ESRC #7: Live Blog, 21st June 2016

Not long to go now until our seventh seminar in the 'behaviour change' series at The Wellcome Trust, London on 21st June. For those who don't know, we have a handful of tickets remaining, so book your place now via Eventbrite!

ESRC Seminar 6 Synthesis Document is now available!

Just click on the 'quick link' to the right of this blog to view the synthesis document from seminar 6.

ESRC #6 as it happened - live Twitter feed

Welcome to the live Twitter feed for #esrc6

Professor Alan Tapp has started us off with his talk on the relationship between cyclists and motorists #esrc6

Discussing Road Wars project and the subject of harmony on the roads #esrc6

Prof Tapp discussing comments people make about cyclists. Lots of talk of Lycra #esrc6

Criticisms in the media about cyclists. 'Cycling is the most damaging thing for London since the Blitz!' Nigel Lawson #esrc6

Politicians not innocent either. Claims in House of Lords that cycling more dangerous than driving are very damaging #esrc6

8 million adults say they are making plans to cycle, but they don't do it #esrc6

RT @DaveJMcElroy: #esrc6 @BChangeSeminars starts by examining the cyclist-motorist conflict #cycling

People don't cycle because they see it as dangerous. Meanwhile motorists get confused by cyclists #esrc6

No moral differentiation between cyclists and motorists - no logic to it at all. #esrc6

Cyclists behave badly but it doesn't tend to have the same consequences #esrc6

You end up with discrimination and negative behaviours #esrc6

People tend to blame the others and you end up with road wars. Motorists don't understand cyclists #esrc6

The Nice Way code - got slammed by cyclists. #esrc6

It's complicated. Can we get to a point where there is more understanding and harmony? #esrc6

Education, marketing and psychological techniques all possible, but you need money #esrc6

Can we start a social movement? Sometimes you need a big social trigger to change things. Also need a sense of humour #esrc6

Prof Tapp has finished his talk and is taking Q&A #esrc6

Need to make cycling a way of life as it is on the continent #esrc6

Next speaker is James Faulconbridge #esrc6

Going to talk about commuting, practice theory and fleximobility #esrc6

Project funded by UK energy programme. We all know we need big change - we think of travel behaviour as static and habitual #esrc6

That was the premise for the project. Two year longitudinal study in Brighton and Lancaster #esrc6

Are we missing something by focusing on the psychology? Dominant interventions seem to be on disincentivising driving #esrc6

What is travel? What is involved in 'doing' cycling? What competencies and materials do you need? #esrc6

A bit of nudging and info can invoke change, but nowhere near enough. Need more structural changes #esrc6

Even leisure cyclists might not cycle to work- requires a whole different set of competencies #esrc6

RT @DaveJMcElroy: Capitalising on moments of chaos @Disruptionproj with James Faulconbridge. Good chance to reset entrenched habits? #esrc6

Spatial complexity - people are going to multiple places in one journey under tight time constraints #esrc6

Fleximobility thinks about the whole system and how you can make structures more dynamic #esrc6

About making it possible to use the bike or the us more of the time. Not about abandoning the car completely #esrc6

Need to create time and space and environment that is more open to sustainable forms of travel #esrc6

Greater flexible working, relaxing the time pressures - need to move from space-time rigidity #esrc6

Low carbon travel needs to recognise as a practice in its own right #esrc6

Need to think about wider structural issues and how they could compliment the changing of attitudes and behaviours #esrc6

James Faulconbridge concludes his talk and is ready for Q&A #esrc6

Need to recognise that not everyone makes regular a to b trips. There are other complexities to juggle - school, clubs, leisure #esrc6

Need behavioural and structural change and less focus on the individual #esrc6

Adrian Davis is the next to speak #esrc6

Different sectors and specialisms tend to exclude others and make problems when they try to collaborate #esrc6

Challenge for better integration of the value of evidence. Different professions have a different interpretation of key concepts #esrc6

Where does evidence sit in local government? We do what the politicians say we must do #esrc6

We often use a common sense approach, which might not necessarily be the same as the evidence base #esrc6

Why do we lose the evidence pathway in local government? We should be using most robust evidence as standard #esrc6

Important to build appropriate relationships for collaboration #esrc6

Translational research - de-jargonising academic work to ensure evidence does get to practitioners #esrc6

Need appropriate branding to get robust evidence to the right people #esrc6

Thanks to Adrian Davis who has now finished and is taking Q&A #esrc6

Reconvening after lunch for Sally Cairns' talk: some thoughts on changing mobility behaviour #esrc6

Car use coming down in urban areas. Evidence that change is happening anyway. #esrc6

35% of adults changed mobility behaviour on a week day during the Olympics, so change is possible #esrc6

A lot of evidence that behaviour change is possible in the right context. Synergy is important too #esrc6

Massive growth in teleconferencing offers opportunity to reduce the need for business travel #esrc6

Also big change in availability of information online - Google maps, travel apps etc. Smart travelling for informed decisions #esrc6

Diversification of active travel - scooters, electrically assisted bikes. Makes active travel more inclusive #esrc6

