Food for thought in the Great Traffic Debate. Ben.
**University of the West of England**
Press Release
Tuesday 16 September 2008 Contact: Joshua Hart 0753
113 4666
Embargoed 0700 hours 19 September 2008
No Friends? Blame the Traffic
New research shows that friendships on busy streets are cut by more than 75
percent
People living on streets with heavy motor vehicle traffic are experiencing a
considerable deterioration of their local social lives according to Joshua
Hart, a researcher from the University of the West of England. Results suggest
that residents on busy streets have less than one quarter the number of local
friends compared to those living on similar streets with little traffic.
The study looked at three streets in north Bristol with light, medium and heavy
traffic respectively. It found that motor traffic, which has grown more than
tenfold in the UK since 19501, has a considerable negative impact on quality of
life, particularly for residents living beside heavy motor traffic flows.
Traffic is like a mountain range, cutting you off said one man on the heavy
traffic street, Muller Road, where over 20,000 cars drive by his house every
day.
Interviews with residents indicate that growing motor traffic has forced people
to make major adjustments in their lives, to shield against the nearly constant
noise, pollution, dust and danger outside their front doors. Many residents
revealed that they experience sleep disturbances, no longer spend time in the
front of their homes, and curtail the independence of their children in
response to motor traffic. Our 4-year-old girl has a constant cough and we
limit the amount of time she spends outsidewere constantly breathing in
pollution, said one father.
This research, carried out as part of a Transport Planning MSc, confirms for
the first time in the UK the results of a 1969 San Francisco study by Professor
Donald Appleyard2, who also found deterioration of community on busy streets.
With an additional 5.7 million cars expected on the UKs roads by 2031 (a growth
of 21%)3, these findings point to an urgent need for the Government to provide
healthy residential environments and stem traffic growth by investing in public
transport, walking and cycling in order to avoid many more local communities
being impacted. Joshua Hart concludes, This study shows that the deterioration
of neighbouring in this country may well be down to our own travel habits. We
created this problem, and now we have a responsibility to solve it.
1 GOODWIN, P., CAIRNS, S., DARGAY, J., HANLY, M., PARKHURST, G., STOKES, G.,
VYTHOULKAS, P., 2004. Changing Travel Behaviour: Script of a Presentation given
at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London, 20.9.2004. London, ESRC Transport Studies
Unit, University College London.
2 APPLEYARD, D., 1981. Livable Streets. Berkeley: University of California
Press.
3http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/economics/ntm/ntmdatasources/nrtf1997/nrtfworkingpaper1carownershi3016
ENDS
Notes to the editor:
Available upon request: Full report in PDF
Also photos of streets and interviewed residents, study summary, street
diagrams, contact info for residents available for interview, statistics on
traffic growth and quality of life/ environmental impacts.
Joshua Hart, the author of the study, travelled to Bristol from his home in San
Francisco (where the original study took place) two years ago by cargo ship,
train, and bicycle to start an MSc degree at UWE. Inspired and intrigued by
Donald Appleyards original research on the effects of motor traffic on
community, Joshua decided to replicate the study for his Masters dissertation
in Bristol, which has some of the highest levels of car dependence and
congestion in the UK.
Other key findings
a.. 13 out of 20 heavy street residents reported being irritated by traffic
while walking on their street and half experienced sleep disturbance.
a.. The residents of light street defined their home territory (the area over
which they feel a sense of stewardship) far more broadly than those on heavy
street. Eleven out of 20 light households even included other peoples homes in
their territory, while only 2 out of 20 on heavy street did so.
