A founding director of the UK research company Trend Tracker Ltd. Toby Procter has been an automotive industry analyst and researcher since the mid-1980s. Formerly editor of industry newsletters and websites for Sewells Information & Research, Automotive World, EMAP Automotive and R.L. Polk, he has written extensively on the automotive supply chain, environmental transport and energy issues, vehicle/aftermarket distribution channels, marketing, and trade issues.
He contributes to Trend Tracker client research programmes and the company’s published market studies. Toby collaborated with Dr. Peter O’Brien in researching a 2005 report for the International Labour Organization’s sectoral activities programme, “Automotive industry trends affecting component suppliers”.
Abstract:
Toby Procter addressed the scope for reducing the urban space taken by the car-bound commuter. 2007 was the first year that the majority of the globe’s population was living in cities, it may be that urban congestion and scarce parking spaces will soon have a greater effect on motorists than the cost of their cars.
However, the scope for designing less private transport-intensive infrastructures in Britain is severely limited by the pervasive influence the car has already wielded on the built environment in the past century. Smaller, less emissions-intensive cars do not promise much reduction in the negative effects of car use. A range of potential complementary solutions are available, from car prohibition via incentives for two-wheelers to more intelligent use of roads by collective transport. But to make a difference, planners (coterminous with politicians) will need to price transport choices strategically, based on their true external costs.
