Adrian Davis

Adrian-DavisA founding member of the Transport & Health Study Group (UK) in 1988, Adrian’s work has focused on the health impacts of road transport, the understanding of the importance of health by transport planners, and the application of science in selecting which policies and practices most support health enhancing travel behaviours. In the early 1990s he worked nationally on promotion of traffic calming in the UK.

He authored the British Medical Association’s first Transport Policy report in 1997, and has drafted reports for WHO on active travel and ageing and mobility.  In 2012/13 Adrian worked in the Department for Transport’s Sustainable Transport Directorate for 6 months to provide public health support on the economic evidence base for active travel and in 2015 for Public Health England in drafting guidance to local authorities. He leads on Public Health for the DfT funded Sustainable Transport Delivery Excellence Programme for Local Economic Partnerships.

Until March this year Adrian was the UK’s only health and transport specialist funded by a Public Health Directorate (since 2008) and placed in a Transport Department – that of Bristol City Council. He led on the Safe Systems Approach to Road Safety in the Council.

He is an Assistant Editor of the Journal of Transport and Health. A Visiting Professor at the University of the West of England since 2012, Adrian was awarded an honorary Doctorate by the University in 2015 in recognition of his ‘multi-disciplinary approach and collaboration on transport and health’.

Presentation: Population strategies and the prevention paradox as applied to road safety in Bristol: A public health approach

The presentation charts the application of the Rose Theory – the value of population level strategies to achieve most public health gain – in developing and implementing both the city-wide 20mph programme and the subsequent Safe Systems Approach to Road Safety in the City of Bristol between 2009-2015. The presentation challenges traditional approaches to road safety and suggests that public health guidance should no longer be a matter of chance but rather be integral to systems thinking in ending the resignation to the needless scourge of road danger and injuries as a sacrifice for mobility.