58,000 of them passed. Most were under 30 and most of them probably couldn’t wait to get legally behind the wheel.

Getting a driver’s licence is a rite of passage for young people, even for a sprinkling of people in their 40s or older (134 people aged 65 and over sat the test in the past year). But not for some. Some pass their test early, drive for a bit, then stow their licences in a drawer, deciding that driving is not for them. Others never even dare to try. They feel they are too timid, too environmentally conscious, too old or too dreamy to be in charge of a car.

Here are a some of their stories: Continued at original site

A New Movement for The New City

Sunday, March 24th, 2013 | warai03p | No Comments

By Bruce McVean, at Movement for Liveable London

Cities have always been shaped bytransport, while the planning and design of cities impacts on transport choices. The first cities were inherently walkable – the primary mode of transport was people’s feet and cities were necessarily compact in size and form as a result.

Public transport allowed cities to grow well beyond a size that would allow a person to comfortably walk from one side to the other. The expansion of train, tram, bus and tube lines helped suburbia spread, but the component parts of suburban growth remained walkable – homes needed to be within walking distance of train stations, tram stops, bus routes, shops and services. Today we’d say that cities were expanding through ‘transit orientated development’.

Continue at original site

Govt stats over-state the risks of cycling says new research (it’s pedestrians & young male drivers who have to worry)

Wednesday, December 12th, 2012 | warai03p | No Comments

Original article by Tony Farrelly at road.cc

Cycling is not as risky as official statistics suggest says new research – in fact, for young  men it is safer than driving. In an odd coincidence, the research was published at the exact moment a controversial BBC documentary portraying cycling as a high risk mode of transport finished airing last night.

According to the research by a team from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London (UCL), official statistics consistently overstate the risks involved with cycling and underestimate those associated with walking and driving –  their most eye-catching findings is that cycling is a safer than driving for young men between 17-20 years old.

Continued at original site

Caution! Paradigm Shift Ahead: “Adolescent mobility health”

Thursday, October 11th, 2012 | Editor | No Comments

This is a multimedia presentation by Professor Hank Weiss, delivered Tuesday, October 02, 2012 at the Safety 2012 World Conference (47 min).

Adolescents warrant special attention. From a road safety perspective, they carry the largest crash and morbidity/mortality risk of any age group. This has led to considerable research and safety programs, but these efforts have plateaued in many countries and remain fixed within a road safety perspective. From a broader perspective, little has been done about the many non-traffic health risks related to teen driving (increased drug and alcohol use, anti-social behaviour, sexually transmitted infections, inactivity and obesity). From a sustainable transport perspective, a contemporary imperative, teens are where the transition from non-driver to driver takes place; an opportune time for interventions to minimize environmental harms.

Professor Weiss introduces a new paradigm termed ‘mobility health’ to bridge the siloed domains of safety, adolescent health and sustainable mobility. In this passionate speech to an international audience, he advocates changing the current narrow paradigm of adolescent road safety to a cross-level/cross-disciplinary, more potent, timely and healthy vision of less driving through mobility modal shift from cars to active and public transport.

Reasons for Singapore’s Low Male Adolescent Mortality

Friday, September 7th, 2012 | Editor | No Comments

“Efforts to reduce motorisation by promoting public transportation, in addition to road safety legislation and improvement in trauma services, have produced low mortality rates from traffic injuries and by extension low adolescent mortality rates in Singapore. Similar efforts translated elsewhere could achieve major health benefits for adolescents.”

Boon et. al.

Full Correspondence: The Lancet, 380 (9842), P 645, 18 Aug 2012