Transport For Humans: Are we nearly there yet?

People are not cargo. We choose how and when to travel, influenced not only by speed and time but by habit, status, comfort, variety – and many other factors that engineering equations don’t capture at all.

The greatest hope for a brighter future lies in adapting transport to more human wants and needs. Behavioural science has immense potential to improve the design of vehicles, roads, railways, planes and pavements – as well as the ways in which we use them – but only when we embrace the messier reality of how people travel.

Promoting a more balanced diet of transport options breaks free of 'fast food' thinking. People should be free to travel in healthier and more sustainable ways, overcoming the default to drive. By thinking in terms of user capability, opportunity and motivation to travel (and sometimes not-need-travel) we can (re)build more inclusive and resilient transport systems.