John Joseph Leeming (1899 – 1981) was a British

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

and traffic engineer. He forwarded controversial ideas for the causes of, and remedies for, road traffic accidents (RTAs), including the notion that drivers should not always be assumed to be at fault.

Biography

Leeming was born in 1899 and served in the First World War. From 1924 he worked in various road engineering capacities for

Oxfordshire County Council Oxfordshire County Council is the county council (upper-tier local authority) for the non-metropolitan county of Oxfordshire in the South East of England. Established in 1889, it is an elected body responsible for most strategic local government ...

, latterly as deputy county surveyor until he left for

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

in 1946. Leeming supervised the rebuilding of some historic bridges in Oxfordshire and what was then

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

, including

Abingdon Bridge Abingdon Bridge crosses the River Thames at the town of Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England. It carries the A415 road from Abingdon to Dorchester, Oxfordshire, over the reach of the Thames between Culham Lock and Abingdon Lock. The bridge is a ...

in 1927,

Cropredy Bridge Cropredy Bridge is a bridge in north Oxfordshire, England, that carries the minor road between Cropredy and the hamlet of Williamscot. It spans the River Cherwell, which is also the boundary between the civil parishes of Wardington (which incl ...

in 1937 and Shilton Bridge in 1938. He wrote or co-wrote articles about these bridges that were published in the Oxford Architectural and Historical Society's journal ''Oxoniensia''. In 1946 Leeming moved to work for

Dorset County Council Dorset County Council was the county council of Dorset in England. It was created in 1889 and abolished in 2019. Throughout its existence, the council was based in Dorchester. Bournemouth and Poole were made independent from the county counci ...

as county surveyor, where he stayed until his retirement in 1964. In this period he pioneered road accident investigation. In 1969 his book ''Road Accidents: prevent or punish?'' was published. A 2007 review of a reprint of the book described it as controversial, and as being written by an "enlightened highways expert". The National Motor Museum at

Beaulieu, Hampshire Beaulieu ( ) is a village located on the southeastern edge of the New Forest in Hampshire, England. It is home to both Beaulieu Palace House, Palace House and the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, National Motor Museum. In 2020, it was named ...

holds an archive of Leeming's papers covering the period 1959–72.

Road traffic accident causes

In ''Road Accidents: prevent or punish?'' Leeming set out his ideas and views of the causes of road traffic casualties (RTCs), and of how best they can be tackled. The book is described as attacking the beginnings of the blame culture, with Leeming convinced that RTCs could be reduced by using road engineering methods based on evidence derived from the scientific analysis of the causes of RTAs, and that drivers were not the main cause of many road safety problems.

Other observations

Induced demand

Leeming described the phenomenon of

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 ...

, with respect to road traffic volumes:

Risk compensation

The

risk compensation Risk compensation is a theory which suggests that people typically adjust their behavior in response to perceived levels of risk, becoming more careful where they sense greater risk and less careful if they feel more protected. Although usually ...

principle, upon which

Hans Monderman Hans Monderman (19 November 1945 – 7 January 2008) was a Dutch road traffic engineer and innovator. He was recognised for radically challenging the criteria used to evaluate engineering solutions for street design. His work compelled tra ...

's counter-intuitive

shared space Shared space is an urban design approach that minimises the segregation between modes of road user. This is done by removing features such as curb (road), curbs, road surface markings, traffic signs, and traffic lights. Hans Monderman and othe ...

concept is founded, was described by Leeming:

References

Works

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