Current Issue Contents

• Abstracts & Keywords
  
• Editorial, J. Whitelegg
  
• Cycling in African Cities: Status & Prospects, Theo Rwebangira
• National symbolism undermining healthy transport policies? A case study of Canberra's V8 Supercar race, Paul J. Tranter & Timothy J. Keeffe
• Twisted Logic in the upside-down world of 'road safety' ideology: A case study of 'The Safety & Security issues of Women drivers & passengers', Robert Davis
• Determinants of air travel growth, Stefan K. Nielsen
• Liveable Neighbourhoods, Evan Jones
• Walking as a local transport modal choice in Adelaide, Andrew Allan
• Conference Announcement
• Notes for contributors

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Lead Editorial

Recent large scale protests at extravagant gatherings of world leaders (Seattle, Gothenburg, Genoa) have marked a rising tide of discontent with a global economic system that is increasingly incapable of dealing with poverty, equity, social justice and the satisfaction of basic human needs and wants. The lubricating oil for this global economic system is long distance transport of goods and people. The discussion about globalisation is gradually recognising the importance of celebrating what is locally distinctive (and can be supplied locally) and rejecting those things transported across the world simply to meet corporate profitability targets.

Put at its simplest there has to be something very wrong with a global system that can supply New Zealand onions to a Sainsbury's supermarket in Lancaster - and supply them more cheaply than European sources. This journal has sustained a debate around this subject for all of its 7 years of life. We published the now famous Steffi Böge yogurt paper in Volume 1 and have returned to this theme at regular intervals since then. For most of this time the problem has been seen as a transport problem. The discussion has focussed on the environmental impact of long distance transport including the cancer-inducing effect of air transport and respiratory damage of lorry transport. It has been seen as a pricing problem: transport does not cover its full external costs or transport is too cheap. What we are now seeing in the global protest against large corporations, chemical polluted food, foot and mouth disease and air transport is very different. The penny has finally dropped in that we are now confronted with two very different lifestyle choices, each of which has dramatic implications for sustainable development and global equity. Model 1 is the globalisation model and Model 2 is the localisation model.

Model 1 advocated by most leaders of the developed world and enthusiastically supported by the UK Prime Minister ,Tony Blair, is of a world where most of the important decisions are made by large corporations, where long distance movement of people and freight is a sign of modernisation and efficiency and where old fashioned public services (like the UK National Health Service or the Vienna public transport system) should be broken into 'bite-sized chunks' and run by the private sector in a way that satisfies shareholder needs for a return on investment and does not serve wider community interests. Model 1 is a greater transformation of society and economy than the industrial revolution or the introduction of settled farming at the end of the Neolithic period. Model 1 does not only generate substantial amounts of long distance traffic that need more and more airports, roads and ports - it requires the fundamental breakdown of local production and consumption links to feed a large appetite for profit, turnover and spatially-fragmented intensive production. Long distance transport is the life blood of this new order. There can be no limit on air travel (new terminals and runways will be built) no limits on new motorways (Eastern Europe must be connected) and no limits on private sector involvement (London underground must be run with the substantial involvement of private firms).

Model 2 is the one not on offer. It is the one that the democratic process cannot deliver. There is no choice. Model 2 requires a substantial effort to satisfy basic needs and wants as a priority. Rather than spending billions on GM technology in India we could re-engineer water supplies to ensure water-efficient local agriculture prospered. We could provide peasant farmers with secure access to land and protect their rights. Rather than build high speed trains, airports and monorails we could ensure that our cities were havens of peace and security for children, the elderly, pedestrians and cyclists. We could have highly efficient local public transport (like Vienna, Graz and Zurich) rather than the disastrous UK versions in fragmented, insecure, dangerous and dirty private sector organisations. We could encourage small farmers in the UK to grow organic food for local consumption and bring an end to the export of the same number of animals as are imported through the same ports.

All this is possible but it is not on offer. European governments with one or two notable exceptions are bent on large scale production, globalisation of supply, exploiting children in factories in Morocco and Thailand and global pollution. Solving transport problems depends absolutely on political will and a strong sense of what is in the public interest. If we continue to privatise both space (shopping malls) and services (bus and rail) then we will not produce a high quality public realm. If we want to create liveable neighbourhoods in Perth (Jones), then a strong local democracy intent on rewarding local businesses and reducing the damage caused by lorries and cars will be more successful than a weak democracy intent on following the lead set by a large corporation. Air transport is the key to many of the plans of the global corporation and in this issue Nielsen shows just how resilient are the determinants of air travel growth. At the other end of the spectrum walking is a key indicator of what is healthy, vibrant and attractive in our cities (Allen). Walking does not fit in with a globalisation agenda which is why national governments find it difficult to embrace it as a policy issue. Also in this issue we show how the prospects for cycling in African cities (Rwebangira) are developing in circumstances where traffic levels make cycling very difficult indeed.

International grand prix racing is an unlikely subject for a transport journal. Tranter and Keeffe discuss the transformation of public space in Australia's capital, Canberra, to illustrate some very uncomfortable facts about the ways governments perceive cars, fast cars and the problems they cause to ordinary local residents. The message sent out to the world by the conversion of prime parts of Canberra to a racing circuit is very clear indeed: the excitement of fast cars, the worship of speed and danger and the strutting of testosterone-laden young males is a good thing for a government to encourage.

