Why Travel?: Understanding Our Need to Move and How It Shapes Our Lives

Kris Beuret OBE is the Director of Social Research Associates (SRA). She is a sociologist, previously an academic, and a member of the Independent Transport Commission and Highways England's Research and Innovation Advisory Board. Kris has advised the House of Commons Transport Committee, TfL, the DfT and overseas governments on disability and diversity issues.Dr Matthew Niblett is Director of the Independent Transport Commission and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He oversees the ITC's research portfolio and has presented findings from this research to Ministers and Parliamentary Select Committee enquiries. Matthew holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford and was a Senior Research Associate at Oxford's Transport Studies Unit.

This book brings together leading experts to show how our travel choices are shaped by a wide range of social, physical, psychological and cultural factors, which have profound implications for the design of future transport policies.

Foreword by Tony Wheeler, co-founder, Lonely Planet
1. Why Travel? An Introduction - Matthew Niblett and Kris Beuret
Part I: Fundamental Motivations
3. Biological Perspectives on Travel - Charles Pasternak
4. Travel and The Mind - Tony Hiss
5. Philosophy and Travel: The Meaning of Movement - Matthew Niblett
6. The Economics of travel: it's not the destination, it's the journey - Matthew Dillon and Alexander Jan
Part II: Travel for exploration and knowing ourselves
8. Why Travel? The Sociological Perspective - Kris Beuret and Roger Hall
9. Religious and Spiritual Travel - Alison Kuznets
10. Travel in Art and Literature - Alison Kuznets and Matthew Niblett
11. Why People Travel: An Anthropological View - Tom Selwyn
12. Tourist Travel - Hazel Andrews
13. Travel as Exploration: Science, the Unknown, and Personal Discovery - Emily Thomas
Part III: Limits and New Horizons
15. Technology and Travel - Glenn Lyons
16. Placemaking and Travel: The city is where the people choose to go - Deborah Saunt and Tom Greenall
17. Travel's Place in the Environment - Terry Hill
18. Conclusion: What have we learnt? - Kris Beuret and Matthew Niblett