a.. 11 out of 20 households on medium street and 9 out of 20 on heavy street
reported that they live more in the back of the house
SOCIAL NETWORKS ON THREE STREETS IN BRISTOL
Quotes from Residents of heavy Street (~20,000 motor vehicles/ day):
(The traffic is) hellishly busy.a %@& nightmare. The buses and lorries shake
the house when they come by. The air pollution can be quite bad out the front,
sometimes during rush hour you feel the air getting thicker and thicker.. -
male, early fifties
The air pollution is really very bad- its annoying when the dirt builds up in
the kitchen. Theres just always so much dirt, grit, and grime around. Ive
considered moving out because of this. - male, early fifties
A cyclist who lives on this block got hit crossing the road, and his leg was
broken. A pedestrian was killed crossing at the lights. There have been many
deaths and casualties on the road. - male, mid fifties
Motor Vehicles and our Quality of Life: The Facts
Car traffic has major impacts on the environment and quality of life,
especially within cities and towns. Following is an overview of research that
has investigated these impacts:
Noise: Approximately 40% of UK residents report being bothered by noise from
traffic, a proportion that almost doubled in the last 3 decades of the 20th
century. (BRE, 2000) It has been shown in several studies that people whose
homes had windows facing busy streets were more often depressed. (Yamazaki et
al, 2005)
Air pollution: It has been found that children living near busy roads suffered
significantly higher rates of asthma. (Green et al, 2004) Over 100,000
Bristolians live in areas where air quality is considered to be potentially
damaging to health. (West of England Partnership, 2006)
Climate change: 92% of CO2 emissions from domestic transport come from vehicles
on the road. (National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory 2006) If policies dont
change, emissions from transport in the UK are expected to nearly double by
2050. (DTI, 2006)
Traffic Danger: Road traffic in the UK is the single greatest cause of
premature death for boys and second greatest cause for girls age 5-15. (ONS,
2002) Every year in Bristol, about 500 people are killed or seriously injured
on the roads. Unfortunately this burden falls hardest on the poorest among us,
with 24% of childhood pedestrian casualties in 2005 occurring in the most
deprived neighbourhoods, and only 1% in the least deprived areas. (Bristol City
Council, 2006)
Congestion: Congestion in many UK cities is a major problem, but Bristol is
worse than any other, with an average peak hour speed of only 16mph (roughly
bicycle speed). Congestion is now so bad that 21% of travelling time at peak
periods is spent stationary. (W. of England Partnership, 2006)
Social Degradation: Healthy social networks are not only an important
prerequisite to happiness and quality of life- they also defend against
multiple forms of mortality. According to researchers, over the last 20 years
more than a dozen large studies have shown that people who are socially
disconnected are between 2 and 5 times more likely to die from all causes,
compared with matched individuals who have close ties with family, friends, and
the community. (Putnam, 2000)
Physical inactivity: The growth of sedentary lifestyles in industrialised
countries has led to what experts are calling a major public health crisis.
Preventable illnesses associated with inactivity and obesity include stroke,
heart attack, certain cancers, diabetes, and depression. (Sallis et al 2004)
Quotes About the Research
Josh Harts work provides a timely update of the American studies of earlier
decades. In a policy context rightly concerned about global environmental
issues, the findings remind us that there are also important, if less
high-profile, local environmental reasons for questioning the dominance of
motor vehicles in our society.
-Graham Parkhurst, Reader in Sustainable Mobility, Faculty of Environment &
Technology. University of the West of England, Bristol
This research confirms what people already live with up and down the country,
but we dont have to accept this decline in the quality of community life. We
need a better balance between getting traffic from A to B and people friendly
streets that promote well being and enjoyment. National Government and local
councils can reverse this decline by prioritising walking and other sustainable
transport. For instance, the Government should use the forthcoming
consultation on its road safety strategy to set a roadmap to achieving a 20mph
limit on all residential streets.
-Tony Armstrong, Chief Executive of Living Streets, the national charity
working for more people-friendly public spaces, said:
We believe that streets are social spaces, but this research says it all about
what holds back neighbourly relations in our streets today. One thing residents
can do themselves to get a breath of fresh air is to organise a street party
for a day the street is their own.
-Chris Gittins, Manager of Streets Alive, promoting culturally thriving
communities through traffic-free street events
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