The World Bank might not be the first organisation that active travel advocates think of as an important potential partner. But with billions of dollars at their disposal they’ve already been enabling some amazing projects around the world, in part through the work of the highly motivated expert who was our inspiring guest this month.

Sam Johnson is a Sustainable Transport Specialist with the World Bank and Visiting Researcher at the Technical University of Eindhoven, focusing on innovation and urban mobility transitions. He has worked in transport infrastructure advisory for the World Bank with many national governments over the last eight years.

Sam co-leads the World Bank’s Active Mobility Community of Practitioners and is a strong advocate for people-centric urban design and reducing car dependency to foster more vibrant, equitable, affordable, healthy, and green cities.

On UN Sustainable Transport Day (November 26, 2025), he plans to release an independent, ambitious publication arguing why and how to invest up to 10% of Government road budgets in Livable Streets in all 193 UN member states by the end of the United Nations Decade of Sustainable Transport (2026-2035). The work is tentatively titled ”Investing 10% of Road Budgets in Livable Streets for 2035.

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Sam packed a huge amount of exciting information into his chat with us, often about places and projects that most of us will have been until now completely unaware of.

If any of these topics interest you, below are a series of links through which you can find more information.

Here is a link to the cyclingMAX tool that the World bank Group developed in conjunction with the ITDP (Institute for Transportation & Development Policy) and the GFDT (Global Facility to Decarbonise Transport)

On 3rd June World Bank Group staff members created a “human bicycle” to celebrate World Bicycle Day. Here’s a link to a video and post by Nicolas Peltier, Global Director Transport, World Bank.

During our interview with Sam, he spoke about progress being made with cycling and active travel plans in some unexpected cities around the world.

Here are links that he kindly supplied to four cities and countries that he mentioned.

• Abu Dhabi
• Singapore
• Addis Ababa
• Santiago

We’ll also include a link to a detailed power point presentation that Sam gave to the Velo-city 2025 conference in Gdansk, Poland. It includes excellent photos, charts and maps about Tianjin’s vision to transform their city into a vibrant, liveable, active travel friendly destination.

What’s Up

Phil mentions two major projects underway in Sydney, Australia.

Here are photos of the opening day of the new Oxford St protected cycle lane and Sydney and the new ramp currently under construction at the Sydney Harbour Bridge, including one showing the five flights of stairs that it will be replacing.

Irene mentions ITS Australia's announcement of world-leading research by a multi-party government led team which explored how to better leverage existing data and technology to deliver safer, faster and more efficient road travel, shaping a future of seamless mobility. By incorporating See.Sense data in the project they found that cyclist movement and braking data revealed hidden safety risks and flow inefficiencies, providing actionable insights for intersection and infrastructure design.

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Welcome to a completely different format for this month’s Squeaky Wheel Podcast.

At the Velo-city conference 2025 in Gdansk, Poland, held from 10th-13th June 2025, Phil recorded a “vox pops”. He asked the same four questions in the same order to seven different conference presenters, who came from a wide range of locations around the world.

Unfortunately, the sound quality of the recording of one of the guests was too poor to use, so you will only see six guests below. Apologies to Murat Suyabatmaz, Co-founder and Director of the Turkish Cyclists Association – hopefully we can chat at a future Velo-city!

Our guests in order of appearance are:

Aangi Shah
Senior Associate, Institute of Transportation and Development Policy, Mumbai, India

Amanda Ngabirano
Chairperson, The National Physical Planning Board, Kampala, Uganda

Chris Bruntlett
International Relations Manager – Dutch Cycling Embassy, Utrecht, Netherlands

Karen Vancluysen
Secretary General, Polis (Cities and Regions for Transport Innovation), Brussels, Belgium.

Philippe Crist
Senior Advisor at the International Transport Forum (ITF) and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), but emphasising that he was speaking in a personal capacity. From Paris, France via Nashville Tennessee.

Elanor McMahon
Former cabinet minister, CEO & Founder of Share the Road, Ontario, Canada.

The four questions asked for their personal perspectives on what the scene was like in their home city- the biggest recent wins, main challenges and their hopes for the future.

