1,721,010 research outputs found
Supplemental Material - Modelling the interdependence of spatial scales in urban systems
No full textSupplemental Material for Modelling the interdependence of spatial scales in urban systems by Seraphim Alvanides, Seraphim Alvanides and Friedrich Jan in Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science</p
Editorial: Active transport: Why and where do people (not) walk or cycle?
No full textThe increasing emphasis on active forms of transport is slowly finding its way into policy initiatives. Yet, the modal shift from motorised to active transport is slower than expected, and for some cities and countries it is stagnating (Pooley et al., 2014a). Clearly, more needs to be done to encourage walking and cycling, in recognition of the potential health and environmental benefits, but the evidence base for interventions remains relatively weak. Most of the interest on active transport comes from outside of geography, with public health, transport, and built environment professionals and researchers exploring the role of non-motorised travel modes on health. The aim of this special issue was to attract articles focussed on walking and/or cycling for transport and associated health outcomes, with an emphasis on geographical and spatial perspectives. This aim has been achieved, with contributions from international experts in transport, social, health geography, and the wider spatial sciences, with most of the contributions considering how we can influence public policy and promote the role of geography in active transport. The topics covered in this issue include all aspects of active transport, but the emphasis remains on space. In particular, the social and spatial distribution of active forms of transport; the impact of walking and/or cycling on health; the constraints restricting further modal shift towards non-motorised transport; and theoretical considerations on the geography of active travel. In this editorial, I present the articles published in the special issue and close with a brief reflection from my experience as guest editor for this issue of the Journal of Transport & Health (JTH)
School choice from a household resource perspective: Preliminary findings from a north of England case study
No full textThis paper seeks to widen the conceptual lens of school choice debate and analysis to account for multiple, intersecting economies, cultures, and infrastructures of daily life. Preliminary findings are presented in the case of primary school enrolment in the north of England city of Newcastle upon Tyne. The national context is one in which public service delivery has been influenced by the language of ‘choice’, notably a parent's ‘right to choose’ a school other than that nearest to their child's home, and ‘responsibility’ to exercise choice as self-determined consumer-citizens. At the metropolitan level this translates as market-led competitive enrolment and a tendency for more children to travel longer distances to school and for there to be greater variation in journey length, as some parents are able to use superior transport and personnel as leverage in their quest for a better choice of state school. Findings are presented from a multi-method pilot study combining daily diary, resource audit, and biographic analysis for a sample of 18 families drawn from two case study schools. One school (Town) attracts pupils from an area of low-income population, to which most children journey on foot; the other school (Woodland) attracts pupils from further away, situated within a largely middle-class area, to which most children are driven in their parent's car. The findings show how the market model assumes and rewards a particular mode of choice-making which fails to recognise that some parents seek less instrumentally for their child to be happy. Discussion combines theory, empirical findings, and critical analysis to expose the subtle inequities of school choice in relation to neo-liberal thinking
Bombed Cities: Legacies of Post‐War Planning on the Contemporary Urban and Social Fabric
Full text linkPost‐Second World War reconstruction is an important field of research around the world, with strands of enquiry investigating architecture, urban archaeology, heritage studies, urban design, city planning, critical cartography, and social geography. This thematic issue offers a critical statement on mid‐twentieth century urban planning, starting from the period of the Second World War. We approach post‐war reconstruction not only from the mainstream actualised perspective, but also considered by alternative visions and strategies, with an emphasis on empirically driven studies of post‐catastrophic damage and reconstruction, implementing a range of different methodologies. In this editorial we identify two research strands on post‐war planning of destroyed cities, one investigating the processes and practices of reconstruction and heritage conservation and the other assessing the legacies of planning decisions on the social and urban fabric of today’s cities. These two strands are interlinked; early planning visions and subsequent decisions were dominated by contemporary concerns and political values, yet they have been imprinted on today’s urban and social fabric of various bombed cities, affecting our urban lives. Thus, reconstruction strategies of destroyed cities should engage diverse voices in a broad dialogue through sensitive inclusion, as today’s planning decisions have the capacity to define the urban and social conditions for future generations
Everyday cycling in urban environments: Understanding behaviours and constraints in space-time
No full textMotorised transport contributes to greenhouse gas emissions which also impact on climate change. But, cycling as a means of transport has the potential to ameliorate this situation; hence, understanding cycling as means of transport is paramount. This research is partly a response to calls from UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence 2012 recommendations as well as urban transport literature for further research to incorporate the investigation and discovery of cyclists’ perception and experiences (Forsyth and Krizek, 2011; NICE, 2012; Skinner and Rose, 2007); to support urban designers as well as cycling policy interventions and transportation engineers and thereby increase cycling uptake to ensure sustainable means of transport with low impact on environment. The ultimate realisations of cycling benefits by cities – such as cities in North East England – are hampered by lack of appropriate data to inform policy strategies to improve cycling uptake as well as data processing methodologies. Moreover, several efforts are being made to enhance data availability to inform policy strategies and cycling uptake for which this research aim to contribute.
