Social Research Associates was originally founded due to particular expertise in social aspects of transport and many of the current staff reflect this interest. The motivation then was the view that transport was a neglected area of social policy. Although this situation has improved it is still the case that the link between health, employment, education and other policy areas are still under-researched. The article written by Kris Beuret on this subject in 1986 is still relevant (see publications). Happily, the recent emphasis on reducing social exclusion is addressing this shortcoming and SRa are closely involved in this area of work.

Another large focus of our work concerns the understanding of transport choices and then ways of extending these choices so that people can use a more diverse range of transport methods. Examples of work in this area are studies of coach commuting, unlicensed driving, reactions of motorists to bus travel, how poor people can afford driving lessons and deterrents to walking and cycling.

We also work in many other areas of transport including transport planning, public transport, demand responsive transport, freight and logistics, car travel and road safety. See sub sections for more details.

NEWS

SRA are currently providing training and mentoring for senior local authority Officers and Members in the area of transport.  One of the principle objectives is to work towards better integration of transport policy with other policy areas.  As a neutral player, SRA can encourage networking and challenge the silo way of working, thus at a recent Awayday for a City Council,  the Chairman of Planning met the Chairman of the Transport Committee for the first time.