Many thanks to the delegates that visited us in person for a day of updates and discussion on another year of CTS research. For the first time the symposium was also a hybrid event, allowing participants from the community of researchers and practitioners in Ukraine to join us online. Our Visiting Fellow, Dmytro Roslavtsev (National University of Urban Economy in Kharkiv), was instrumental in making this happen and we are incredibly grateful to the Ukrainian delegates who took the time to join us and for contributed their perspectives on working in what is, suffice to say, a very different and more challenging context to ours.
This blog will give a flavour of the day’s happenings and links to some of the presentations for future reference.
Morning Sessions
The day started with a welcome and scene-setting from CTS Director Professor Graham Parkhurst and our School’s Director of Research and Enterprise Professor Enda Hayes. The morning’s plenary came from Steve Gooding, Director of the RAC Foundation and Visiting Professor at CTS. His talk focused on the UK’s history of integrated transport strategy in light of the Department for Transport’s recent publication of Better Connected. Comparing the last major attempt at creating an integrated transport strategy under New Labour, Steve’s talk highlighted the more pragmatic approach put forward by Better Connected. A key lesson from these previous attempts is that a strategy, no matter how sensible, is only as good as the political will to implement it and the circumstances into which they emerge.
Steve’s presentation was based on a forthcoming paper co-written with Professor Glenn Lyons, who also facilitated the morning’s panel discussion. Jon Parker (Jon Parker Consultancy and Visiting Professor at CTS), Helen Bowkett (Arcadis and Visiting Professor at CTS), Charlene Rohr (Mott MacDonald), Professor Daniela Paddeu (UWE/CTS) were invited to consider whether vision-led planning approaches (including Triple Access Planning) are diffusing into wider transport planning practice or remain marginal while predict-and-provide prevails. Among the panel there was broad agreement that vision-led planning was both necessary and increasingly relevant in a time of greater uncertainty. However, questions were raised around whether predict-and-provide was ever as paradigmatic as the framing suggested, and relatedly, whether there was a risk that the concept of vision-led planning could be diluted as greater adoption is accepted. Slides from Glenn’s introduction to the panel discussion, written with Charlene Rohr and Anna Rothnie are available here.
Closing out the first session was the announcement of the winner of our CIHT-sponsored MSc dissertation prize. This year the prize was awarded to Anika Tahsin for the project titled ‘Understanding Public Perception of Drone Delivery Services for users in the UK’, which received high-praised from Dr. Ben Clark who presented her with the official certificate.
Anika also presented her work in one of two parallel sessions focused on recent UWE research which closed out the morning. Her work formed part of the session on Governing the Just Transition which also featured presentations from Professor Graham Parkhurst and Professor Daniela Paddeu. Anika’s research highlighted people’s concerns around drone noise and made the case that public perceptions of drone deliveries should form a core component of the governance of this new technology. Daniela’s work focused on the workforce challenges associated with the decarbonisation of heavy freight and bus transport. Driver shortages and skills gaps must also be addressed alongside technological innovation to ensure an equitable transition. Finally, Graham’s presentation considered the transition to electric cars. Key challenges here include the risk that unequal access to affordable charging infrastructure and future road user taxation may dampen public support for these technologies. See Graham’s slides here, and Daniela’s slides here.
The other parallel session focused on another core pillar of CTS’s research activities, Promoting sustainable transport planning. Presentations from Dr Jonathan Flower, Dr Ben Clark, and Dr Asa Thomas all drew on insights from evaluations and analyses of a range of local initiatives and interventions to consider the challenges of achieving significant behavioural changes. Jonathan’s presentation was a close look at active travel infrastructure, including pedestrian crossings and footways, exploring how network gaps or inappropriate provision can limit widespread access. Ben and Asa both presented on findings from recent evaluation studies conducted by CTS for local authority partners, namely Bristol City Council’s active travel offers scheme and Bath and Northeast Somerset’s active travel social prescribing pilot. Common insights from these projects centred around the tensions between supporting existing sustainable mobility or encouraging physical activity and the wider and more challenging aim of achieving lasting behaviour change for everyday mobility. See Ben’s slides here.
Afternoon Sessions
After lunch, and the optional Net Walks around campus, we all split off into two groups for the afternoon’s workshops. One of our past Visiting Scholars Mara Ladu (University of Cagliari, Italy) led a workshop (supported by Prof Daniela Paddeu, Prof Justin Spinney, and Dmytro Roslavtsev and others) unpicking the differing conceptions of accessibility currently in use and what this means for sustainable development planning. The breakout groups, including an online group from Ukraine, brainstormed different ways to think about accessibility beyond spatial access to goods and services. The Ukrainian delegates emphasised the challenges of providing mobility to a post-conflict population, especially where physical disability from combat will present barriers to access for many.
The other major workshop looked at recent work on the transport issues facing workers in Bristol’s Night-Time Economy. This area has been traditionally underserved by the transport system relative to its contribution to local economies. These mobility deficits have been the subject of a project undertaken by Graham Parkhurst, Eda Beyazit and Rob Rivera Fernandez for Bristol City Council. The workshop, also supported by Mel Cairns, began with a presentation summarising the project’s findings. Delegates then joined one of three guided discussion groups which each interrogated one of the proposed ‘priority actions’ to enhance mobility for the NTE: better coordination of demand and supply; better data for inclusive planning of night-time travel; and the role of new transport service offers.
Towards the end of the afternoon, we all reconvened in main lecture theatre to hear from Paul Hammond (Jacobs and Visiting Professor at CTS) for his keynote lecture reflecting on his work supporting transport-oriented development in Ukraine. Alongside his personal reflections on working in this context, Paul made the case that adopting TOD principles in post-war reconstruction will help catalyse wider economic development and international investment. After a round of questions, Graham provided some final words to wrap up the day’s activities, and we finished off will a well-earned drinks reception in the atrium of the Bristol Business School.
Thanks again to all who contributed or attended for the day (whether online or in person). We look forward to welcoming you back to CTS next summer. If you weren’t able to make it, please do consider attending next year!
In the meantime, keep an eye on the CTS LinkedIn Group for updates.