DRS2012 Bangkok Proceedings Vol 4 - Design Research Society

DRS 2012 Bangkok
Chulalongkorn University
Bangkok, Thailand, 1–4 July 2012
The Opportunity for Design-led Transport
Futures
Andrée WOODCOCK
Coventry University
Abstract
Transport is at the heart of some of today’s most significant societal grand challenges. It is
a truly wicked problem. While advances in technology have simplified movement around
the world, increased levels of commuting and aspirations of car ownership have impacted
on economies, the environment and public health. It is estimated that transport problems
cost the UK economy £45bn/year. The overdependence on personal, motorised forms of
private transport is unsustainable and is fuelling ill health and obesity
Addressing these issues requires a multidisciplinary, holistic approach – one that places
people at the heart of the solution, that enables better transport systems to develop that can
create new high-quality, better-connected living spaces and lives, and that can use
technology to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the movement of goods and
people.
With the amount of research being conducted in this area, there is an urgent need to
provide a framework which can organise activity and ensure that the outcomes from it are
user centred and lead to the design of better, more inclusive vehicles and systems. This
paper illustrates the way in which the Hexagon Spindle (H-S) model of ergonomics can be
used to assess the territory covered by current, user focused transport research. The final
section of the paper explores the importance of design led thinking in integrated transport.
Keywords: transport design research, Hexagon Spindle of ergonomics, user centred
design
Conference Proceedings 2023