J. J. Leeming
John Joseph Leeming | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1899 |
| Died | 1981 |
| Nationality | British |
| Engineering career | |
| Discipline | civil engineer; traffic engineer |
| Employer(s) | Oxfordshire County Council1924–46; Dorset County Council1946–64 |
| Projects | Abingdon Bridgerebuilding |
| Significant advance | accident analysispioneer |
John Joseph Leeming,(1899 – 1981),BSc,ACGI,FICE,MI Struct E,MI Mun E,F Inst HE,was a Britishcivil engineerandtraffic engineer.He forwarded controversial ideas for the causes of, and remedies for, road traffic accidents (RTAs), including the notion that drivers should not always be assumed to be at fault.
Biography
[edit]
Leeming was born in 1899 and served in the First World War. From 1924 he worked in various road engineering capacities forOxfordshire County Council,latterly as deputy county surveyor until he left forDorsetin 1946.[1]Leeming supervised the rebuilding of some historic bridges in Oxfordshire and what was thenBerkshire,includingAbingdon Bridgein 1927,[2]Cropredy Bridgein 1937[3]andShilton Bridgein 1938.[4]He wrote or co-wrote articles about these bridges that were published in theOxford Architectural and Historical Society's journalOxoniensia.
In 1946 Leeming moved to work forDorset County Councilascounty surveyor,where he stayed until his retirement in 1964.[1]In this period he pioneered roadaccident investigation.[5]In 1969 his bookRoad Accidents: prevent or punish?was published. A 2007 review of a reprint of the book described it as controversial, and as being written by an "enlightened highways expert".[6]
TheNational Motor MuseumatBeaulieu, Hampshireholds an archive of Leeming's papers covering the period 1959–72.[5]
Road traffic accident causes
[edit]InRoad Accidents: prevent or punish?Leeming set out his ideas and views of the causes of road traffic casualties (RTCs), and of how best they can be tackled. The book is described as attacking the beginnings of theblame culture,with Leeming convinced that RTCs could be reduced by usingroad engineeringmethodsbased on evidencederived from the scientific analysis of the causes of RTAs, and that drivers were not the main cause of many road safety problems.[6]
Other observations
[edit]Induced demand
[edit]Leeming described the phenomenon ofinduced demand,with respect to road traffic volumes:[1]
Motorways and bypasses generate traffic, that is, produce extra traffic, partly by inducing people to travel who would not otherwise have done so by making the new route more convenient than the old, partly by people who go out of their direct route to enjoy the greater convenience of the new road, and partly by people who use the towns bypassed because they are more convenient for shopping and visits when through traffic has been removed.
Risk compensation
[edit]Therisk compensationprinciple, upon whichHans Monderman's counter-intuitiveshared spaceconcept is founded, was described by Leeming:[1]
It can safely be said that places which look dangerous do not have accidents, or very few. They happen at places which do not look dangerous. The reason for this is simple. The motorist is as intelligent as the ‘local people’. If a place looks dangerous, he can see that it is so, he takes care and there are no accidents.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^abcdLeeming 2007[page needed]
- ^Leeming & Salter 1937,p. 137.
- ^Toynbee & Leeming 1938,p. 123.
- ^Leeming 1940,p. 170.
- ^ab"Leeming".Access to archives.The National Archives.Retrieved27 October2013.
- ^ab"Finger points at the blame culture".icNewcastle. 7 December 2007.Retrieved4 February2008.
Works
[edit]- Leeming, J.J. (1940)."Shilton Bridge"(PDF).Oxoniensia.V.Oxford Architectural and Historical Society:170.Retrieved27 October2013.
- Leeming, J.J. (1951).Road curvature and superelevation.London: Contractors' Record and Municipal Engineering.
- Leeming, J.J. (1963).Statistical Methods for Engineers.Glasgow and London:Blackie and Son.
- Leeming, J.J. (2007) [1969].Road Accidents: prevent or punish?.Oswestry (reprint) and London (original): Quinta Press (reprint),Cassell(original).ISBN978-1-897856-29-1.SBN 304932132.
- Leeming, J.J.; Salter, H.E. (1937)."Burford Bridge, Abingdon"(PDF).Oxoniensia.II.Oxford Architectural and Historical Society:134–140.Retrieved27 October2013.
- Toynbee, M.R.; Leeming, J.J. (1938)."Cropredy Bridge"(PDF).Oxoniensia.III.Oxford Architectural and Historical Society:123–138.Retrieved27 October2013.