Road sharing - does it matter what road users think of each other?

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1Road sharing - does it matter what road users think of each other?1. Introduction1.1ContextThe aim of this report is to inform the RACFoundation about the existing knowledge baseon road sharing. A number of broad areas ofpotential research interest were identified:• Understand how behaviours of different road users can bemore successfully co-ordinated so that ‘conflicts’ are reliablyand successfully resolved.• Shed light on how different road users see and judge eachother to help policy and practice to take action on themisunderstandings that happen between road users, whichcan lead to ‘conflict’.• Understand how traffic law and infrastructure designed tohelp resolve conflict between users can be improved bytaking account of the ‘lore’ of the road.• Establish how views on and perceptions of fairnessinfluence user attitudes about other modes and theprovision of infrastructure.• Establish how efficiency is viewed by the different typesof road user and what implications this has for developingshared networks.
Introduction2In our response, we have sought to find a sensible focus for research withinthis broad field.In preparing this report, we have conducted an informal scan of the literatureand conducted pilot conversations/interviews with road users to test whetherthe idea of a ‘moral model’ proved a useful theoretical framework in practicefor the design and interpretation of qualitative research.1.2Introducing moral modelsRoads are a site of intense interaction between people.An event as simple and everyday as two cars passing in opposite directions,each keeping to their own side of a road, requires coordination andcollaboration between people who may never encounter each other againwithin a similar context provided by the environment, social norms andconventions, and, of course, the vehicles they are driving.At the other end of the scale of complexity, many urban roads see largenumbers of people using many different modes of transport (includingpedestrians) and simultaneously interacting with one another. As a recentreport by PACTS (Besley, 2010) puts it, these are spaces in which ‘thespectrum of public life is carried out.’How successful is this interaction?To answer that question, we need first to offer some kind of definition ofsuccess; to do that, we need first to decide from whose point of view we areassessing it. Let’s start by considering the question from the perspective ofthose who are out on the road interacting. From this perspective, it seemsreasonable to distinguish three levels of success:
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