Dr Suzy Charman is a leading expert on the Safe System with 20 years of experience. Before joining RSF Suzy was head of international road safety at TRL, and before that she was responsible for overseeing the establishment of the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP).

What you’ll learn:

• Understanding Road Risk

• The Role of Connected Vehicle Data in the Evolution of Safety Models

• The Importance of Considering the Business Case for Road Safety

• The Role of Human Error in Road Safety

Currently serving as a strategic advisor, my expertise in transportation, land use, and the environment guides public, private, and not-for-profit organizations towards innovative and sustainable solutions. With a vision anchored in economic vitality, environmental stewardship, and access to opportunity, my efforts are modeled on successes like the Innovative DOT initiative, the National Complete Streets Coalition, the Portland Streetcar and the Glenwood Springs to Aspen Bus Rapid Transit system, setting benchmarks for mobility nationwide.

As the Secretary of Transportation at the Washington State Department of Transportation from 2016 to 2025, my leadership was defined by a commitment to resilience, sustainability, and teamwork, overseeing a $5 billion annual budget and a team of 7,600.

What you’ll learn:

• The importance of maintenance over expansion – Investing in existing infrastructure ensures reliability and public trust

• The hidden costs of congestion vs. crashes – While congestion is a well-known problem, crashes cost the economy significantly more, yet receive less funding and attention.

• Multimodal planning and transit-oriented development – Cities benefit from shifting away from car-centric development toward integrated land-use and transportation strategies that prioritise active travel modes

• Data-driven decision-making in transport – Effective advocacy requires facts that resonate with decision-makers and the public.

Dr Hafez Alavi is a passionate advocate for road safety and sustainable mobility, dedicated to shaping an inclusive future where every journey is safe and sustainable. With over 23 years of experience spanning public and private sectors, academia, and injury prevention research, he has played a pivotal role in advancing road safety strategies at both national and international levels. Hafez was a key contributor to the Victorian Government’s Towards Zero Strategy.

What you’ll learn:

• The critical role that speed plays in causing traffic crashes and their severity.

• Why road safety should be integrated early into planning and policy

• The human impacts behind road crash statistics

• The importance of political accountability, cultural shifts, and public education in improving road safety.

Darcy Bullock is the Lyles Family Professor of Civil and Construction Engineering at Purdue University and serves as the director of the Joint Transportation Research Program (JTRP). Bullock is a Registered Professional Engineer in Indiana and has over 30 years of experience working closely with academia, transportation agencies, and private sector partners in the area of transportation systems and big data analytics.

What you’ll learn

• Do our vehicles know more about our road networks than we do?

• How has connected vehicle data changed ‘how we do business' across transportation planning and road network management?

• What insights can traffic heat maps reveal about congestion, road closures, and incidents?

• At what point does connected vehicle data penetration become sufficient for making reliable transportation decisions?

• What are the biggest opportunities for transportation agencies to work smarter, not harder, using connected vehicle data?

This episode is in partnership with the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies (ITLS) Board of Advice

Xiaolin Gong is a recent PhD graduate from the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies (ITLS). Her research focuses on transport modelling, specifically developing a novel macroscopic transport model to improve the efficiency of transport networks.

What you’ll learn:

This episode is in partnership with the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies (ITLS) Board of Advice

Jake Whitehead is currently CEO of the mobility-as-a-service provider, ODIN PASS, and the Chief Scientist at the Electric Vehicle Council of Australia. Jake has led several publicly-funded transport research projects investigating future mobility trends, including consumer preferences towards shared, automated and electric vehicles. He was also a Lead Author for the Transport Chapter AR6 at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is as Adjunct Professor at ITLS, and is also a member of the International Electric Vehicle Policy Council, at the University of California, Davis.

What you’ll learn

This episode is created in partnership with the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies

Simon started as the Chief Transport Planner in Transport for NSW in 2022. In this role he is responsible for the Strategic Planning Branch that sets the future direction for Transport in NSW. Simon has worked for over 20 years in the NSW Government, primarily in Transport, working in policy and planning roles in freight, regional and urban transport roles as well as in infrastructure strategy as an Executive Director at Infrastructure NSW.

What you’ll learn:

Wendy Nash moved to Caboolture on the northern outskirts of Brisbane over 2 years ago. During her first week, she waited an hour to get the bus from home to the nearest big shopping centre which took 45 mins - it's only 10 mins by car. What's it like for people with disabilities getting to a medical appointment, teens working part time and seniors meeting friends?

What you'll learn:

Sean is a co-founder of Zephr.xyz Inc. with a background in computational simulation and modeling for geospatial phenomena. Previously he was an Engineering Manager at Snap working on mapping and visual positioning systems (VPS). Before Snap he was the CEO of Pixel8earth a crowdsourced VPS system for AR.

What you’ll learn:

This interview is part of a special collaboration between Byte Size and the Institute of Transport and Logistic Studies (ITLS) Board of Advice from the University of Sydney.

Julie leads the Transport Strategy team in Transport for NSW who deliver better community outcomes through collaboratively creating strategies and tools informed by robust evidence that anticipate future challenges and opportunities. She has over 30 years’ experience in the transport sector and a strong personal interest in transport disadvantage.

What you’ll learn