Sarah is a chartered civil engineer and started my career working on water supply systems in the UK and developing countries. She became interested in the interface between human behaviour/choices and technical solutions when working on low cost water supply and sanitation projects in Africa. This led her to question how the built environment affects the health and wellbeing of humans as part of our planetary ecosystem and she developed this interest further while working for the sustainable transport charity Sustrans.
Sarah has worked both in the public and private sector and, since 2015, she has worked with a number of cities (including Bristol, Bath and Liverpool) to develop visions and strategies for a resilient, net zero carbon future. This has made it clear to her that future mobility technologies and behaviours will be central to delivering the changes we need to make in our daily lives.
Sarah was attracted to AAPS by the trans-disciplinary teamwork and she is excited to be learning from others as well as sharing her own experiences. Her emerging research question is "how can future mobility technologies and policies be designed to prioritise active travel particularly for children and young people?"
This aim of Sarah's PhD is to view the system of car dependency through a local, national and international lens to investigate the social, economic and built environment factors that influence car ownership amongst two age cohorts – “Millennials” and “Gen Z” – with a particular focus on gender differences. The insights from initial research will be used to generate and test a range of scenarios for future car use, ownership and travel demand.
To deliver the surface transport carbon reductions needed to achieve climate goals, the incumbent system of (auto)mobility needs to move away from private car ownership being the inevitable social norm or aspiration. This is the key to reducing people’s habit of driving as their default mode choice, even for short trips. If a car (which you have already paid for) is not available outside your front door it makes it easier to choose to walk or cycle for short trips and to use public or shared forms of mobility for longer trips.
A shift away from the current norm of private car ownership will require a socio-technical transition where bold policies on urban sustainable transport, land use planning and place-making are combined with new societal attitudes and norms towards car ownership.
There are weak signals of change in the system that some people are already voluntarily choosing not to own a car, or to "shed" one or more cars from a multi-car household. If these behaviours are supported and amplified, they could result in a tipping point away from private car ownership towards a new transport system where walking, cycling, public transport and (electric) shared forms of mobility are the norm.
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