Professor John Adams

From the late 1960s until his retirement in 2001, research and teaching at the UCL Department of Geography were enlivened by the presence of Professor John Adams, whose death was announced on 26th February. 

John’s strengths lay in his scepticism about received wisdom, especially on the benefits and environmental implications of growing human mobility and the assumptions underlying traffic modelling, including cost-benefit and risk analysis. 

His critical stance, however, was made engaging by a famously sharp wit, a trait shown when he extended the logic of airport location models by showing how the proposed Third London Airport should ideally be place in Hyde Park!

He also, jokingly, suggested that safety for all, including pedestrians and drivers, would best be favoured by fitting deadly spikes in the centre of every car steering wheel. 

Both ‘proposals’ made the national press, including a much-reproduced cartoon in the Evening Standard.

John was persuasively engaged in wide public debate about attitudes to transports and environmental planning. 

As his website proclaims, his work sought to, ‘understand these attitudes and the reasons for their persistence, in the hope of transforming shouting matches into more constructive dialogues.’

Further information

• Learn more about John’s approaches and achievements on his Wikipedia page
• Visit John's personal website
• Read more on his Emeritus Staff Profile page.