Self quantifiable feedback mechanisms more available to people. Effective interventions and increasing scope to influence behaviour #esrc6

Mobility behaviour can change and making a difference is possible. #esrc6

Sally Cairns concludes her talk. Q&A now #esrc6

Question about whether limiting car parking is effective in implementing behaviour change #esrc6

Sally: yes, but it has to be part of a wider strategy. Offer incentives for other modes of transport too #esrc6

Success depends on what other options are #esrc6

RT @stella_warren: Interesting talk on Fleximobility by @JRFaulconbridge. Now on @Adrian4Davis taking a look at the evidence     #esrc6

Thanks to Sally Cairns - Graham Parkhurst is next to speak #esrc6

There is an opportunity but we need to do much better targeting says Graham #esrc6 https://t.co/iqggfc2WgJ

What really matters is how much a car is driven, not what the emissions are #esrc6

Need both behaviour change and technical fixes #esrc6

No doubt that behaviour does change and has changed enormously #esrc6

Society and space reorganised in the 1970s when cars became a necessity #esrc6

Polarisation in behaviours. Could be that families over 30 more dependent on the car #esrc6

Why aren't we seeing better results given the amount of work that's going into studying travel behaviour #esrc6

75% of journeys of less than one mile, people already walk. Suggests people will use alternatives where conditions allow #esrc6

Bristol's cycling has increased by 93% over past 2 years, but car use also gone up #esrc6

Our messaging for behaviour change is just too weak #esrc6

Smoking and alcohol use have much more effective messaging strategies #esrc6

Speeding and road user behaviour: also clearer messaging, examples of what can go wrong, consequences etc #esrc6

Need a clearer sense of responsibility #esrc6

Communication needs to be realistic. Previous messaging has been confusing #esrc6

People can have wishful thinking - giving up something else excuses other non-green behaviours. Not always the case #esrc6

Something akin to personalised carbon planning is needed #esrc6

Has to be voluntary-based but need a clearer sense of which behaviours are most damaging for the climate #esrc6

Concludes Graham's talk, Q&A now #esrc6

Chris Mather is now taking the stage to discuss a practitioner's view #esrc6

Q to audience- what do TfL do? A- everything on rubber and rails #esrc6

River services and cable cars also TfL's responsibility #esrc6

Vital to keep London moving - Europe's first mega city #esrc6

A lot of political pressure. New mayor coming in - will be the boss. He leads regardless of the evidence base #esrc6

Need to invest in infrastructure. We are building lots of big capital projects #esrc6

Acton to Barking cycle path in progress #esrc6

Some of these infrastructure changes will force behaviour change whilst creating additional capacity #esrc6

Intelligent management of the road network - can change signalling remotely to ease congestion on demand #esrc6

But, with all of that we still can't keep on top of growth in demand in London in the long term #esrc6

Do you have to travel? Can you work remotely? Can you do a conference call instead? #esrc6

Olympic Games stopped people using cars in the city. Got all the athletes to their events on time #esrc6

But people went back to their old behaviours after the games #esrc6

Schools programme - STARS. Get kids involved with schools travel advisors. Walking buses, cycling to school weeks #esrc6

Average 8% reduction in car use as a result #esrc6

Also work with workplaces on increasing cycling #esrc6

RideLondon - have to demonstrate real behaviour change to justify closing down London streets for the event #esrc6

Road user charging has got to happen, it's just a question of when #esrc6

Parking is political plutonium - nobody wants to take parking away. A lot of traffic produced by people looking for parking spaces #esrc6

More night time deliveries coming in, spreading freight over 24 hours #esrc6

Driverless cars will have a massive impact on TfL's revenue #esrc6

Chris Mather has finished his talk #esrc6

Q&A now. Congestion charge: price is not a factor. Those who use it now would use it at any price #esrc6

A challenge of a confusion of innovations that don't link up - eg Uber wasn't part of the plan, so how do you keep on top of it? #esrc6

Things like Uber can put you on the back foot, but TfL are trying to stay on top of it. We are open to mobility trials #esrc6

Ride London was a direct legacy of the Olympic Games. We spent a lot of time evaluating the impacts #esrc6

Housing infrastructure will be a key aspect of future planning for transport #esrc6

General Q&A now. A massive thank you to all of our speakers today as we wrap up... #esrc6

...also a big thank you to @arnolfiniarts for an amazing lunch - a lot of very good feedback! #esrc6

Slides from ESRC Seminar #6

Presentations from our last seminar on changing mobility behaviours can be accessed via the links below. The synthesis document will be uploaded shortly.

Adrian Davis Slides
James Faulconbridge Slides
Chris Mather Slides
Graham Parkhurst Slides
Alan Tapp Slides

ESRC #6 Live Blog

ESRC Seminar 6 - Changing Mobility Behaviours

Our next seminar will take place on 22nd February at the Arnolfini, Bristol. 

A FREE lunch will be provided - who said there was no such thing?

To register please visit http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/esrc-behaviour-change-seminar-six-changing-mobility-behaviours-tickets-20725216681

(Links in the flyer don't work on this blog)

Problems viewing the flyer? A copy can also be downloaded here.