Why do most people today feel either unwilling or unable to travel by foot or bike?
This is the key question which Lancaster University Emeritus Professor Colin Pooley aims to answer in his ground-breaking new book ‘Promoting Walking and Cycling’.
The promotion of walking and cycling is at the core of contemporary British transport planning and the need to develop more sustainable urban mobility is embedded in the infrastructures of energy and environmental policies.
Sustainable transport also has major implications for the planning of cities and for the structure of economy and society.
In light of the importance of walking and cycling in today’s society, this book investigates why so many people fail to travel in ways that are deemed by many to be desirable.
Professor Pooley, an Emeritus Professor in the Lancaster Environment Centre, has undertaken extensive research on the social and cultural geography of Britain and continental Europe focusing most recently on processes of migration and mobility.
Having developed original arguments about recent changes in how people travel, published in a number books and journal articles, ‘Promoting Walking and Cycling’ conveys his most innovative and contemporary research yet.
“Using quantitative and qualitative research methods, the book provides an in depth consideration of this ubiquitous social predicament in an international and historical context,” says Professor Pooley.
“It highlights a range of issues including safety, time constraints, urban structure and perceptions of normality, and offers evidence-based policy solutions that could have a significant impact on levels of walking and cycling in the UK.”
This timely and genuinely original contribution from an expert in the field aims to promote critical thinking about transport policy and to help shape that policy in a more effective and sustainable direction.
Promoting walking and cycling: New perspectives on sustainable travel by Colin G Pooley with Tim Jones, Miles Tight, Dave Horton, Griet Scheldeman, Ann Jopson, Caroline Mullen and Emanuele Strano is published on 24 August 2013 price £26.99 paperback (ISBN 978 1 44731 008 2).
It is available to buy from Policy Press at 20% discount, or from Marston Book Services, 160 Eastern Avenue, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4SB Tel: 01235 465500 plus £2.75 postage and packing. Policy Press is a leading social science publisher based at the University of Bristol and is committed to publishing books that make a difference.