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, 13 th March 2008

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

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:

The key Trends (health targets): 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

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.

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

Key Trends: poverty in the London conurbation 1970 to 2000

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.

Sheffield - Poverty

Without Hiding Poverty

Without hiding accidents

In a little more detail

And hidden again

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.

Deaths in Yorkshire

Pedestrians killed in accidents involving motor vehicles ,000 deaths Mostly in Cities (up to 10 times more frequent) It is well worth comparing these maps of who dies with some more of who drives…

When it comes to car dependency The 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 live in such households (despite most living alone or in a couple without children!). Tellingly women are less car preoccupied.

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 a holistic approach to road safety in Great Britain, 2007).

Children aged 1 to 4 who died in past twelve months (3 million and slightly falling)

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