Secretary of State launches ITC ‘Why Travel?’ project


ITC ‘Why Travel?’ Project Launch


16 October 2012


The Occasion:

On 16 October 2012 the ITC was delighted to welcome the Secretary of State for Transport, The Rt Hon Patrick McLoughlin MP, as well as ITC Patron and former Secretary of State Lord Adonis, to launch our new project investigating the fundamental motivations that underpin human travel. The venue was the fabulous ‘Sky Pavilion’ at Rothschild, with views of all modes of transport in action across the City of London. More than 120 leading figures and experts involved in UK transport, land use, and education attended the event, which was hosted and introduced by ITC Chairman Simon Linnett.

The project is being undertaken because the ITC believes we still understand too little about the multiple motivations that underpin travel, in spite of its critical importance for our whole way of life and our future. Conventional transport studies focus on travel as a derived demand, rather than intrinsic motives, and the Commission believes that it is time to address the scope of this problem which has major implications for future transport planning and strategy. Too often transport is considered in isolation from other areas of study. We have therefore commissioned this new research to investigate why we travel, using insights from all fields of human knowledge.

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In addition to the current and former Secretaries of State, the ITC was delighted to welcome Professor Sir Peter Hall, The Rt Rev and Rt Hon Lord Richard Harries, Professor David Metz, Simon Calder of the Independent, and former Top Gear presenter Quentin Wilson. Each addressed the audience on different aspects of human travel.

As part of the launch the ITC presented an information pack as an educational tool, covering many different aspects of human travel behaviour.

Research to be carried out as part of the ‘Why Travel?’ project will involve work in 12 areas (biology, theology, the mind, exploration, philosophy, tourism, economics, literature/art, anthropology, ecology, sociological insights and technology), and we are looking to hold further workshops, media events, and develop a website and publication.

UPDATE: The project website was launched in August 2013 – please see www.whytravel.org for more information on this exciting project.

If you would like to assist with the project, or find out more information, please contact the ITC Secretariat.

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Photos courtesy of David Rawlings.