Publication date: 2008-07-02
First published in: Journal of Transport Geography
Authors: M. May et al
Abstract:
Current road safety programs and thinking in Australia are constructed within a paradigm that tends to accept existing cultural arrangements. Such programs, therefore, favor symptomatic solutions and technical and physical solutions as a way forward. A fundamental redesign of cultural arrangements is necessary to challenge the “culture of speed.” Our research is developing a holistic, social, ecological model for reconnecting road safety with communities that value quality of life and slower ways of being. Improving road safety through a reduction in the volume and speed of motorized traffic is integrally related to enhancing health and fitness, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and improving neighborhood planning and community cohesion. In this regard, community-based travel behavior change initiatives are deserving of much greater attention in the road safety area. As well as these changes at the personal and community scale, policy changes to urban and transport planning that address the broader issues of sustainability in an era of climate change and peak oil can also be linked to improvements in road safety.
Published in: Journal of Transport Geography, Article in Press, Corrected Proof
Available from: ScienceDirect