Travel is an essential part of everyday life and under normal circumstances it is undertaken without a great deal of thought. Only when our usual travel routines are disrupted for some reason do we need to reappraise travel options and make new choices. For most people in Britain the normal travel routine is to jump into a car and drive to a local destination, and if the car is not their main travel mode at present it is often the one to which people aspire. In this book we argue that there are other travel options and that in particular walking and cycling – either on their own or as part of a multi-mode trip including public transport – can play an important role in everyday travel for short trips in urban areas. Our aim is to explain how and why walking and cycling are not the first choice means of transport for most people, and to propose policy strategies that could shift more short everyday travel away from cars and towards walking and cycling.

The research project that forms the core of this book originated from an EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) research event (called a ‘sandpit’) at which selected academics from a range of disciplinary backgrounds were invited to examine critically issues of sustainable transport and especially walking and cycling in Britain. The initiative had been started by Sustrans – a national body that promotes sustainable transport – and was linked to its Connect2 programme that is providing improved pedestrian and cycle infrastructure in some 60 communities around Britain. In due course the EPSRC agreed to fund three peer-reviewed research projects of which the Understanding Walking and Cycling (UWAC) project reported in this book was one. Research took place between October 2008 and September 2011 and involved academics based at the universities of Lancaster, Oxford Brookes, Leeds and (latterly) Birmingham.

Constructing a multi-disciplinary research team spread across three institutions was a challenging, exciting and very productive process. Most of the research team had not worked together prior to the project and we brought with us a range of different skills and perspectives. Throughout the project we have been learning from each other and have all sought to engage actively with the whole project rather than focusing only on those aspects with which we were individually most concerned.