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Use and abuse of language in transport
- 1. Use and Abuse of Language in Transport Ian Ker Principal Planner/Economist ARRB Transport Research
- 2. You never really learn to swear until you learn to drive
- 3. You never really learn to swear until you learn to drive Road-rage hits elephant in Sri Lanka Monday July 2, 3:53 PM (AFP) Road-rage hits elephant in Sri Lanka. A Sri Lankan elephant experienced a fit of road-rage, pushing aside a bus after the driver rudely obstructed its way. The elephant was ambling along a main highway in the central town of Eheliyagoda recently when a private bus overtook it and came to an abrupt halt in the path of the pachyderm, the Lankadeepa newspaper reported. As several trumpet calls failed to get the obstructing bus out of the way, the tusker pushed the offending vehicle and smashed its windows before continuing its journey. Police did not press charges.
- 4. More Language Cyclists Dislike
- 5. Nanny State? Or Aunt Sally? A government perceived as having excessive interest in or control over the welfare of its citizens, especially in the enforcement of extensive public health and safety regulations. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
- 6. Working with the Market Clearer perception of costs, benefits and impacts
- 7. Working with the Market Clearer perception of costs, benefits and impacts Removing ‘barriers to entry’ ‘try before you buy’ choose what works for you no need for long term commitment information opportunity
- 8. Automobility is Bad language auto - self, own, of or by oneself mobile - shifting position readily; not fixed automobile - shifting position readily by oneself?
- 9. Automobility and Academia More than metal and (e)motion Inevitability of the automobile Oil makes the wheels go ‘round The auto as liberation technology Centrifugal spin Trapped behind the wheel Cultural icons and rites of passage Foul play Blowing smoke Where do they go to die? Moving away from cars Where are we now? Calming traffic University of California at Berkeley ‘Automobility 121’ Syllabus 2003
- 10. Regulation is in the Eye of the Beholder A Level Playing Field? Mass car ownership offered us a control over time and space which no previous generation has ever had, and we took it up willingly and enthusiastically. But it has got out of hand. It has now started to defeat its own advantages: There is much talk of a 'level playing field' - but playing fields are never level, which is why we change ends at half time. It's now half time - literally: we are probably about half way to the levels of traffic that would eventually apply if trends continue unchecked, and that just won't do. So we need to find a better way, or better ways. Phil Goodwyn (1997), Solving Congestion Inaugural Lecture as Professor of Transport Policy University College, London
- 11. Transport Infrastructure Funding: A Level Playing Field? Roads Large continuing investment needed Mainly from current user revenues Hypothecated funding sources Users apparently meet expenditure… …but expenditure less than cost in cities: Externalities Deteriorating asset Public Transport Large continuing investment needed Mainly debt funded No dedicated funding sources Users do not meet expenditure… …but expenditure greater than cost: Few externalities Improving asset
- 12. Some Consequences Roads in cities are underpriced: relative to public transport in absolute terms ‘hidden’ deficit Roads are not subject to financial analysis Public transport is ‘deficit-funded’ 20% ($40 million) of cost 25% of ‘deficit’ is interest on debt Bicycles fight for whatever they can get
- 13. Pattern Language Fundamental to any science or engineering discipline is a common vocabulary for expressing its concepts, and a language for relating them together. The goal of patterns within the software community is to create a body of literature to help software developers resolve recurring problems encountered throughout all of software development. Patterns help create a shared language for communicating insight and experience about these problems and their solutions. Formally codifying these solutions and their relationships lets us successfully capture the body of knowledge which defines our understanding of good architectures that meet the needs of their users. Forming a common pattern language for conveying the structures and mechanisms of our architectures allows us to intelligibly reason about them. The primary focus is not so much on technology as it is on creating a culture to document and support sound engineering architecture and design. http://hillside.net/patterns/patterns.htm
- 14. No Pattern Language The Building of the Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel, 1563. Oil on oak panel, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
- 15. Making Travel Behaviour Change Work Funding Travel Behaviour Change Programs Government ‘walking the talk’ Getting the economic signals right Transport pricing Taxation Coherent supportive context Leadership by example Developing tools for employers Sharing information Supporting workplace travel plan development and implementation
- 16. Rhetoric to Reality: What Inhibits Change? Planning as a substitute for action ‘Expert servants’ Structural and institutional inertia The best as enemy of the better Not really believing it yourself Never hire an architect who claims “I’m an architect - not a change management consultant”. Vivian Loftness, Professor of Architecture
- 17. Local Politics Misunderstanding Why should local government be marketing public transport for State Government? Misperception We’re already ‘better’ than other places Misinformation It isn’t all it’s cracked up to be
- 18. Not ‘Just’ Physical Activity Health Independence Cognitive Development Physical Fitness Self-esteem Sense of Community Sense of Place
- 19. Not ‘Just’ Physical Activity Health Independence Cognitive Development Physical Fitness Self-esteem Sense of Community Sense of Place
Editor's Notes
- 'You never really learn to swear until you learn to drive', or so the saying goes across the internet. Whilst many cyclists will have been on the receiving end of some abusive language [CLICK] (from motorists, pedestrians and even other cyclists), there are more insidious abuses of language that are impediments to the effective adoption of non-traditional paradigms in transport. To be fair, it isn’t all one way. Robyn Williams recently reported on Ockham’s Razor the lexicon of cycling repartee produced by Boris Johnson MP, a flamboyant cyclist and Editor of The Spectator magazine - in which ‘B’ stands for ‘Bugger Off’. As the UK Automobile demonstrated a decade ago in ‘Cycling Motorists’ one of the most effective way of improving driver behaviour towards cyclists is for more drivers also to be cyclists. At Velo-Mondiale 2000, in Amsterdam, I was asked what was the one thing I considered would most improve the lot of cyclists. My response was “abolish the word ‘cyclist’ - which somehow is taken to imply that we are cyclists to the exclusion of all else. Just as we no longer to refer to ‘the disabled’ and say, instead, ‘people with disabilities’, we should replace ‘cyclist’ by ‘people who cycle’ - and also walk, drive cars, ride buses and trains and generally live fairly normal lives. This recognition is fundamental to the paradigm shift from ‘cycle promotion’ to ‘travel behaviour change’ - in which the choice is left to the individual not somehow made for him or her.
