British-Italian Seminar in Transport GeographyAuthor(s): Brian HoyleSource: Area, Vol. 21, No. 4 (Dec., 1989), pp. 437-439Published by: The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20000077 .

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Conference reports 437

USA, Western Samoa and six British universities. The meeting was generously funded by the Commonwealth Foundation, the British Council, the Ford Foundation, the Province of Alberta, Canada and the Institute of British Geographers.

The forty papers presented revealed the wealth of empirical research that is being conducted by geographers on gender and development issues. The papers covered aspects of agriculture, industrialisation, the environment, health, education, housing, migration, reproductive work and the links between private and public spheres of life. The international input highlighted different theoretical and methodological approaches to issues such as the study of women or gender, the intersection of class and gender, the role of religious ideologies and ethnicity in shaping attitudes to women's work and the extent to which women control their own lives within patriarchal societies and, of course, the significance of geographic context in influencing the patterns observed. All the sessions attracted a great deal of interest and aroused lively discussion. The papers are to be published.

The programme included two half-day fieldtrips: the first of these looked at urban regen eration in Newcastle and two food-processing factories employing predominantly women; the second visited Durham City and Cathedral, farms and a rural women's group in Weardale. Four training workshops were also held covering the following topics: the teaching of gender issues in geography; women and health; rapid rural and urban appraisal techniques in gender-oriented fieldwork; and the implementation of research projects on women with examples from Barbados, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka. The social programme, including among other events, a reception by the Lord Mayor of Newcastle for participants and local women in public office or involved in

women's programmes, provided a warm atmosphere for forging new associations. The whole meeting was -characterised by high levels of interaction, networking and exchange

of ideas with several cross-national comparative research projects being initiated. A follow up conference is planned at the invitation of the University of Waterloo, Ontario in May 1991, with other sessions being held in Taiwan, in conjunction with the IGU Regional Meeting in Beijing, in August 1990 and with the IGU Congress in Washington D.C. in 1992.

Further information may be obtained from Dr Janet Momsen, Chair, IGU Study Group on Gender and Geography, Department of Geography, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle upon Tyne, England NE1 7RU.

Janet Momsen Newcastle upon Tyne

British-Italian Seminar in transport geography

Report of a British-Italian Seminar in transport geography held at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University of London, 24-25 April 1989

A British-Italian Seminar in transport geography, organised by the Transport Geography Study Group in collaboration with the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche and the Dipartimento di Pianificazione Territoriale e Urbanistica of the University of Rome, was held at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University of London, on 24-25 April 1989. The seminar was an eventual outcome of ideas for international co-operation in this sphere first discussed in Rome during the 1984 meeting of the IGU Transport Geography Working Group between Dr Brian S Hoyle (Southampton, TGSG secretary and convenor) and Professor Cologero Muscara (Rome).

Within the general theme of the seminar-' Transport policy and urban development: meth odology and evaluation '-a variety of papers arising from recent and current research in Italy and the UK were presented. In the first session, chaired by Dr David Hilling (RHBNC), two contrasted papers indicated some approaches and methodologies. Dr Laurie Pickup presented a paper co-authored with Dr John Polak based on current work at the Transport Studies Unit, Oxford, entitled 'Assessing and modelling the impact of RTI technology on the road transport

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438 Conference reports

environment in Europe' which considered the impact of new information technology and enhanced telecommunications on the improvement of the European road environment. Two main issues were addressed: how will travellers respond to new policy initiatives made possible through new technologies? and how might such responses be modelled in the planning process?

Pickup and Polak outlined proposals for the development of two new modelling systems as part of an EC-initiated DRIVE (Dedicated Road Infrastructure for Vehicle Safety in Europe) programme. A EURONETT (Evaluating user responses on new European transport technolo gies) system will comprise an application-oriented suite of programs designed to simulate the responses of travellers and society in general to various initiatives based on RTI (Road transport informatics). EUROTOPP (European transport planning process) involves a broader modelling package designed to provide a new framework for the transport planning process in urban areas.

Professor Guiseppe Las Casas (Rome) introduced the Italian contributions to the seminar by outlining results of research undertaken jointly with Professor Franco Archibugi (Naples) on 'Transport demand and transport planning: a methodology of evaluation'. In exploring plan

ners' perspectives on the evaluation of transport demand, Las Casas outlined the use of multi criteria models and stressed the importance of attempting to define and assess the quality of transport. In Italy, particularly, north-south contrasts in terms of the number, distribution and size of urban settlements present problems of definition and planning. In discussion it became clear that substantial differences of approach are involved within the British and Italian research communities, although conceptually similar problems were revealed.

A second session, chaired by Dr Peter Jones (TSU Oxford), also illustrated some contrasted but complementary viewpoints. Professor Attilio Celant (Udine), Professor Giovanni Storchi (Rome) and Professor George W Carey (Rutgers/Rome) described a major investigation on ' Transport policy and urban rank: a model for the optimization of transport infrastructures ' to

which Professor Muscara (Rome) and Professor Carlo Lefebvre (Pescara) had also contributed. This study focused on the Rome-Naples corridor, described by Carey as being dominated by two urban giants separated by an increasingly underdeveloped region in which stark developmental inequalities are exacerbated by existing transport and other infrastructures. The research had attempted to devise a methodology for transportation planning in the context of the economic and territorial dualism inherent in the Italian economy and the existing lack of integration within the essentially hierarchical regional settlement structure.

