Transport for Humans: Are We Nearly
Author | : Pete Dyson |
Publisher | : London School of Economics and Political Science |
Total Pages | : 288 |
Release | : 2021 |
ISBN-10 | : 1913019357 |
ISBN-13 | : 9781913019358 |
Rating | : 4/5 (57 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: Engineers plan transport systems, people use them. But the ways in which an engineer measures success - speed, journey time, efficiency - are often not the way that passengers think about a good trip. We are not cargo. We choose how and when to travel, influenced not only by speed and time but by habit, status, comfort, variety - and many other factors that engineering equations don't capture at all. As we near the practical, physical limits of speed, capacity and punctuality, the greatest hope for a brighter future lies in adapting transport to more human wants and needs. Behavioural science has immense potential to improve the design of roads, railways, planes and pavements - as well as the ways in which we use them - but only when we embrace the messier reality of transport for humans. This is the moment. Climate change, the coronavirus pandemic and changing work-life priorities are shaking up long-held assumptions. There is a new way forward. This book maps out how to design transport for humans.