- I doubt, though, that many of us have had this sort of Jumbo-sized problem with road-rage. Actually, the word ‘insidious’ itself is an interesting piece of language, with its elements of: ‘harmful but enticing’ and in the case of disease, ‘developing so gradually as to be well established before becoming apparent’ That is precisely the situation that travel behaviour change initiatives have to combat - the harmful but enticing development of a harmful habit.
- In many ways, the ‘nanny state’ is seen as working against the ideals of ‘freedom of choice’ and the ‘efficient working of the market’. BUT Travel Behaviour Change actually improves the working of the market clarifying perceptions
- It also removes barriers to entry or, in this case, impediments to the use of different transport modes. A lack of information or the inability to ‘try before you buy’ can be a major impediment to the efficient working of the market. Voluntary travel behaviour change is actually a strongly market-based initiative - it helps people make better informed decisions on travel without in any way prescribing the desired outcomes.
- If ‘auto’ is defined as ‘self, own, of or by oneself’ and ‘mobile’ as ‘shifting position readily’, does it really follow that ‘automobile’ should be equated to ‘shifting position readily by oneself’ It needs only a little reflection to realise the absurdity of such a definition. Whilst not all cities are as bad as Bangkok, all cities do have times and places where the car is not a very mobile piece of equipment. But even when it is mobile, the car does not provide automobility! Simply to keep a car running requires a huge industrial infrastructure and, of course, an external source of energy - to support which we work one day a week. A paradox is in operation. The car appears to give independence to travel when and where we choose but there is a fundamental dependence on the goods and services provided by others. The consequences of this are not trivial. Suggestions that we must seek alternatives to the private car in our cities are seen to advocating a reduction in the ability of individuals to be independently mobile. That is why the ‘voluntary’ in ‘voluntary travel behaviour change’ is such an important word.
- More than metal and (e)motion - automobile as cultural expression and social artefact Inevitability of the automobile - technolgical determinism Oil makes the wheels go ‘round - growth of the oil companies The auto as liberation technology - escaping the farm, the home, the job - and the train Centrifugal spin - malls, satellites, the hollowing out of the city Trapped behind the wheel - growing reliance and inability to adapt Cultural icons and rites of passage - advertising, machismo and the gendered car Foul play - distributional justice and systematic discrimination Blowing smoke - local and global air quality impacts [CLICK] Where do they go to die? - front and rear end environmental and resource costs Moving away from cars - smart highways or soft paths? Where are we now? - road rage, disempowerment, centralisation and other social pathologies Calming traffic
- Bruce Robinson made a point about the working of the market at a Transport Energy Forum in Perth on 16 September this year when, in response to questioning of whether regulation was likely to be an effective strategy for reducing fossil fuel use in transport, he suggested that it was, in fact, time to remove some regulations that currently biased the market in favour of high fuel use transport - eg import concessions on 4-wheel drive vehicles. Now there’s another piece of language - in the United States, these are known as SUVs ( ‘Sports Utility Vehicles’) by their supporters. Their detractors, including vulnerable road users, are more likely to call them UAVs (‘Urban Assault Vehicles’). Bruce might well have used the term ‘creating a level playing field’. Indeed, the concept of a ‘level playing field’ is one that resonates strongly with Australians. [CLICK] However, Phil Goodwin reminds us of the fallacious assumptions that can be involved in this concept. If the playing field hasn’t been level for a long time, maybe it is time to change ends. In other areas of public policy that’s known as ‘affirmative action’ and has been systematically successful in racial discrimination, gender bias and disability discrimination.
- A pattern language is essential for communication across professional disciplines or areas of interest. Without a pattern language to provide a common understanding, we are like the inhabitants of the Tower of Babel.
