Do people prefer cycling policy aiming at extending or saving lives? An experimental survey study

We investigated the preference between transport policies aiming at extending vs. saving lives. In a 2 × 2 experimental survey study participants randomly received one of four possible policy combinations. The saving lives policy included saving five (250 life-years saved) or ten (500 life-years saved) lives of cyclists who are about 30 years of age. The extending lives policy through the promotion of cycling and associated health benefits was set to extend lives by two ratios (10:1 or 20:1) in relation to life-years saved of the life-saving strategy. Participants were representative of Finnish-speaking residents older than 15 years (N = 1025). In total, 45.5% of the participants preferred a policy aimed at saving lives, 36% preferred an extending lives policy, and 18.2% were undecided. These figures remained essentially the same independent of the benefit-to-cost ratio of cycling (in terms of saved life years) and whether the saving life policy meant saving five or ten lives. Women and the elderly preferred a policy aimed at saving lives, while cyclists preferred an extending lives policy. The results are discussed in the context of Vision Zero and a new transport paradigm called Vision Plus.

Description

Funding Information: This study has been part of a five-year research project created by IR and supported by several organizations, including the Automobile and Touring Club of Finland (ATCF), the Finnish Crash Data Institute (OTI), the Henry Ford foundation, Katsastustoiminnan Tukisäätiö, Kuorma-autoliikenteen Volvo Säätiö, Liikenneturva, Liikenneturvallisuuden Edistämissäätiö, Rahtarit, Liikennelääketieteen säätiö, and the Transport Workers’ Union AKT. This funding has been greatly appreciated. We also thank Liikenneturva for kindly allowing us to include our questions in their annual survey. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 World Conference on Transport Research Society

Keywords

Cost benefit analysis, Ethics, Moving beyond Zero, Traffic safety, Vision Zero

DOI

10.1016/j.cstp.2022.07.001

Citation

Radun , I , Radun , J , Kitti , M , Kauppi , H , Lajunen , T & Olivier , J 2022 , ' Do people prefer cycling policy aiming at extending or saving lives? An experimental survey study ' , Case Studies on Transport Policy , vol. 10 , no. 3 , pp. 1715-1719 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cstp.2022.07.001

Permanent link to this item

https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202209145575

Collections

[article-cris] Kauppakorkeakoulu / BIZ

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