There have a number of policies, projects and initiatives to promote sustainable and active travel in recent years, but despite these efforts Britain still lags behind its European counterparts in terms of the proportion of journeys made by bike and on foot. For example, in 2008 walking and cycling accounted for 33% of trips made in Germany and 51% of those made in the Netherlands, but only 24% of journeys in Britain were made using these modes of transport [1]. Similarly, the National Travel Survey in 2010 [2] reported that 64% of trips in Britain were made by car in that year, compared to 23% by walking or cycling. These reports show that in general, walking is more popular than cycling, particularly in Britain where bicycles were used for less than 2% of trips [2]. However, the proportion of journeys made by walking fell by 28% between 1995/97 and 2010 [2], suggesting that the popularity of walking for short trips is declining, rather than improving.
A recent study called Understanding Walking and Cycling [3], a collaboration between the universities of Lancaster, Leeds and Oxford Brookes, pointed out that although the use of sustainable and active travel modes for short journeys is desirable as they improve environmental conditions such as air quality, reduce congestion and greenhouse gas emissions and are beneficial for health; much of the £150 million that has been invested in promoting cycling since 2005 has been directed towards physical infrastructure and training courses, rather than understanding how people decide on travel options or why the public has not responded well to these initiatives.
They used questionnaires, interviews and household ethnographies in Leeds, Leicester, Worcester and Lancaster to investigate attitudes towards walking and cycling in urban areas, and identify factors which prevent people from using them more frequently for short journeys. Rather than talking to people who have already managed to incorporate walking and cycling into their everyday routines, they focussed on those who haven’t, to attempt to find out what could encourage or enable them to do so. According to their summary of key findings and recommendations [3], they found that the three main barriers preventing people who would like to walk and cycle more from doing so were:
- Concerns about the physical environment, including safety
- Difficulties fitting walking and cycling into household routines, especially in households with young children
- Perceptions that walking and cycling are not normal things to do
The top reason given for not walking was being exposed to wet and windy weather. Attitudes towards walking and cycling were generally positive, with walking in particular being associated with enjoyment and other positive benefits, however there were some general safety concerns with cycling, particularly when using roads. Other issues included having to transport family members such as young children or elderly relatives, lack of storage for bikes or walking clothes and shoes, and arriving at destinations in a dishevelled state. Additionally, some responses of the people interviewed indicate that walking and cycling have something of an image problem. In Britain car ownership and use for short journeys is seen as the norm, and as the results of the study show, people like to fit in with the majority and may worry about perceptions of them if they use other forms of transport as an alternative. This would diminish if walking and cycling became a more “normal” thing to do, and in order to achieve this, the suggestion of the study was that the physical environment is made as welcoming as possible, with walking and cycling made as easy as possible, while short, urban car journeys are made more difficult and less appealing.
Significantly, the report pointed out that while many people have values supporting sustainable travel or a healthy lifestyle, these values are not necessarily carried through into their everyday behaviour, and the influence of various factors such as those listed above mean that people who support sustainable travel or would like to walk and cycle more, ultimately still use their cars for short journeys.
[1] http://www.vtpi.org/AJPHpucher.pdf
[2] http://assets.dft.gov.uk/statistics/releases/national-travel-survey-2010/nts2010-03.pdf