Finally, in this issue we devote space to a serious disagreement. In our last issue (7,1) Woodcock et al. discussed their findings and views around car design and the safety of female car occupants. In this issue we publish a paper by Bob Davis who takes the authors to task for their uncritical acceptance of road safety ideology and for their inability (as he sees it) to encompass a wider view of what a safe, secure transport system could actually look like. Bob Davis sees Woodcock et al. as part of the problem. It is right and long overdue that road safety discussions should move beyond the straight reporting of academic findings and chip away at uncomfortable areas occupied by ideology. We were very happy to publish Woodcock's paper and we are equally happy to publish Davis's rebuttal. Readers will now be better informed on some of the very hard ideological and scientific issues at the heart of road safety debates. If this contributes to fewer deaths and injuries on the roads and footpaths amongst pedestrians and cyclists then something really useful will have been achieved.

John Whitelegg
Editor
World Transport Policy and Practice

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Abstracts & Keywords

Cycling in African Cities: Status & Prospects, Theo Rwebangira

A low level of personal mobility characterises urban transport in most cities of Sub-Saharan Africa. One of the major reason for this is that the majority of the residents of these cities cannot afford the cost of public transport where it is available. Cycling, which would have provided a solution to the mobility problem, has not been acknowledged by the planning authorities in these cities. As a consequence there are no facilities for cycling and as a result it plays an insignificant role in the provision of mobility. Poor traffic safety discourages individuals who can afford a bicycle from cycling and this explains the difference in cycling between the large and medium-sized cities in Africa.
Keywords Africa, cycling, mobility, non-motorised transport, urban environment.

The paper examines the public health implications of the GMC 400 V8 Supercar Race held in Canberra, in June 2000 and 2001. The race was held in and around the Parliamentary Zone, a place of powerful national symbolism. The race had a number of potential impacts on public health and on the development of healthy transport policy. Of particular importance were the impacts on - and the messages about - road safety. The impacts of the race can be examined at a number of spatial scales. At the local scale, disruptions to healthier and safer transport modes such as walking, cycling and public transport, are considered. At the national scale, the issues of the glorification of the car (and a particularly 'unhealthy' type of car), as well as the glorification of speed and the combination of alcohol advertising and high-speed racing emerge. These issues may also have an impact at the international scale, considering the television coverage of the race. The location of the race in Australia's Parliamentary Zone, considered by many as the political and symbolic heart of the nation, adds legitimacy and official sanction to the potentially health-damaging impacts of the race.
Keywords Car racing, cultural symbolism, motor sport, road safety.

A response to 'The Safety & Security issues of Women drivers & passengers' by Woodcock et al. in World Transport Policy & Practice 7.1. This article is questioned for its use of an apparently feminist approach to safety which conflates women's rights with motoring privileges; it is specifically criticised for identifying car occupant safety with vehicle crashworthiness. This critique then moves on to show how the article should not simply be contested, but that its main importance is as a text to be seen as a case study in 'road safety' ideology. This leads to a demonstration of certain assumptions which function in a destructive fashion, characterised by an inversion of the road safety policy required for a more civilised transport system.
Keywords Cars, civility, danger, design, safety, vulnerable road users.

This article identifies the main determinants of air travel growth focusing on drivers and impeders. Major drivers of air travel growth are increased personal incomes combined with reduced real airfares, the latter furthered by airline marketing strategies and government subsidies to the aviation industry. Other drivers are increasing market liberalisation and globalisation of manufacture, trade, personal relations and economic and political systems, as well as changing geography, population growth and migration. Working structures and changing age- and wealth distribution in the population also play a role, as well as changes in social norms and values and individual needs, wants and desires. Future policies for impeding air travel growth may aim at reducing growth in personal incomes while increasing real airfares, limiting the expansion of aviation's socio-technical system and setting up per capita quotas for air travel. Promotion of alternative lifestyles, as well as restrictions to globalisation and market forces may also prove useful in the longer term.
Keywords Aviation, air travel, environment, growth.

Liveable Neighbourhoods is a new policy of the Western Australian Government to combat the high car dependency, lack of public transport and poor walking conditions in suburban sprawl. This paper gives an overview of the urban design and structuring principles behind the policy. Liveable Neighbourhoods is based on an urban structure built with walkable, mixed-use neighbourhoods. These neighbourhoods cluster around a town centre to give sufficient population catchment to support main street retail, office and community facilities, and support public transit.
A traditional movement network in Liveable Neighbourhoods overcomes the disconnected street system, lack of footpaths, unsafe routes and long walking distances to most destinations that characterise conventional suburban developments. Liveable Neighbourhoods encourages people to walk by providing an environment of high pedestrian amenity and efficiency, and one that is stimulating, legible and safe for pedestrians.
Liveable Neighbourhoods recognises the complexity of daily movement patterns and the need to make pedestrian trips as short and pleasant as possible. The primary pedestrian network is the street system, which is detailed to support pedestrian movement.
Keywords Liveable Neighbourhoods, pedestrians, Perth, urban design, walking, Western Australia.

A glance at transport statistics for Australia indicates that 'walking' as a transport option is a relatively insignificant form of urban travel. For medium to long, intra-urban trips, this is probably indeed the case. This will continue so long as the morphology of Australian cities is predominantly shaped by the needs of motorised transport. This paper provides an overview of the extent of walking as a transport option, at least in the journey to work. The characteristics of walking as a transport mode are discussed, which is important in setting the context of the walking permeability indices that are developed in the subsequent section. The walking permeability indices are the principal form of analysis used in assessing how well the City of Adelaide and the inner city residential development of Garden East and the new middle distant northern suburb of Mawson Lakes are in catering to walking as a local transport modal choice. The final section examines strategies to facilitate walking in Adelaide.
Keywords Adelaide, urban design, walking, walking permeability distance index, walking permeability distance time index.

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