The purpose of this research is to provide evidence on the use of the area’s cycling infrastructure by experienced commuter cyclists. This research has for the first time facilitated the collection and analysis of detailed bicyclists’ route choices in the UK, bringing substantive empirical evidence for understanding daily cycling behaviours. The paper is in four main parts: description of the methods employed in this research and sample characteristics; spatial analysis to understand our sample’s commonalities and differences with other areas; comparative spatial analysis of the primary tracks with “official” cycling network data of the study area; and, further discussion and conclusion part summarising the early findings of this research
Investigating the bilingual landscape of the Marshall Islands
No full textWhile research on linguistic landscapes (LL) is fast becoming a mainstay of social science research, little of this inquiry has been conducted in the Pacific region. The small Pacific island states are particularly interesting because many are involved in a struggle for their right to the landscape (to paraphrase Lefebvre, 1968). This chapter reports on interdisciplinary research in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), which has recently proposed a bilingual strategy for public signage. We report our empirical findings on language use in the LL of the RMI at the cusp of this new language policy, as well as our research methods, which aim to make our findings accessible to local stakeholders. By feeding our results back to the relevant authorities, we hope to inform language policy strategy in this ongoing struggle for ethnolinguistic identity construction
Cycling in the city: Understanding urban cycling behaviours and constraints in space-time
No full textAs cycling in British cities increases, so do conflicts between cyclists and other road users, as well as debates with city planners who are trying to balance cities’ transport infrastructures in the face of public spending cuts. In Tyne and Wear (North East England), incremental steps are taken by the local authorities to provide cycling infrastructure, albeit at a slow rate compared to the uptake of cycling in the commuting area. As a result, there appears to be increasing dissatisfaction from local campaign groups about the lack of a coherent cycling strategy, negative attitudes towards cyclists and even the refusal of the local public transport providers to allow bicycles on the metro system.
This paper reports on a detailed survey of 72 commuter cyclists, while cycling in the area around Tyne and Wear. Data collection methods involved day-long GPS tracking alongside diaries for trip clarification and classification, over a period of 7 days. Secondary data involves the analysis of vehicle congestion data from traffic counters, superimposed on the main traffic arteries, cycling pathways and recently established 20 miles-per-hour zones. The aim of the paper is to present a comparative geographical analysis of primary tracks on everyday utility cycling, in comparison to “official” cycling network data of the study area. The purpose of this research is to provide evidence on the use of the area’s cycling infrastructure by experienced commuter cyclists, by estimating the cycle-miles on the cycling network as a percentage of the total, for the given sample. In order to fully comprehend the constraints imposed on cyclists, the tracks are analysed alongside vehicle congestion data. Space-time methods are used to understand what time of the day the trips are within or outside the cycling network in comparison to peak traffic times from traffic counters
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