Dr Adrian Davis Adrian.Davis@uwe.ac.uk
SRF Behaviour Chge and Transitional Res
Equality of restraint: Reframing road safety through the ethics of private motorised transport
Davis, Adrian L.; Obree, David
Authors
David Obree
Contributors
Dr Adrian Davis Adrian.Davis@uwe.ac.uk
Researcher
David Obree
Researcher
Abstract
Background: Motoring is an emancipation. It is both an individual freedom and a collective freedom with car ownership at 30, 491, 000 vehicles by 2019 in Great Britain. Yet, as the evidence of the impacts of road transport accumulates and the health and environmental aims of sustainable travel become clearer, demand for an ethical analysis also intensifies. Purpose: The paper draws on a previous limited ethics-based literature on road transport. Key tenet of liberalism, of ‘freedom from’ as well as ‘freedom to’, are highlighted. This includes Edmund Burke's concept of ‘equality of restraint’ in meeting common needs. Freedom from fear of road traffic danger forms part of an individual's rights. Findings: Equality of rights and freedom from fear in road use have not been key considerations for reducing risks to vulnerable road users. Indeed, ethical issues have largely been ignored. The emergence of Vision Zero within the road safety field with its focus on zero deaths and serious injuries has brought an ethics-based approach to the mainstream although it appears to be struggling to gain traction in neo-liberal societies. Conclusions: The Covid-19 pandemic has led to UK governments promoting the use of walking and cycling. These modes have hitherto been left to fend for themselves in an environment where road safety has been measured by casualty reduction while fear has suppressed walking and cycling with the consequence losses to physical and mental health. We ask whether an ethics-based contribution, and lessons from Covid-19, can help re-set the direction of UK road safety policy and practice.
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Oct 27, 2020 |
Online Publication Date | Nov 3, 2020 |
Publication Date | Dec 1, 2020 |
Deposit Date | Nov 10, 2020 |
Publicly Available Date | May 4, 2022 |
Journal | Journal of Transport & Health |
Print ISSN | 2214-1405 |
Electronic ISSN | 2214-1405 |
Publisher | Elsevier |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 19 |
Issue | December |
Article Number | 100970 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2020.100970 |
Keywords | Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health; Health Policy; Pollution; Safety Research; Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality; Transportation |
Public URL | https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/6844248 |
Additional Information | This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: Equality of restraint: Reframing road safety through the ethics of private motorised transport; Journal Title: Journal of Transport & Health; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2020.100970; Content Type: article; Copyright: © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
Files
Equality of restraint: Reframing road safety through the ethics of private motorised transport
(274 Kb)
PDF
Licence
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Publisher Licence URL
http://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved
Copyright Statement
This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published version is available here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2020.100970
Equality of restraint: Reframing road safety through the ethics of private motorised transport
(45 Kb)
Document
Licence
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Publisher Licence URL
http://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved
Copyright Statement
This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published version is available here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2020.100970
You might also like
Support and compliance with 20 mph speed limits in Great Britain
(2015)
Journal Article
Great Britain adults' opinions on cycling: Implications for policy
(2016)
Journal Article
Downloadable Citations
About UWE Bristol Research Repository
Administrator e-mail: repository@uwe.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2025
Advanced Search