The green transport hierarchy (Canada), street user hierarchy (US), sustainable transport hierarchy (Wales), urban transport hierarchy or road user hierarchy (Australia, UK) is a
hierarchy
A hierarchy (from Greek: , from , 'president of sacred rites') is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) that are represented as being "above", "below", or "at the same level as" one another. Hierarchy is an important ...
of modes of transport of road users prioritising
green transport. It is the basic concept of transport reform groups worldwide. In 2020, the UK government consulted about adding to the
Highway Code
''The Highway Code'' is a set of information, advice, guides and mandatory rules for road users in the United Kingdom. Its objective is to promote road safety. The ''Highway Code'' applies to all road users including pedestrians, horse riders ...
a ''road user hierarchy'' prioritising pedestrians. It is a key characteristic of Australian transport planning.
History
''The Green Transportation Hierarchy: A Guide for Personal & Public Decision-Making'' by
Chris Bradshaw was first published September 1994 and revised June 2004. It was first prepared for ''Ottawalk'' and the ''Transportation Working Committee of the
Ottawa-Carleton Round-table on the Environment'' in January 1992, only stating 'Walk, Cycle, Bus, Truck, Car'.
Factors
#
Mode
#Energy source
#Trip length
#Trip speed
#Vehicle size
#
Passenger load factor
Passenger load factor, or load factor, measures the capacity utilization of public transport services like airlines, passenger railways, and intercity bus services. It is generally used to assess how efficiently a transport provider fills seat ...
#Trip segment
#Trip purpose
#Traveller
Adoption
The author directed the hierarchy at both individual lifestyle choices and public authorities who should officially direct their resources; funds, moral suasion, and formal sanctions – based on the factors.
Bradshaw described the hierarchy to be logical, but the effect of applying it will seem radical.
[see a separate paper by the
author, ‘Using Our Feet to Reduce Our Footprint: The Importance
of Scale in Life’ (1997) for the ‘NRFUT’ system of comparing the
‘footprint’ of different trips.]
The model rejects
the concept of the balanced transportation system, where users are assumed to be free to choose between many options. This is because choices incorporating factors that are ranked low generally have a high impact on other choices.
See also
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Bill Boaks campaigned for pedestrian priority everywhere
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Complete streets
Complete streets is a transportation policy and design approach that requires streets to be planned, designed, operated and maintained to enable safe, convenient and comfortable travel and access for users of all ages and abilities regardless of ...
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Induced demand
In economics, induced demand – related to latent demand and generated demandSchneider, Benjamin (September 6, 2018"CityLab University: Induced Demand"'' CityLab'' – is the phenomenon whereby an increase in supply results in a decline ...
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Jaywalking
Jaywalking is the act of pedestrians walking in or crossing a roadway that has traffic, other than at a designated crossing point, or otherwise, in disregard of traffic rules. The term originated in the United States as a derivation of the phra ...
*''
Planetizen
Planetizen is a planning-related news website and e-learning platform based in Los Angeles, California. It features user-submitted and editor-evaluated news and weekly user-contributed op-eds about urban planning and several related fields. The ...
''
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Priority (right of way)
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Road hierarchy
The road hierarchy categorizes roads according to their functions and capacities. While sources differ on the exact nomenclature, the basic hierarchy comprises freeways, arterials, collectors, and local roads. Generally, the functional hierarch ...
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Road traffic safety
Road traffic safety refers to the methods and measures used to prevent road users from being killed or seriously injured. Typical road users include pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, vehicle passengers, horse riders, and passengers of on-roa ...
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Settlement hierarchy
A settlement hierarchy is a way of arranging settlements into a hierarchy based upon their population or some other criteria. The term is used by landscape historians and in the National Curriculum for England. The term is also used in the p ...
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Street hierarchy
The street hierarchy is an urban planning technique for laying out road networks that exclude automobile through-traffic from developed areas. It is conceived as a hierarchy of roads that embeds the link importance of each road type in the net ...
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Sustainable transport
Sustainable transport refers to ways of transportation that are sustainable in terms of their social and environmental impacts. Components for evaluating sustainability include the particular vehicles used for road, water or air transport; th ...
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Traffic bottleneck
A traffic bottleneck is a localized disruption of vehicular traffic on a street, road, or highway. As opposed to a traffic jam, a bottleneck is a result of a specific physical condition, often the design of the road, badly timed traffic lights, ...
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Traffic code
Traffic codes are laws that generally include provisions relating to the establishment of authority and enforcement procedures, statement of the rules of the road, and other safety provisions. Administrative regulations for driver licensing, veh ...
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Traffic conflict
A traffic conflict, is "an observable event which would end in an accident unless one of the involved parties slows down, changes lanes, or accelerates to avoid collision".Riser, R.(1985). Behaviour in traffic conflict situations. ''Accident Analy ...
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Traffic flow
In mathematics and transportation engineering, traffic flow is the study of interactions between travellers (including pedestrians, cyclists, drivers, and their vehicles) and infrastructure (including highways, signage, and traffic control dev ...
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Transportation demand management
References
{{Reflist
External links
Original 1992 paper
Climate change policy
Rules of the road
Sustainable transport
1992 documents
1994 books
1992 in transport
Hierarchy