Policy, poverty, green infrastructure and better places

On 24^th November, Tim had a busy day up in London. 

First off he gave an invited presentation at a Policy UK workshop on “Improving Air Quality in our Towns and Cities” http://www.policy-uk.com/event/2365/Improving_Air_Quality_in_Our_Towns_and_Cities__Implementing__lsquo_Clean_Air_Zones_rsquo___creating_sustainable_transport_system

Then he was an invited participant at a round table workshop on Transport Poverty, organised by the Institute of Transport Studies at Leeds University and the RAC Foundation

 

Finally, he attended a workshop hosted by the London Sustainability Exchange on Green Infrastructure and Air Quality http://www.lsx.org.uk/news/events.aspx?id=3743

 

Meanwhile, Jo gave an invited presentation on air quality at  Landor’s Better Places conference http://landor.co.uk/betterplacesparkingworld/Better-Places/programme.php

Jo invited to speak to global BBC reporters at New Broadcasting House

Jo has been invited by the BBC World Service to advise on air pollution and showcase AQMRC's research to a global audience of reporters at New Broadcasting House on Monday 5th December. She will be joining representatives from the World Health Organization, C40 and ClientEarth as part of the new Solutions-Focussed Journalism project at BBC News – tagged ‘So I can breathe’ - which is due to be launched next March. As the name suggests, the project is interested in the success stories that can be reported so that lessons can be learnt elsewhere. This is a great opportunity to demonstrate the impact of AQMRC's research and to put UWE more firmly on the global map with regards air quality research.

Jo speaking at Better Places and Parking World 2016

Jo spoke at the Better Places and Parking World 2016 conference at the Kia Oval in London yesterday. The event, which was organised by Landor LINKS, was attended by a broad range of professionals all seeking to improve urban design and the impact of road traffic. Jo's presentation, entitled "Beyond nudge and improving transport infrastructure: the real task of tackling poor air quality", led the 'Improving Air Quality' session, and discussed the role of social practice theory in understanding how emissions are generated and by whom, contextualized with examples from the EPSRC-funded projects, Disruption and MOT, and the new H2020 project, ClairCity. The novel approach presented was perhaps a challenge to traditional thinking on air quality and transport management and was met with a lot of interest from the diverse, and largely receptive, audience.

New paper on active school travel from TIm

Tim has just had a new paper published on active school travel in the Journal of Transport and Health.  The work was led by Sara Ahern at Bradford Institute of Health Research and involved colleagues from Newcastle University, Imperial College and the University of Leeds.  The paper was based around the application of a Theoretical Domains Framework, to understanding the challenges around active school travel (AST) in the West Yorkshire region.  The paper found that capacity for active travel to school was often compromised by the need for parents to combine the journey with other activities (particularly the commute to work) as was identified in other work such as Tim’s recent EPSRC funded Disruption project (www.fleximobility.solutions). Similarly, structural interventions such as better spatial planning and the making of school environments more AST friendly were seen to be necessary to developing a coordinated approach to encouraging more sustainable school travel.

Ahern, S.M., Arnott, B., Chatterton, T., de Nazelle, A., Kellar, I. and McEachan, R. (2016), Understanding parents' school travel choices: A qualitative study using the Theoretical Domains Framework. Journal of Transport & Health  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2016.11.001i  

Abstract

Traffic related air pollution is detrimental to health and creates a substantial attributable mortality burden. It is suggested that a shift from motorised transport to active forms of travel will therefore have significant health benefits. Currently 46% of school journeys for primary aged children are made by car and this figure has risen steadily. Understanding barriers to active school travel (AST) is an important first step in developing behavioural interventions to increase active travel. The purpose of this study was to explore parents’ experiences of school travel and their choices regarding travel mode with a focus on identifying barriers and facilitators to AST.

Twenty parents of primary school children (4–12 years) in the West Yorkshire region took part in semi-structured interviews regarding school travel, informed by the Theoretical Domains Framework. Framework Analysis was used to identify key themes in the data and to develop a comprehensive picture of parents' experiences of school travel at both individual and structural levels.

Distance was the biggest barrier to AST. Time constraints were reported as the main barrier to parents accompanying children in AST, while concerns about safety deterred parents from allowing children to travel independently. The need to incorporate multiple jouneys, such as the work commute and/or multiple school drop-offs, placed demands on parents' time, while difficulty getting children into local schools meant further to travel for a number of parents. Findings suggest that interventions to promote AST may be particularly effective if tailored towards working parents. However, also addressing factors such as distance to school and school travel at a policy level may produce more significant shifts in behaviour.

 

AQMRC in Amsterdam

Enda, Jo, Tim and Corra are all in Amsterdam for a two day ClairCity workshop (http://www.claircity.eu/). The workshop brings together project partners, advisory board members and other interested stakeholders (including Amsterdam policymakers, the national government, research institutes and city citizens) to discuss the air quality, carbon and health challenges that the city faces and how ClairCity can orientated its research to engage citizens in forming solutions.

Jo on the BBC national news

Air quality made the national news today (2nd November 2016) following the announcement of the High Court ruling supporting ClientEarth's case against Defra's Air Quality Plan. Mr Justice Garnham agreed with ClientEarth that the Environment Secretary had failed to take measures that would bring the UK into compliance with the law “as soon as possible” and said that ministers knew that over optimistic pollution modelling was being used. In an interview for the BBC News at Ten and Radio 4 evening news AQMRC's Dr Jo Barnes highlighted the impact that this ruling could have for public health if Defra are required to rewrite the Plan: "This is, hopefully, going to affect the potential health impacts for thousands, tens of thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of people and, potentially, save lives ultimately."

AQMRC, UWE win NERC-MRC-MoES bid to work in India

AQMRC, UWE, in conjunction with Newcastle University, have just been awarded funding by the National Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Medical Research Council (MRC) to undertake one of five short-listed research projects in Delhi, India. The four-year project 'CADTIME: Clean Air for Delhi Through Interventions, Mitigations and Engagement' is in response to a Newton Bhabha call 'Atmospheric Pollution and Human Health in an Indian Megacity'. It is a really exciting opportunity to work with colleagues from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Delhi and Bombay, the Central Road Research Institute and the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute in India. The aim of the project is to understand what needs to be done to mitigate air pollution from a range of sources in what has been cited by the World Health Organization as the second-most polluted major city in the world (2016). Ultimately the project aims to reduce the impacts of air pollution on human health, reducing the number of deaths and improving quality of life for Delhi's inhabitants.