The potential of non-motorised transport for promoting health in The Greening of Urban Transport (ed. Rodney Tolley), John Wiley and Sons, 1997

The links between policy on transport and health have also been the subject of several research studies. These have highlighted the positive role that walking and cycling can play in health promotion and pressed the case in subsequent conference papers for giving pride of place in the mechanised transport hierarchy going well beyond simply treating them as modes of transport deserving more consideration in the allocation of public resources. Evidence based on these was first given to a House of Commons Select Committee Inquiry on Preventive Medicine in 1976. 

• Norman Fowler, Transport Secretary, acknowledged the study's importance and instructed his Department in 1980 "to produce the first-ever discussion paper on pedestrian policy".
• Peter Bottomley, Minister of Transport, 27 April 1986 – "Road planners must reduce their preoccupation with motor traffic and give pedestrians a fairer deal. Pedestrians have become the Cinderellas of road use".
• National Consumer Council published a report, What's Wrong with Walking?, in 1988 on the role of walking in policy and practice and the need for change in that regard. In subsequent years, Transport 2000 developed its Feet First campaign, and the Pedestrians Association its Walk 21 project (supported by the DoE) "to get people back on their feet".
• John Gummer, Secretary of State for the Environment, June 1995 launches project on "cities for pedestrians".
• Steven Norris, Transport Minister, sets up the National Walking Strategy Forum in January 1996.
• John Bowis, Minister of Traffic (PN 280) in 1996 urges Britain "to take walking seriously and reverse its decline as an alternative to the car for short local journeys".
• Glenda Jackson, Transport Minister in 1997, urges local authorities to give priority to walking.
• The concept of a continuous pedestrian network has been adopted in such places as Camden in London and in York.
• The links between policy on transport and health were the subject of several research studies. Evidence based on these was given to a House of Commons Select Committee Inquiry on Preventive Medicine in 1976, and conference papers on the links in 1988 and more recently. Inter alia, the papers highlighted the positive role that walking and cycling can play in health promotion. Its scope is so considerable as to strongly indicate that it should be given pride of place in the mechanised transport hierarchy going well beyond simply treating them as modes of transport deserving more consideration in the allocation of public resources.
• The Public Health Alliance published the Transport and Health Study Group's report Health on the Move in 1990, drawing heavily on these papers.
• Since Mayer Hillman and Anne Whalley wrote 'Walking is Transport' for the Policy Studies Institute back in 1979, British transport planning has continued to ignore or at best pay lip service to the role of feet in getting people around. Even in the Green Party, campaigning for improvements in public transport can lead us to forget to emphasise human-powered transport as Councillor Rupert Read, Transport Spokesperson for the Norwich Green Party has described. 

Cycle helmets: the Case For and Against Policy Studies Institute, 1993

This study of the international evidence on helmet wearing, including its contribution to limiting head injury following a collision on the road and to altering behaviour, concluded that it should not be made mandatory. Where a law on this has been introduced in other countries it has led to a significant reduction in cycling, with a likely adverse outcome in terms of the promotion of public health as cycling represents an ideal means for maintaining fitness with wide benefits both for personal and public health. Cycle helmets are a secondary and not a primary means of reducing head injury. Helmet wearing does nothing to prevent accidents. The primary means of reducing serious head injury among cyclists is to create an environment in which accidents are less likely to occur. 

• In spite of strong pressure from the British Medical Association and the road safety lobby, the Government has not legislated to do so.    

Cycling: Towards Health and Safety BMA, Oxford University Press, 1992

This report, commissioned by and published in the name of the British Medical Association, examined all aspects of cycling in relation to health. It established that, in spite of the hostile environment in which most cyclists currently ride, the benefits in terms of health promotion and longevity far outweigh the loss of life years in injury on the roads. To derive these and many other benefits, it called for more emphasis to be placed on cycling and highlighted the fact that people are more likely to do so regularly if cycles are used as a form of transport rather than a recreational activity. For the great majority of the population, cycling as part of the routine of daily travel from childhood through to old age has the potential for improving fitness in a way that, given proper provision for it in the form of safe cycle networks, cannot be matched by any other comparable exercise regime.

• DoE/DoT PPG 13 in 1994 refers to the Government 1992 Health of the Nation white paper targets concerned with the health benefits of physical activity and states: "The creation of safer areas for pedestrians and cyclists can help to ensure the promotion of physical activity … and make a contribution to meeting the government's objectives."
• Kenneth Calman, Chief Medical Officer, June 1994 – sets out a 20-point plan towards a healthier lifestyle, including more cycling and walking.
• Robert Key, Minister of Transport, June 1994 – sets out a blueprint for the promotion of cycling as a form of transport.
• Virginia Bottomley, Secretary of State for Health, 13 June 1994, introducing the Health of the Nation report – "Cycling is not only an effective means of transport but an excellent prescription for better health", and in the Targets in the Health of the Nation White Paper: "Cycling has a major part to play in reducing the incidence of coronary heart disease and stroke."
• Government New Cycling Policy, Summer 1994 – "There is no doubt that cycling is an important form of transport. It is economical and efficient for local journeys, environmentally friendly and healthy."
• Steven Norris, Minister of Transport, Press Notice on 7 June 1995 – "The intention is to create a National Cycling Strategy to promote cycle use … to ensure that cycling is placed more centrally in planning local transport strategies."
• Further afield, the Cycling Advocates' Network of NZ (CAN) has endorsed the "groundbreaking work of Mayer Hillman".

Pedestrians crossing roads on sleeping policemen in The Book of Visions: An Encyclopedia of Social Innovations (eds. Nicholas Albery), 1992 

The concept of road intersections raised to pavement level to create an uninterrupted pedestrian network consisting of linked pavements to give priority to pedestrians was put forward. Evidence from the UK and the Continent shows that drivers have to reduce their speed sharply to mount road humps and that they drive slowly and considerately when traversing paved areas. Whilst drivers would incur a few seconds' delay at each pedestrian crossing, this new arrangement would ensure greater convenience for people getting about on foot as well as, of course, making it much safer for them. It would also give parents concerned about the risk of injury in a road accident the confidence to permit their children to make the school and other journeys on their own which they have been losing at an alarming rate.

Walking is Transport (with Anne Whalley), Policy Studies Institute, 1979

Analysis of successive National Travel Survey data sets revealed the significance of walking in daily life and the lack of attention paid to it in public policy. This PSI report called for "the incorporation of all aspects of walking (and for similar reasons, cycling too) into the consciousness of policy-makers and practitioners, and to assess comprehensively the role that the play, and could play in meeting transport needs". It concluded that non-motorised modes should be included in tests of social, environmental, financial and energy performance, and judged on the same criteria as the motorised modes.

Design of First Pedestrian-Oriented New Town in the UK (with Jonas Lehrman), 1956

The plans and raison d'être for a new town giving priority to pedestrians over mechanised transport users were published in the Architects' Journal, May 1957, and in the same year in two international journals. The plans were conceived as an architectural unity with a truly compact urban environment. The stated aim was to provide the right conditions for a healthier and better way of life in which social and cultural life for present and future generations would flourish.

• The general principles of this proposal clearly influenced London County Council's plans by Graeme Shankland for urban renewal in the London suburb of Boston Manor in 1958 and Hook New Town in 1961, by Rolf Rosner for Neu-Winsen in West Germany in 1960, and by Hugh Wilson for Cumbernauld New Town in 1961.
• John Gummer, Secretary of State for the Environment, June 1995 – launches project on "cities for pedestrians".
• Some of the themes contained in this 1956 proposal form part of the DEFRA brief in 2007 for submissions for the development of the government's eco-towns.