- The story of the tower of Babel is told in Genesis xi. It begins thus: "And the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. And it came to pass as they journeyed from the East, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick and burn them thoroughly, and they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. "And they said, let us build us a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men builded. "And the Lord said, Behold the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. Let us go down and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. "So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth; and they left off building the city." A cautionary tale, indeed, that might be sub-titled ‘divide and rule’. The greatest achievement of travel behaviour change is that it rises above individual modal interests and celebrates all forms of transport (even the car) in their appropriate place.
- In addition to funding travel behaviour change programs, it is essential that Government ‘walks the talk’ - gives substance to the rhetoric. This involves: Getting the economic signals right Transport pricing - car use at peak periods in cities is grossly underpriced and users only take account of a part of the costs they do pay when making decisions about travel Taxation - especially Fringe Benefits Tax Coherent supportive context Planning in other sectors eg education - ‘supercolleges’ reduce option to walk or cycle to school Also note that private schools draw on regional rather than local catchments. Leadership by example Sustainability strategy undermined by (un-named) Minister reported as saying ‘you’ll take away my 6-cylinder Commodore over my dead body’ Developing tools for employers - the Australian Greenhouse Office has recently release workplace travel planning guidelines that are freely-available. Sharing information - providing forums for information exchange. Supporting workplace plan development - the UK Government provides 5-days free professional advice to firms undertaking workplace travel planning - most of this gets used in the implementation stage, thus producing real results.
- Planning as a substitute for action Apologies to Liz Ampt for reminding her that she wrote this paper 20 years ago - with particular reference to bicycle planning! ‘Expert servants’ An expert servant underakes exactly what the proposer asks, taking the proposition at face value An expert relates to the fundamental objectives, analyses different options and assesses impacts Structural and institutional inertia No more needs be said, but I could add that creating an ‘integrated Department’ does not guarantee integration - it merely hides difference from view. The best as enemy of the better We do not have the luxury of perfecting our research before putting it to the practical test. If we try to get it ‘absolutely right’, we will miss opportunities to achieve - and the world will pass us by. As John Lennon wrote in 1981, ‘life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans’. Not really believing it yourself Ask the senior management of any Transport Department ‘how often does any of you not come to work by car?’ and the answer will be sadly predictable. ‘Do as I say, not as I do’ is not likely to win hearts and minds. Don’t forget that policy, like architecture, is the business of change management.
- There are also a great many things that impede adoption of travel behaviour change I can speak with personal experience of some these Town of Vincent
- Earlier, I talked of the need for active transport to be seen in the context of a wide range of social and environmental as well as economic outcomes. Some of those outcomes, not to mention the consequences of not increasing the levels of active transport, will be with us for generations through the impacts on our children. Over-reliance on the car, has been demonstrated to have adverse impacts on children in many respects. [CLICK] Many of these carry over into their adult life. David Engwicht, author of ‘Eco-City’ , put it this way: …freedom to explore the local neighbourhood … gives children and opportunity to develop a relationship with the placeness of their physical environment. Robbing children of a sense of place robs the of the very essence of life. We can learn a lot about the changes in children’s opportunities for independent activity by looking at people’s life stories. Of their childhood at the turn of the century, people could say: Not as a chore, but as an eagerly desired pleasure, I was fairly often entrusted with the task of buying fish and bringing it home alone. This involved the following: walking to the station in five to ten minutes; buying a ticket; watching a train with coal-burning steam locomotive pull in; boarding train; riding across long bridge over shallows separating small boat harbour (on the right) from ship’s harbour (on the left)…;continuing through a tunnel; leaving train at terminal, sometimes dawdling to look at railroad equipment; walking by and sometimes entering fisheries museum; passing central town park where military band played during mid-day break; strolling by central shopping and business district, or, alternatively, passing fire station with horses at ease under suspended harnesses, ready to go, and continuing past centuries-old town hall and other ancient buildings; exploration of fish market and fishing fleet; selection of fish; haggling about price; purchase and return home. [Albert Parr, 1967 - talking of life as a four-year old in a Norwegian seaport at the turn of the century] In the 1920’s: Up until I was five years old our weekend meetings depended upon my parents’ being free to take me visiting, but once I began going to school I was considered mature enough to travel alone on the tramcar to Patricroft [a distance of several miles]. [Ewan MacColl (folksinger), writing of childhood in Salford, England, in the early 1920s.]
- I am old enough to be able to cite my own experience in this context. In the 1950’s, in London, I would often travel to primary school alone walking to the bus stop - about half a kilometre, including crossing a busy road taking the bus to a busy inner London interchange transferring to an underground train for a journey of a couple of stations walking a further 400 metres or so to school. In 1992, we read the following in the West Australian newspaper: Michael [eight years old]…was killed after he walked behind a school bus into the path of a car… Coroner John Hiatt…found that there was a lack of parental supervision in Michael’s death. “In the court’s opinion, it is not satisfactory to leave the supervision of children in the hands of another child that is 10 years old,” he said. Can we be said to have made progress when it is no longer possible even to consider a child of eight having a fraction of the ability to travel that four and five year old children did 70 or 90 years ago? Especially when at the same time, we have greatly increased the need to travel if one wants to gain access to what society has to offer.
- If time refer to the story of the ‘hundredth monkey’ and Rupert Sheldrake’s ‘A New Science of Life’