Published papers

These are my key papers published since 2008 in peer-reviewed journals, and also my book published in that year.

There is also a review paper on Mobility and Access Needs, Expectations and Costs, published by the International Transport Forum of the OECD (2011) http://www.internationaltransportforum.org/jtrc/DiscussionPapers/DP201107.pdf

Travel

I recently visited Bangalore, India’s high technology centre. It has grown to become the third most populous city in the country, and the traffic congestion is impressive. A new elevated road is under construction from the airport to the city centre. Initially, I had the impression that a system of elevated roads was being constructed throughout the city, but it turned out that what I saw is a new metro, underground in the centre, elevated above the larger roads beyond. 7km of the metro is already open, with 42 planned in total.

Rail is the right response to population growth in a dynamic city in which roads will never be able to cope with the potential demand for car use.

Car useTravel

The weekend issue of the Financial Times has the front page headline ‘Cars no longer stars as the young find themselves forced off the road’. The story is that the number of young people taking driving tests is falling as high insurance costs and demographic changes begin to transform a generation’s relationship with cars. This is followed up over most of page 3, quoting me amongst other experts. The motor industry is well aware of the trend but uncertain how to respond. It hopes that when the economy recovers, young people will come back to cars. However, Gordon Stokes, of Oxford University, is cited as saying that people who learn to drive when they are less than twenty do about 40% more mileage a year than those who earn when they are about thirty.

There may well be a generational shift in attitudes to the car underway.

Finance

One of my interests is how the financial services sector works. This originates in a six-year term as a member of the Financial Services Consumer Panel which advises the UK Financial Services Authority. My perception is that innovation in financial services has benefited the innovators much more than their clients. This has happened as a result of the complexity of new products, which the providers understand much more than the customers, and which as a result profit the former to the detriment of the latter. The resulting profits are the source of the excessive remuneration achieved in financial services, which in turn has led to the increasing inequality seem in society at large.

I have an article on this theme just published in Juncture, the online journal of the Institute for Public Policy Research

Uncategorized

This website was established in January 2013. It is intended to support a new book, currently in preparation, provisional title Beyond Peak Car: why car use is declining. This is a follow-up to my 2008 book, The Limits to Travel, the website for which is limitstotravel.org.uk. Other material of interest may be included.