Research
Research and expertise
My research interests focus on transport strategy. Specifically, I am interested about how a transport system impacted by governance, policy and broader contextual factors might change, and about how providers and Government might best respond. Particular areas of expertise include travel plans, car parking, road-based public transport systems, and transport systems at the macro level. Recently, I have developed these integrative threads to consider how emergent societal and technological transformations, such as ageing populations, driverless cars and Covid-19 may affect the future design and performance of transport systems.
Summary of expertise
During my time at Loughborough I have led 23 and participated in 30 research projects altogether valued at more than £2.6m for clients including the European Commission, the UK Government, the New Zealand Government, several UK local authorities, several transport operators, Innovate UK and the EPSRC. My current research/enterprise portfolio is worth just over £260,000.
In terms of outputs, over my career I have supervised 16 PhD students and 1 MPhil student to completion. My research publications amount to 2 research monographs; more than 70 academic journal articles; over 50 articles in professional journals; and 15 book chapters; along with the presentation of more than 120 conference papers. My work was submitted for the most recent Research Excellence Framework and its predecessor exercises by my School.
I have also been appointed to various policy influencing positions. Thus, I have recently explored Mobility as a Service and Taxi futures for the Government Office for Science Foresight Programme on Future Mobility, and was formerly the Strategy Director in the New Zealand Ministry of Transport involved in predicting public transport futures to generate recommendations for national policy. I was also previously the UK representative to the European Platform of Mobility Management, which influences EU policy makers as to the role of sustainable transport on behalf of Member States.
Current research projects
- CI for Shaping Loughborough – Using digital platforms to enhance community engagement in design coding to improve outcomes for new development in Loughborough, Urban Data Visualisation – The Town Observatory Loughborough, Seedcorn Funding, 2024-2025..
- PI for Exploring future roles for Community Transport Schemes, PhD Studentship with the Community Transport Association, 2024-2027.
Recently completed research projects
- PI for NEW SURFACES (Novel Engineering Ways to Soften Urban Roads, Footways And Cars to Enhance Safety) Industry Needs and Technical Feasibility Study, Loughborough University Sport, Health and Wellbeing Strategic Theme Seedcorn Funding, 2024.
- PI for Bus MONITOR (Measuring Operationally Needed Information Through Onboard Resources), Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Vectare, 2022-2024.
- PI for Transport Assessment Carbon Reporting, Innovate UK Accelerated Knowledge Transfer Partnership with The Oval Partnership, 2022-2023.
- PI for Evaluating small-scale rail investment decisions in relation to passenger satisfaction, PhD project, CASE Award, EPSRC and Govia Thameslink Railway. 2016 – 2019.
- PI for COUNTER (Computing train Occupants Using Novel sensing Techniques to Enhance Rail services), Innovate UK, 2018-2019.
- PI for Public Transport 2045, New Zealand Ministry of Transport. 2015 – 2017.
- PI for Colourful Crossings, Transport for London and Better Bankside BID. 2015 – 2017.
- PI for Collaborative highway management to optimise best value, EPSRC Centre for Collaborative Engineering and Derby City Council. 2013 – 2017.
Current PhD students
- Rashid M M – Bangladeshi Government Scholarship FT PhD Studentship. Smart highways in Less Developed Countries. Registered January 2020. Now at Imperial College London.
- Alamah P – Self funded FT PhD Studentship. Smart supply chains. Registered October 2020.
- Ghulman M – Saudi Government Scholarship FT PhD Studentship, Bus passenger satisfaction and bus service quality, Registered January 2022.
- Otieno E – LU SABCE funded FT PhD Studentship investigating digital twins and road infrastructure. Registered October 2022.
- Dhlamini S – WATER WISER FT PhD Studentship. Governance and innovation in sanitation. Registered July 2023.
- Lyu L – China Scholarship Council Scholarship FT PhD Studentship. Modelling demand responsive highways systems. Registered October 2023.
- Dawkins D – CTA funded FT PhD Studentship. Community Transport potential for the UK. Registered July 2024.