Architect turned social scientist Dr Mayer Hillman, who spent more than half a century researching and seeking to influence the shape of public policy in transport, has died aged 94. His interests spanned road safety, urban planning, energy conservation, health promotion and, most vehemently, the implications of climate change.
Born in 1931, and having practiced as an architect, he “retired” from that profession in 1967, switching his attention by completing a doctoral thesis on the links between transport, planning and environmental issues in 1970 at the University of Edinburgh.
That same year he joined the Policy Studies Institute (formerly PEP – Political and Economic Planning) and was head of its Environment and Quality of Life Research Programme until 1992. He later became Senior Fellow Emeritus at the PSI.
Many of his concerns and studies about transport policy and climate change were proven accurate with the passage of time.
Hillman first proposed personal carbon rationing in 1990, citing it as the only realistic way by which the world’s population could prevent catastrophic climate change. He wrote more than 50 books on the subjects of his research.
Hillman was on part-time secondment to the Transport Research Laboratory (formerly TRRL) from 1973 to 1976 and was a visiting lecturer at the National Police College from 1974 to 1981. He was a member of the Independent Transport Commission, and of the RTPI, ICE and RICS Working Group on Planning and the Future.
He co-authored a 1990 study, One False Move, which equated the reduction in child casualties on British roads with their loss of freedom because of the increase in traffic, with repercussions for child health.
Several of his innovations, like raised-level intersections to slow traffic, were later adopted in policy and planning.
He was a member of many advisory groups and working parties on various aspects of public policy, including those of the National Consumer Council, Friends of the Earth and Transport 2000.
Hillman, who was a regular contributor to LTT’s letters page and also submitted viewpoints, examined the relationship between urban land use and transport policy; the role of public transport; the wide-ranging consequences of the rise in the ownership, use and dependence on cars; and the increases in distances travelled by air.
He was a lifelong cyclist and consistently argued for walking and cycling to be more prominent considerations within transport policy. Hillman said that successive governments failed to implement the policies required to achieve global zero carbon emissions. His vocal and passionate interventions at transport conferences on the climate theme became legendary.
Dr Robert Davis, Chair, Road Danger Reduction Forum, described Mayer Hillman as a “key figure in what is now called Sustainable Transport policy for over half a century”.
Hillman campaigned “relentlessly for walking and cycling to be seen as proper forms of transport to be supported for health and environmental policy reasons”, said Davis.
“He passionately supported the Road Danger Reduction agenda, calling for road danger to be cut at source. Along with John Adams and John Whitelegg, he highlighted the fall in children’s independent mobility and opposed ‘hypermobility’ projects.
“He invented the concept of ‘hurry sickness’ and carried out numerous studies for the Policy Studies Institute on issues from speeding to daytime light savings from clock setting changes.
“In his later years he concentrated on climate change where he took a radical (and pessimistic) position. ‘Active Travel’ is an area of work that would not now exist if it had not been for him and his collaborators.
“Above all, he was both highly principled and committed to rigorous scientific work: an example to us all.”
