G. Marsden

University of Leeds · Institute for Transport Studies (ITS)

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the associated lockdowns and travel restrictions significantly impacted transport systems worldwide. Cities saw reductions in car use, reductions in public transport patronage and increases in active travel (walking and cycling). This prompted many to speculate about what travel might look like after the pandemic, and whe...

Nine months since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, it is startling to reflect on the profound changes to all aspects of daily life which have been necessary. Public policy has responded at a pace not seen for decades, and the general public has accepted restrictions to freedoms and changes to their everyday activities beyond what was t...

There has been widespread interest in the potential for the significant behavioural and policy adaptations rendered necessary by Coronavirus to act as a catalyst for radical longer term policy change in transport. However, this body of work to date has been limited in its consideration of how such policy change might be brought about. Translating t...

Since the 1960s, development of the transport system has been framed by the notion of forecasting future demand. Yet the past decade or more appears to signal some significant changes to the role of travel in society which are having a material impact on how much people travel (and may travel in the future). Coupled with the potential for major tec...

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought previously unimaginable change to the level of mobility in the economy almost overnight. People who have never before worked from home have had to do so almost immediately, and business travel has stopped almost completely in a matter of weeks. At the same time, the uncertainty about how long social distancing rest...

Theorising the relationships between information communication technology (ICT), travel and work continues to preoccupy researchers interested in multinational corporations (MNCs). One motivation is the desire to understand ways of reducing demand for and the negative consequences of business travel. Existing studies offer, however, little in the w...

The continued failure to put transport on a robust low carbon transition pathway calls for new approaches in policy and research. In studies of transport systems and patterns of mobility, established approaches to data collection, analysis and subsequent policy design have focused on capturing ‘typical’ conditions rather than identifying the potent...

The curb is the critical site of interaction between people and vehicles, and between movement and place. Despite decades of debate about how to manage the allocation of space and time to different users, the curb remains a highly contested space which the state finds hard to govern effectively. New pressures on the curb are already apparent: recen...

Public acceptability is a major concern for road pricing schemes in Western countries but has not yet been sufficiently studied in the context of Chinese cities, a number of which are considering the introduction of such travel constraint measures. This study explores factors influencing public acceptability of a proposed congestion charge in the C...

This is a book about the importance of transport, travel and mobility in modern society. The authors undertake a detailed review not just of key issues that are significant within the transport sector, but also of how and why transport is significant in addressing other policy goals. There are three main areas of focus: a) How we ‘do’ transport, as...

Future travel demand has always been difficult to estimate. Recent trends of a slow down or stagnation in traffic growth combined with substantial demographic, economic, and technological shifts further complicate that task. This poses a significant planning challenge given that decision-making is often based on the benefits of infrastructure inves...

The curb is the critical site of interaction between people and vehicles, and between movement and place. Despite decades of debate about how to manage the allocation of space and time to different users, the curb remains a highly contested space which the state finds hard to govern effectively. New pressures on the curb are already apparent: recen...

Less car travel increases prospects of limiting transport energy. Policy attempts to reduce car use by encouraging people to choose other modes face criticism that travel needs are not simply about choice but are structurally influenced, especially by urban form. Mullen and Marsden extend understanding of travel need by showing how uncertainty in h...

To date, virtual ways of working have yet to substantially reduce demand for business travel. Emerging research claims that virtual and physical work complement rather than substitute for one another. This suggests travel demand stems from business strategies and achieving business outcomes. In building on these ideas, this chapter draws upon Schat...

Bus Rapid Transit systems exist in over 206 cities and 45 countries around the world. They are seen to provide a much lower cost option of mass mobility than fixed rail or underground systems which developing countries struggle to afford. Whilst BRT systems have undoubtedly been seen to be successful from a transport system perspective, they are mo...

This article analyses the transport policy record of the 2010–2015 Conservative–Liberal Democrat Coalition and 2015–2016 Conservative majority UK governments. We argue that the style of policy making under these administrations departed significantly from that of previous decades, which had been characterised by the ascendancy of specific technical...

Rapid changes are underway in mobility systems worldwide, including the introduction of shared mobility solutions, Mobility as a Service and the testing of automated vehicles. These changes are driven by the development and application of ‘smart’ technologies. Transition to these technologies present significant opportunities for countries, cities...

The notion of ‘fuel poverty’, referring to affordable warmth, underpins established research and policy agendas in the UK and has been extremely influential worldwide. In this context, British researchers, official policymaking bodies and NGOs have put forward the notion of ‘transport poverty’, building on an implicit analogy between (recognised) f...

The notion of ‘fuel poverty’, referring to affordable warmth, underpins established research and policy agendas in the UK and has been extremely influential worldwide. In this context, British researchers, official policymaking bodies and NGOs have put forward the notion of ‘transport poverty’, building on an implicit analogy between (recognised) f...

