A one year fellowship for the Foundation for Integrated Transport
Most reports and research about local transport is about urban centres.
Yet most people don’t live in urban centres – they live in suburbs.
Therefore there is no planning and thinking about the suburbs – there is no decarbonisation.
We also can’t decarbonise through the siloing of policy and practice. We need to realise synergies (and at scale) between transport, energy and the built environment. More than this, given that the climate is becoming more extreme, at the same time we need to improve the resilience of the suburbs.
We won’t be successful without the consent of the suburbs – given this is where the backlash against decarbonisation usually comes from. The suburbs therefore need to be the place where a just transition is born.
Through research, analysis and cross-sectoral discourse this project will explore the state of the debate on the decarbonisation of transport, energy and the built environment – providing both a policy frame for thinking about the future; unearthing and disseminating inspiring good practice and facilitating greater networking; and promoting the cross-fertilisation of ideas between the different sectors involved in decarbonising the suburbs.
There is also read across to the University of Leeds Integrated Transport Studies £7.8 million INFUZE (‘Inspiring Futures for Zero Carbon Mobility’) project which will ask communities across the city of Leeds to help design bespoke mobility solutions, which could include car clubs, responsive taxi-style bus services and shared bicycle and scooter schemes. The aim is to see how best to reduce the need for car ownership.
This project will play a discovery role for INFUZE as I am a visiting senior research fellow at Leeds ITS and on the steering group for the INFUZE project.
So, between October 2024 and 2025 I will be speaking to key thinkers and organisations in this field as well as going to see for myself good things on the ground in the UK and Europe.
I’m particularly interested in the cutting edge and/or implementation at scale such as the implementation of suburban mobility hubs, mobility as a service as well as the role of demand responsive transport.
Further background for the project…
- Summary on the Foundation for Integrated Transport website
- ‘The good life – the role of transport in shaping a new and sustainable future for suburbs’ – a report on suburbs I initiated and oversaw when I was at the Urban Transport Group
- ‘Making the Connections on climate’ – a report on working across transport, energy and the built environment which I initiated and oversaw when I was at the Urban Transport Group
- ‘This is the sound of the suburbs’ – a blog post from 2018
More content will be added to the site over the course of the project.