assessing traffic-generated “dread” risk.pdf

Assessing traffic-generated “dread” risk Alan G. Hallsworth Professor of Geography, Staffordshire University, UK Colin Black Researcher, University of Portsmouth, UK David Evans, Rodney Tolley Senior Lecturers in Geography, Staffordshire University, UK The decision process behind observed individual behaviour Introduction The journey to school is known to be a complex one. In this paper we focus on the problems gener- Recent figures suggest that, in Britain, some This is especially so when ated by the propensity of British parents to 30 per cent of all peak-hour car trips involve aspects of that same behav- take their children to school by car. This is an journeys to school and it is currently sug- iour are apparently contradic- example of how, while we “think global” in gested that a full 25 per cent of all car trips tory. Introduces a measure- the face of common environmental problems, made by British schoolchildren are trips to ment scale for revealing we also “act local”: producing local outcomes school. General contextual factors to the trip underlying motivations for behaviour. Focuses on the trip that can vary considerably. The numbers of to school have recently been discussed (Brad- to school by car; apparently children being driven to school in Britain are shaw, 1995) though only limited information favoured by individuals on well ahead of those in other countries despite seems to be available on the travel habits of safety grounds, however, it there ostensibly being a common awareness