There is an active contemporary debate about how emerging technologies such as automated vehicles, peer-to-peer sharing applications and the ‘internet of things’ will revolutionise individual and collective mobility. Indeed, it is argued that the so-called ‘Smart Mobility’ transition, in which these technologies combine to transform how the mobilit...

Questions of Governance: Rethinking the Study of Transportation Policy Greg Marsdena and Louise Reardonb a Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds, 1-3 Lifton Villas, Lifton Place University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom, LS2 9JT g.r.marsden@its.leeds.ac.uk b Corresponding author Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds,...

This paper presents results from a longitudinal study of the travel behaviour change associated with the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games (the ‘Games’). The research examines commuter travel behaviour through a panel approach enabling an understanding of individual behaviour across three waves (before, during and after), with the study util...

This paper presents results from a longitudinal study of the travel behaviour change associated with the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games (the ‘Games’). The research examines commuter travel behaviour through a panel approach enabling an understanding of individual behaviour across three waves (before, during and after), with the study util...

This paper explores how the exercise of power in transport planning practices can lead into the exclusion of certain segments of the population by not considering their ideas into the planning process. The exercise of power is analysed using mechanisms of analysis developed by Foucault which are introduced to critically examine the planning process...

Mobility systems raise multiple questions of justice. Work on mobility justice and policy often treats different elements of the debate separately, for example focussing on environmental justice or accessibility. This is problematic as it can privilege policy solutions without a full view of the winners and losers and the values implicit in that. U...

In the UK at present domestic energy policies are framed in terms of reducing energy consumption and emissions while at the same time taking into account issues of affordability, which are part of the established fuel poverty agenda. Similar energy affordability issues in transport have not yet drawn the same attention. This is despite increasing r...

The paper addresses the important question of how institutional structures matter to the delivery of climate change policy for urban transport. It examines the strategic goals, policy tools in operation and initial progress towards carbon emission reduction in seven cities across the UK and Germany where different institutional structures exist. Th...

There is increasing concern for the affordability of daily mobility costs, notably by car. In this paper, we use the term 'car-related economic stress' (CRES) to refer to households spending a disproportionate amount of money on car travel. We propose two indicators to investigate CRES in Great Britain, both of which are based on widely available,...

Transportation is fundamental to the development of society. It provides opportunities to interact with others, moves the goods we need, and supports a vibrant economy. This chapter introduces the demand for transportation and explores key trends and growth forecasts. These underline the on-going importance of transportation to social progress and...

This case study examines the European Transport White Paper of 2011 as an example of a planning domain application. The European Union is an economic and political union of some 28 states in Europe. Some of the key premises of the European Union have been to open up markets to free trade within the region and to seek to harmonise technical standard...

The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the essential role of frameworks in measuring and managing sustainability in transportation. In Chap. 6 indicators were defined as key informational devices for planning and delivery with a number of distinct applications. Frameworks organize how combinations of indicators are selected and used. The chapt...

As discussed in Chap. 3, the transportation system is often envisioned as the engine of development. It is seen as the backbone of the twentieth century’s economic and social progress and is the means by which humans access goods and services and connect to communities. Yet, it is also a major contributor to environmental degradation and community...

The transportation system is developed and managed by a wide range of governmental actors and agencies. As transportation crosses administrative boundaries there is a need for coordination of policies and actions between the local, regional, national, and international level. In Chaps. 2–4, the importance of coordinating (or better still, integrati...

New York State Department of Transportation’s (NYSDOT’s) GreenLITES (Leadership In Transportation and Environmental Sustainability) programs are collectively one of the leading sustainable transportation performance assessment systems in the US. This case study begins by examining the historical context that enabled the GreenLITES programs to be cr...

The ideas and concepts of sustainability need to be given operational forms if they are to influence and count in the governance of transportation systems. Such a prerogative has been acknowledged by many policy bodies and scholars over the last two decades; and the term indicators is often evoked as an important element in this respect (Jeon and A...

This case focuses on the Eco-Model City (EMC) program created by the Japanese Government in 2008. The EMC program was created to demonstrate how cities could radically transform themselves towards a low carbon future. The program uses a range of indicators and other evaluation tools to monitor a city’s progress and performance, which are discussed...

Since the late 1980s, sustainable development has garnered much interest from government agencies, businesses, non-government organizations, and civic groups, resulting in policy initiatives in both the public and private sector. Yet, people and organizations citing sustainable development as an objective often lack a firm grasp of the origins and...

This case study refers to the ex-ante assessment of the case for the development of a High Speed Rail network in England for domestic travel connecting London and cities to the north of England. The proposal, at an estimated cost of around US$24 bn is the second largest investment decision in the English transport system for many decades. Although...

