Lion's Lady

Engineers plan transport systems, people use them. But the ways in which an engineer measures success – speed, journey time, efficiency – are often not the way that passengers think about a good trip. We 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. As we near the practical, physical limits of speed, capacity and punctuality, 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 roads, railways, planes and pavements – as well as the ways in which we use them – but only when we embrace the messier reality of transport for humans. This is the moment. Climate change, the coronavirus pandemic and changing work–life priorities are shaking up long-held assumptions. There is a new way forward. This book maps out how to design transport for humans.|Engineers plan transport systems, people use them. But the ways in which an engineer measures success – speed, journey time, efficiency – are often not the way that passengers think about a good trip. We 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. As we near the practical, physical limits of speed, capacity and punctuality, 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 roads, railways, planes and pavements – as well as the ways in which we use them – but only when we embrace the messier reality of transport for humans. This is the moment. Climate change, the coronavirus pandemic and changing work–life priorities are shaking up long-held assumptions. There is a new way forward. This book maps out how to design transport for humans. A non-fiction book about making transport and travel better for people. Transport for Humans is about applying behavioural science to re-think and re-balance our approach to transport experience and design. How do people want and need to travel? Which trips are really valuable? How are habits going to change? This book combines psychological research with creative flare to provoke new ideas that show how a human-friendly and sustainable future for transport can be enjoyed, not just endured. This book maps out how to design better transport. Engineers measure success by speed and efficiency - but these are not the way that passengers think about a good trip. We choose how 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.