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Dr Rachel Aldred has won an award for her academic contribution to cycling, winning £10,000. The University of Westminster researcher has helped to "shift policy mindset on cycling", records the Celebrating Impact Prize awarded by the Economic and Social Research Council.
Dr. Aldred has "pioneered research into the barriers to cycling and how to overcome them" and has "helped transform the policy mindset on cycling and pave the way for increased cycling participation in the future."
Accepting the award, Dr. Aldred, Senior Lecturer in Transport at the University of Westminster, said: “Without a fundamental shift in policy thinking, levels of cycling are likely to remain low. What we need is to move away from seeing cycling as an individual activity, to be promoted by training and education, to seeing cycling as part of the transport system that needs to be enabled by infrastructural, political and cultural supports.
A statement from ESRC said that Dr. Aldred believes that "getting people to cycle is not just about having the right infrastructure but also about changing cycling cultures and removing cycling stigma."
Isabel Dedring, London’s former Deputy Mayor for Transport, said: “Dr Aldred’s research has influenced the change in mindsets that we have seen over these past five years in relation to cycling and cycling policy.”
Now in its fourth year, the ESRC Celebrating Impact Prize recognises and rewards the successes of ESRC-funded researchers who have achieved, or are currently achieving, outstanding economic and societal impacts.
The ESRC is an independent organisation, established by Royal Charter in 1965, and funded mainly by the Government.