The paper contained several complementary elements. Muscara provided some theoretical underpinnings, largely based on Kansky's 1960s methodology derived from work in Sicily, for a structure designed to improve inter-urban linkages. Using a form of principal components analysis, Celant analysed data on the relative importance of elements in the system of urbanis ation and counterurbanisation within the corridor; and Lefebvre contributed measures and profiles of urban services. Storchi provided the mathematical inputs for a computertised model based on a wide range of measures of communities, industries, distances, travel times etc and yielding indices of centrality, demographic conditions and accessibility. In discussion, British participants objected that numerical measures of population ignored a wide range of socio economic indicators relevant to transport demand and provision; but they also recognised the successful cooperation between institutions and disciplines designed to provide a basis for policy formulation directed towards priority linkages and communities of concern.

In contrast, Dr Richard Knowles (Salford) presented a review of' Urban public transport policy in Thatcher's Britain ', in which he argued that since 1930, government transport policies in Britain have oscillated between those based on intervention, through regulation, public ownership or subsidies, and those based on the free market, through deregulation, privatisation or public expenditure controls. He concluded that local bus deregulation has not generally resulted in a competitive market 'on the road ' for commercial bus services in the provincial

British conurbations. However, using the government's own criteria, buses now appear to be cheaper to operate, are managed more efficiently and cost less in public subsidy, but in provincial conurbations there are fewer bus users and they are usually paying more, sometimes for a worse service.

In a third session, chaired by Professor Celant, two further papers arising from British experience were presented. Under the title' The Metro Centre and transport policy ', Dr Derek

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Conference reports 439

Hall (Sunderland Polytechnic) offered an evaluation of Tyne and Wear transport policy makers' response to the requirements of Europe's largest out-of-town retail and recreation centre.

Developed on a formerly derelict industrial site, the opening of the Metro Centre coincided with bus deregulation and stimulated considerable changes in public transport patterns in the West Gateshead area of Tyne and Wear. As the Centre has continued to expand, transport services have evolved in response to changing circumstances, and Hall has monitored responses to the demands which this large development has placed on public and private transport systems at a time of considerable economic and political uncertainty.

In a final session chaired by Dr Knowles, Robert Gant and Jose Smith (Kingston Polytechnic) who described their ongoing research on ' Central area redevelopment and the mobility deprived ', drawing attention to the needs of specific groups in urban environments (the elderly, the disabled, mothers with children, the urban poor, and even teenagers) and to the need for

micro- as well as macro-scale analyses of urban transport patterns. Based on a pilot survey in Kingston-upon-Thames, a town currently in the throes of substantial central-area redevelop ment, the paper reported attitudes towards available and desired facilities together with data on movement patterns and on group perceptions. If this paper serves to increase the awareness of non-disabled people-including those in control of local funding-of the needs of such disadvantaged minority groups, it will perform a most useful function; for in transport terms a safer urban environment for the mobility-deprived surely means a safer environment for all.

The Transport Geography Study Group gratefully acknowledges the financial support pro vided by the British Council and the Institute of British Geographers (Study Groups and Research Committee), which made the seminar possible; and records its appreciation of the careful practical arrangements made by David Hilling (RHBNC), which greatly facilitated the academic sessions and social gatherings. Revised papers are being edited by Richard Knowles (Salford) for publication in the TGSG monograph series.

Brian Hoyle University of Southampton

Third British-Soviet Geography Seminar

A report of the third British-Soviet Geography Seminar held in the United Kingdom, 19-29 May 1989

The third British-Soviet Geography Seminar met at various centres in the UK at the end of May, 1989. The Soviet party, consisting of ten geographers, was led by Professor A G Babayev of the Institute of Deserts, Ashkhabad, Turkmen SSR. Most of the Soviet scholars came from the Institute of Geography in Moscow and from other Moscow Institutes, but there were also representatives from Leningrad, Tbilisi and Dushanbe. On this occasion it had been decided to dedicate the Seminar to three themes: the geoecology of arid lands and problems of desertification, countryside conservation and recreation, and problems of urban and rural social geography.

The Soviet party was met at Liverpool Street Station on the evening of Friday May 19 having somewhat adventurously travelled across Europe by train. They were immediately conveyed to their hotel in central London. The following day was free for sightseeing and shopping in

London, with the exception of a lunchtime reception at the Royal Geographical Society where the party was welcomed by Professor Michael Wise, Honorary Vice-President, Dr John

Hemming, Director and Secretary, and senior officials of the Society. The group viewed the map library and part of the Society's Russian collection. In the evening a further reception was held at the home of Dr R A French where the visitors were able to meet members of the Department of

Geography at University College London.

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