Stimulating the economy is a dominant policy objective, but on what basis are decisions being taken around transport and growth? We describe how transport studies and political geography offer two related, but poorly connected, theoretical approaches purporting to explain the relationship between transport and the economy. Yet in what ways does it...

This paper seeks to understand how the UK government's headline climate change targets are translated into action at the local level in the transport sector drawing on the findings of research in two English regions. In doing so, these headline targets are identified as a symbolic meta-policy that results in little action on the ground and which ch...

This paper presents results from a longitudinal study of travel behaviour change associated with the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The research examines commuter travel behaviour, with a panel approach enabling an understanding of individual behaviour across four waves (before, during and after). The critical application of the Transthe...

This book provides an introduction to the concept of sustainability in the context of transportation planning, management, and decision-making. The book is divided into two parts. In the first part, indicators and frameworks for measuring sustainable development in the transportation sector are developed. In the second, the authors analyze actual p...

The UK Climate Change Act 2008 commits to a reduction of 80% in national GHG emissions by 2050 compared to 1990 levels. This article explores what happens next where these top-level aspirations are expected to be turned into radical action. It does so through examination of the transport sector, which is a highly complex, fragmented, and multi-leve...

PurposeThis chapter provides an overview of parking policy. The chapter takes as its start point that parking is first and foremost a land-use issue. It looks at the conflicts and synergies between parking policy for the purposes of traffic management and parking policy to support various key land-uses and policy objectives. Methodology/approachThi...

Prospects for mitigating climate change require decarbonisation of the energy sector over relatively short time periods, coupled with significant changes to the way we consume energy. This is particularly true in the transport sector given the current levels of transport-related greenhouse gas emissions, the heavy dependence on fossil fuels, and th...

Research Highlights and Abstract This article provides the first detailed and evidence-based account of the coalition government's approach to transport-related carbon management. It exposes the existence of a ‘governance vacuum’ between the statutory target and a very weak devolved implementation system (i.e. ‘fuzzy governance’ and ‘fuzzy accounta...

This paper seeks to understand how the UK government's headline climate change targets are translated into action at the local level in the transport sector drawing on the findings of research in two English regions. In doing so, these headline targets are identified as a symbolic meta-policy that results in little action on the ground and which ch...

This paper asks if standard decision-making tools and logics can be applied to disruptive events. In particular we explore whether user costs/benefits are likely to be truly representative of the costs/benefits experienced during periods of disruption, and therefore whether cost benefit analysis methods are appropriate for the assessment of policie...

To understand the complex meanings of mobility and to engage in transport planning and management processes, a variety of disciplines, skills, and tools are potentially useful. Universities have a limited amount of time and resources to train future professionals though. This poses a problem: where should the teaching priorities be? By means of a w...

This paper explores the development and implementation of carbon management policies in the transport sector. It draws on the framework of multi-level governance to consider the interaction between elected bodies acting at different spatial scales from the EU to the local level and between these bodies and the range of non-governmental stakeholders...

Since the mid-2000s, public bikesharing (also known as “bike hire”) has developed and spread into a new form of mobility in cities across the globe. This paper presents an analysis of the recent increase in the number of public bikesharing systems. Bikesharing is the shared use of a bicycle fleet, which is accessible to the public and serves as a f...

Policy change is characterised as being slow and incremental over long time periods. In discussing a radical shift to a low carbon economy, many researchers identify a need for a more significant and rapid change to transport policy and travel patterns. However, it is not clear what is meant by rapid policy change and what conditions might be neede...

Increasing attention is being given to the ability of highway departments and metropolitan planning bodies to demonstrate the value for money of scarce public funds. Over time, this has led to a shift from accounting for the inputs to the system through to what is delivered. Ultimately however, the delivery of transportation improvements is in the...

Policy change is characterized as being slow and incremental over long time periods. In discussing a radical shift to a low carbon economy, many researchers identify a need for a more significant and rapid change to transport policy and travel patterns. However, it is not clear what is meant by rapid policy change and what conditions might be neede...

Within the field of transport there exists a broad set of objectives which can be used to guide the development of transport policy. These include economic growth, environmental protection, health and well-being and social equity although each will have different importance dependent on the context under consideration. There is a strong tradition o...

Purpose – To provide a policy perspective on the relationship between transport and climate change. Methodology/approach – Two key themes are identified and discussed: the meaning of a major change in a policy perspective, covering the Climate Change Act and the development of a Low Carbon Transition Plan. A theoretically informed framework applies...

The internationalization of policy regimes and the reorganization of the state have provided new opportunities for cities to bypass nation-state structures and work with other cities internationally. This provides greater opportunity for cities to learn from each other and could be an important stimulus to the transfer of policies across the globe....

