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 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
#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
Lieutenant Commander William George Boaks (25 May 1904 – 4 April 1986) was a British Royal Navy officer who became a political campaigner for road safety. A pioneer of British eccentric political campaigning, he jointly held the record for ...
campaigned for pedestrian priority everywhere
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Complete streets
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Induced demand
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Jaywalking
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Planetizen''
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Priority (right of way)
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Road hierarchy
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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
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Street hierarchy
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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
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Traffic conflict
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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 de ...
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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