Issues of air pollution, climate breakdown, an inactivity epidemic, road injuries and deaths, and unequal access to transport are more urgent and relevant than ever. Does your research speak to these pressing policy problems? Active Travel Studies (ATS) welcomes submissions from those taking a critical approach to these themes.
Very nearly in its third year, the ATS Journal is a flourishing forum for high-quality and relevant research on all aspects of active travel. It forms part of the Active Travel Academy (ATA)’s mission to create a bridge between researchers and the practitioner and activist communities.
The ATA at the University of Westminster brings together a broad spectrum of expertise to lead research, teaching and knowledge exchange on walking, wheeling, cycling and other active modes, use of ‘micromobilities’ and reduction in car use.
The ATA believes all disciplines and expertise are needed to address the acute global problems that car-dominated transport systems have created and takes a critical approach to pressing policy problems, drawing on a wide range of tools and methods, from Big Data to (auto)ethnography.
It was important to founding editors Tom Cohen and Rachel Aldred that the journal was as accessible as possible, for both readers and contributors, which is why it is available open-access (all content is available to all at no cost) and there are no article processing charges.
The ATS Journal fills a gap in the academic market. “There are numerous transport journals, but none that addressed active travel specifically, despite it receiving growing attention as a topic,” says Tom. “We hope we are helping to cement the status of active travel as a major part of the transport discourse, amongst researchers, practitioners and activists.”
ATS is a good shop window for authors working on walking, wheeling, cycling and other forms of active travel. The fact that it’s open access means there are no barriers to those who want to read the material and, with no article processing fees, authors themselves are not out of pocket.
“We would like ATS to be well known and well respected as the primary source of recent research on all aspects of active travel,” says Tom.
To access all issues of the ATS Journal and to make submissions, in written and/or multimedia formats, please visit https://activetravelstudies.org/
Category: Active travel studies
Active Travel Studies journal, under way
Active Travel Studies a new UWP journal has published its first article. Kirsty Wild and colleagues offer an analysis of the impact of e-Bikes on access to cycling for women based on research undertaken in Auckland. Could e-Bikes offer encouragement for more physical activity and overcome inhibiters especially for mothers?
A reminder of the journal’s scope and aims below. And here the lead editors Tom Cohen and Rachel Aldred discuss their plans and ambitions for a timely new journal. The journal is based at the University of Westminster‘s Active Travel Academy
We live in times of climate crisis, with illegal levels of air pollution in many cities worldwide, and what has been called an epidemic of physical inactivity. Technological change alone will not solve such problems: we also need major growth in active travel (primarily walking and cycling, but also other active and semi-active types of travel, such as scooters) to replace many shorter car trips. Active modes could even (e.g. through electric assist trikes) help make urban freight much more sustainable.
Journals within many fields cover active travel, but literature remains highly segmented and (despite high levels of policy interest) difficult for practitioners to find. Established, mainstream journals are not open access, another barrier to policy transfer and knowledge exchange. Thus, while many towns, cities, and countries seek to increase active travel, the knowledge base suffers from a lack of high-quality academic evidence that is easy to find and obtain. This reinforces practitioner reliance on often lower-quality grey literature, and a culture of relying on ad hoc case studies in policy and practice.
This journal provides a bridge between academia and practice, based on high academic standards and accessibility to practitioners. Its remit is to share knowledge from any academic discipline/s (from bioscience to anthropology) that can help build knowledge to support active travel and help remove barriers to it, such as car dependency. Within this normative orientation, it is rigorously academic and critical, for instance not shying away from analysing examples where interventions do not lead to more active travel. It goes beyond immediate policy imperatives to share knowledge that while not immediately change-oriented can contribute to a deeper understanding of, for instance, why people drive rather than walk.
As well as publishing relevant new research, the journal commissions both commentary pieces on such research, and critical reviews of the existing literature. Reflecting the diversity of its audience, its content is varied, including written work of different lengths as well as audio-visual material
Longer distance cycling – ATS special issue call for abstracts
ACTIVE TRAVEL STUDIES: An Interdisciplinary Journal
Special issue – Longer distance cycling: roles, requirements and impacts
Guest editors
Professor John Parkin (University of the West of England, UK)
Dr Anders Fjendbo Jensen (Technical University of Denmark)
The bicycle is increasingly seen by many cities as a solution that provides efficient and effective urban mobility, and at the same time reduces the negative environmental consequences of motorized transport. Research on cyclists’ behaviour often focuses on everyday cycle trips of shorter lengths. By contrast, this call focuses on longer length trips.
While shorter distances are more common, there are indications of a potential for modal shift to bicycle for longer trips if they are facilitated by good quality cycle infrastructure separated from other modes. Longer distance cycleways are beginning to be built between settlements in some places, and provide continuous, attractive and comfortable routes where progress can be rapid and uninterrupted. Such longer distance routes can benefit everyday cycling, and can attract travellers who would have otherwise used a car.
The development and increasing use of e-bikes is also a significant potential contributor to more longer distance cycling. The increasing availability of other types of cycle, for example non-conventional cycles including recumbents, may be a factor in being able to cycle longer distances.
While the combination of longer distance good quality infrastructure and e-bikes could act as an encouragement for some, the combination of the two may not be attractive to others. Overall the special issue is interested in the potential contribution of longer distance cycling and its implications, good and bad. On the positive side, there may be gains in accessibility and inclusion; on the negative, longer distance cycling may deter shorter (slower) cycling trips and/or stand in tension with the concept of the 15-minute city.
This special issue will cover the following areas:
- Funding and public policy, and other policy relating to the support of longer distance cycling, for example, employers’ policies.
- The design and construction of infrastructure, and the value of technology, such as e-bike development and use.
- Implementation strategies, such as communications and social marketing, used to promote everyday longer distance cycling.
- The extent to which longer distance everyday cycling is inclusive and attractive.
- The extent to which longer distance cycling for business can serve last-mile and other delivery/servicing needs
- Cycle logistics business models for longer distance deliveries, and the experiences of those working in the cycle logistics industry.
- The way in which longer distance cycleways support trip making behaviour for everyday and regular trip making.
- Equity and equality issues relating to those attracted to longer distance cycling and those who are not attracted to it, and the way this is affected when specific cycling infrastructure is provided.
- The choices available to people who cycle longer distance, including the value of the option of multi-modality as part of longer distance cycle trips.
- Case studies and intervention studies.
- Analysis of the impacts of longer distance cycling both socio-economically and on the environment (e.g. carbon reduction, air quality, noise and severance).
- Emerging practices of longer distance cycling, for different purposes and in different contexts.
- We are interested in papers from all parts of the world. The call is not primarily intended to cover longer distance cycling in relation to leisure or tourism but we are open to submissions that address longer distance cycling for business (e.g. couriers or freight).
Timescales and practicalities:
Please submit abstracts (400-600 words) at https://activetravelstudies.org/about/submissions. You will first need to register at https://activetravelstudies.org/register
Deadline: 16th November 2020.
Authors will hear from the editors encouraging a full submission or providing feedback by 14th December 2020.
Full submissions to be made by 31st March 2021. These will be peer reviewed. ATS submission categories include: research articles, commentaries, reviews, debates and interviews.
Provisional publication date of issue: from June 2021.
ATS is a peer-reviewed open access journal and no fees will be charged to contributors to this special issue.
University of Westminster Press blog 