This paper examines the recent increase in the uptake of city bike hire schemes and provides an analysis of the emerging trends that are being witnessed. The paper is based on an ongoing study into the spread and distribution in the adoption of bike hire schemes throughout Europe. The data collection consists of two stages that first seek to build...

Purpose: To provide a policy perspective on the relationship between transport and climate change. Methodology/Approach: Two key themes are identified and discussed: the meaning of a major change in a policy perspective, covering the Climate Change Act and the development of a Low Carbon Transition Plan. A theoretically informed framework applies a...

The application of the concept of sustainability by transportation agencies is often limited by agencies' understanding of what sustainability means and how it can be integrated into the regular functions of the agencies. This paper presents a flexible approach and framework that can equip transportation agencies with the tools required to understa...

Research on sustainable transport planning has concluded that, for the most part, the policies that lead to more sustainable outcomes are known and that what is required is a more widespread and intense application of such measures. In response, upper tiers of government, with responsibility for achieving policy goals and for steering the lower tie...

What will electricity and heat demand look like in a low-carbon world? Ambitious environmental targets will modify the shape of the electricity sector in the twenty-first century. 'Smart' technologies and demand-side management will be some of the key features of the future of electricity systems in a low-carbon world. Meanwhile, the social and beh...

This paper presents a state-of-art review of why and how policies and policy lessons in the transport planning arena are transferred between cities. It begins by drawing on literature from the fields of political science, public administration, organisational learning and management to outline a conceptual framework for policy transfer and learning...

This paper reports on a study of current practice in policy transfer, and ways in which its effectiveness can be increased. A literature review identifies important factors in examining the transfer of policies. Results of interviews in eleven cities in Northern Europe and North America investigate these factors further. The principal motivations f...

Research Highlights ► First collection of research on policy transfer within the.field of transport. ► Policy learning in transport can be informed by other areas.of public policy. ► Cities actively look for lessons but the benefits are, as.yet, poorly understood. ► Institutional constraints matter and so learning tends to be.partial. ► Personal ne...

Research on sustainable transport planning has concluded that, for the most part, the policies that will lead to more sustainable outcomes are known and what is required is a more widespread and intense application of such measures. In response, upper tiers of government with responsibility for achieving policy goals and for steering the lower tier...

Freight transport is critical in sustaining and growing the urban economy. For the efficient and effective distribution of goods a balanced set of policies that meets the needs of all stakeholders and all users of the urban road network, including residents, businesses and suppliers is crucial. The European Commission (2009) predicts that the propo...

It is broadly accepted that a business as usual planning future will lead to deteriorations in congestion and social inclusion and lead to failures in attainment of air quality and climate change goals. This implies a need to develop or transfer from elsewhere policies and practices that will deliver a step-change in impact. Innovation theory and t...

The application of the concept of sustainability by transportation agencies is often limited by agencies’ understanding of what sustainability means and how it can be integrated into their regular functions. This paper presents a flexible approach and framework that will equip transportation agencies with the tools required to understand what susta...

Research on sustainable transport planning has concluded that, for the most part, the policies that will lead to more sustainable outcomes are known and what is required is a more widespread and intense application of such measures. In response, upper tiers of government with responsibility for achieving policy goals and for steering the lower tier...

This paper describes how cities approach the challenging task of identifying, considering, and adopting innovative transport policies. Drawing on political science literature, the paper begins by establishing a framework for analyzing the process of policy transfer and policy learning. Cities were selected on the basis of their reputation for havin...

Climate change is one of the key global policy issues of our time. Transport is the sector from which it has been hardest to cut emissions and, to make substantial progress in the future, action will be required at all levels of government from international to local. The governance of transport within this already challenging arena is further comp...

High Speed Rail (HSR) offers the potential to provide enhanced regional connectivity within Europe whilst countering the increase in short-haul flights. The reduced emissions of HSR compared with short-haul air trips is an important part of the argument for an expanded network yet such an assessment is only partial in its consideration of the full...

It is widely accepted that cities understand what action is needed to achieve greater sustainability in urban transport, but that there are several barriers to the pursuit of such actions. While research is able to suggest ways of overcoming these barriers, the process of transferring research results into practice is itself uncertain. This paper f...

Much work has focused on the development of indicator sets to monitor changes in the sustainability of transport. Such indicator sets are however, often quite divorced from those used in decision-making and fail to include clear sustainability goals to work towards. This research describes the development of a sustainability appraisal framework in...

Policy transfer analysis seeks to develop understandings of the processes by which knowledge about institutions, policies or delivery systems at one sector or level of governance is used in the development of such elements in another place, sector or level of governance. For example ‘Bus Rapid Transit’ is transferring rapidly around the globe both...

This article describes a series of small-scale investigations conducted with older people to understand the importance of independent transport to their daily lives and the key barriers that they face which constrain their travel patterns. The investigations used a blend of methods including literature review, focus groups, accompanied walks, geogr...