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Changing priorities – transport, freedom and the value of life

This article discusses the changing priorities in road safety and the need to consider policy approaches beyond 2010. It explores the social and spatial inequalities related to road traffic accidents and the impact of car dependency on society.

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Changing priorities – transport, freedom and the value of life

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  1. Changing priorities – transport, freedom and the value of life Danny Dorling Social and Spatial Inequalities Group, Department of Geography University of Sheffield Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, Conference, London, 13th March 2008

  2. A league table to be bottom of In 2001 The United Kingdom was third from the top of the WHO league table of countries with the lowest crude mortality rate by road traffic accident. Sadly this may be as much a result of our fears as of our achievements

  3. Introduction Now is the time to consider what further work we need to do beyond 2010 and what policy approaches we need to adopt as we near the end of the current round of casualty reduction. We also must place road casualty reduction and policy priorities in a wider context of changes in society. Parliamentary Co-Chairs Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety …first we should acknowledge social segregation:

  4. The key Trends (health targets): 10.9 18 Britain is a country polarising by wealth and poverty – by health – and much in between. The polarisation is more evident and most clearly continuing to rise when geographical areas are compared. Cars are essential to this.

  5. Summary of argument • We appear to want to travel more – despite needing less to travel to work. • When we travel by car we are at our most dangerous. Other dangers, especially to children (such as infectious disease) have receded far faster than road safety has improved. • The car is crucial to social segregation and fear of cars means the affluent especially “cotton-ball” their children, segregating them further. • As with much else in Britain, this may take a change in our collective psyche to solve.

  6. Key Trends: wealth in the London conurbation, 1980 to 2000.

  7. Key Trends: poverty in the London conurbation 1970 to 2000

  8. A local picture of RTA • Normal maps hide poverty and traffic accidents, there are alternatives. • Here follow a few images, first of poverty rates in Sheffield. • These are followed by numbers of road traffic accidents, mainly minor, occurring to children. • Inequality rates rise from four fold to ten fold as you zoom in.

  9. Sheffield - Poverty

  10. Without Hiding Poverty

  11. Without hiding accidents

  12. In a little more detail

  13. And hidden again

  14. A national picture of RTA deaths • First consider just Yorkshire, deaths over a 24 year period. • Within Sheffield pedestrian RTA death rates by large areas (tracts) vary 5 fold. • Across Yorkshire they vary 10 fold. • The national picture is of an urban rural and north south divide. • There are enough pedestrian RTA deaths in Britain to define its social geography.

  15. Deaths in Yorkshire 1981-2004

  16. Pedestrians killed in accidentsinvolving motor vehicles1981-200429,000 deathsMostly inCities(up to 10 timesmore frequent)It is well worth comparingthese maps of who dies withsome more of who drives…

  17. When it comes to car dependencyThe UK is the LA of the EU • The car dominates commuting everywhere but in the Capital. • It is becoming normal for children to grow up in families with 2, 3, 4 or more cars. • There are even areas in Britain where most men aged 60-74 live in such households (despite most living alone or in a couple without children!). • Tellingly women are less car preoccupied.

  18. Conclusion: Its time to change the psyche • The majority of road safety professionals … admired the aspirational nature of the Swedish Vision Zero and the commitment of the Swedish Government to achieving it. However, many believed that, at a philosophical level, road use contains inherent risk, that an aspiration to remove all risk of death and serious injury was not helpful and that it would not fit the ‘British psyche’. In contrast, a combination of Sustainable Safety and the “pragmatic approach” … with the ultimate goal of reducing risk on the roads to not more than twice that experienced elsewhere in everyday life. (Beyond 2010 - a holistic approach to road safety in Great Britain, 2007).

  19. Children aged 1 to 4 whodied in past twelve months(3 million and slightly falling)

  20. People of all ages who died ina road traffic accident in past year(1 million and rapidly rising)

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