Abstract

Transport is at the heart of some of today’s most significant societal grand challenges. It is a truly wicked problem. While advances in technology have simplified movement around the world, increased levels of commuting and aspirations of car ownership have impacted on economies, the environment and public health. It is estimated that transport problems cost the UK economy £45bn/year. The overdependence on personal, motorised forms of private transport is unsustainable and is fuelling ill health and obesity Addressing these issues requires a multidisciplinary, holistic approach – one that places people at the heart of the solution, that enables better transport systems to develop that can create new high-quality, better-connected living spaces and lives, and that can use technology to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the movement of goods and people. With the amount of research being conducted in this area, there is an urgent need to provide a framework which can organise activity and ensure that the outcomes from it are user centred and lead to the design of better, more inclusive vehicles and systems. This paper illustrates the way in which the Hexagon Spindle (H-S) model of ergonomics can be used to assess the territory covered by current, user focused transport research. The final section of the paper explores the importance of design led thinking in integrated transport.

Keywords

transport design research, Hexagon Spindle of ergonomics, user centred design

Share

COinS
 
Jul 1st, 12:00 AM

The Opportunity for Design-led Transport Futures

Transport is at the heart of some of today’s most significant societal grand challenges. It is a truly wicked problem. While advances in technology have simplified movement around the world, increased levels of commuting and aspirations of car ownership have impacted on economies, the environment and public health. It is estimated that transport problems cost the UK economy £45bn/year. The overdependence on personal, motorised forms of private transport is unsustainable and is fuelling ill health and obesity Addressing these issues requires a multidisciplinary, holistic approach – one that places people at the heart of the solution, that enables better transport systems to develop that can create new high-quality, better-connected living spaces and lives, and that can use technology to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the movement of goods and people. With the amount of research being conducted in this area, there is an urgent need to provide a framework which can organise activity and ensure that the outcomes from it are user centred and lead to the design of better, more inclusive vehicles and systems. This paper illustrates the way in which the Hexagon Spindle (H-S) model of ergonomics can be used to assess the territory covered by current, user focused transport research. The final section of the paper explores the importance of design led thinking in integrated transport.

 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.