You’ll hear a lot of vision, passion and a unique global snapshot.

Enjoy!

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In this episode we’re talking with leading safety expert, Dr Havez Alavi. Hafez has a passion for making our lives safer when we travel.

Havez was born and raised in Iran.

We start by asking him about key events during the first half of his life that helped to inspire his passion for road safety.

Having already completed a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering in Iran, followed by a masters in transport engineering and planning, Hafez then migrated to Australia and did a PhD in road safety and injury prevention at Monash University.

Based in Melbourne, Monash’s Accident Research Centre is the largest and most respected of its type in Australia.

After a distinguished career spanning state, federal and international government funded authorities, Hafez created his own consulting firm in 2020 which he continues to run today.

You might think that road safety research is a dry and dull topic for conversation, but as you’ll soon hear, Hafez has an irrepressible enthusiasm for life and his passion about this topic is contagious!

Here are some links to a range of presentations Hafez has previously posted on LinkedIn:

10 Common Myths About Speed & Speeding.

Hafez collaborated with colleagues to produce this humorous 10 point article and an excellent four minute video explaining the dangers of speeding.

How a Local Council in the US Eradicated Road deaths? Hoboken, New Jersey

Seven strategy tips after Hafez, who is a prolific traveller, visited Hoboken.

How to Provide a Safe System for Valuable Road Users, i.e. Pedestrians, Cyclist and Micrombility Users:

A LinkedIn post and video produced by Hafez based upon the Kinetic Energy Management Model developed at Monash University Accident Research Centre.

How to Organise Our Roads and Streets with Safety of Everyone in Mind

A graphic explainer from Hafez about how street hierarchy should be organised and designed.

Community’s Reaction to 30km/h Zones in Melbourne, Australia

Spelling out the proven benefits of 30 kph zones for all local streets.

How to Provide a Safe System for E-Scooter Riders

A five point plan, written by Hafez, for achieving safer e-scooter riding.

How to Look at Different Infrastructure from a Safe System Perspective. This time a Dutch-style Roundabout

A two minute video produced by Hafez that explains the key design features needed to make a roundabout safer, not just for people driving, but also cycling and walking.

Hafez also briefly refers to CASA, this is the Centre for Automotive Safety Research, which is based in the University of Adelaide, South Australia.

What’s Up

Both Irene and Phil refer to the 2025 Velo-city conference in Gdansk, Poland which will have finished just before this podcast goes live, at which See.sense will be presenting and Phil will be attending and recording Vox Pop’s for next month’s podcast.

Irene also gave a sneak preview of a new project they’ll be doing with Tier Dott in Helsinki Finland. You can see ongoing See.sense news announcements here.

Irene will also be speaking at the AITPM Conference in September in Adelaide.

Phil mentioned that in addition to Velo-city he’ll be attending Micromobility Europe in Brussels and Eurobike in Frankfurt.

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Just over five years ago, Jill Warren left a very senior global corporate career and took a serious pay cut to follow her passion and become the CEO of one of the world's largest and most influential cycling advocacy organisations, the European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF)

She’s overseen some historic wins and helped to significantly grow the ECF, but now Jill has decided that it’s time to move on, having announced her intention to leave in July 2025.

In this interview we ask Jill to detail some of the ECF’s biggest wins, ongoing challenges and she encourages us all to “follow your why” when you’re looking to persuade others.

As you’ll soon discover if you listen to this interview, Jill is a highly articulate and insightful communicator. She’s also a true internationalist. An American who has lived many years in Europe and who could have given this interview just as well in Dutch, German or French. Luckily for us she was happy with English this time!

Relevant Links

Here is the ECF’s main website.

Here is a link to their most recent annual reports and other major reports.

If you fancy a European cycling holiday, this is their EuroVelo international cycling routes page.

Here is the European Declaration on Cycling made in 2024, that should unlock many policy and funding changes over future years.

In terms of funding for cycling infrastructure, Jill summarised:

🚲 €3.2 billon over seven years from the European Commission for direct funding of infrastructure to their 27 member countries.

🚲 €1.2 billion of co-funding with member countries.

🚲 €1.7 billion of one-off funding stemming from the Covid pandemic

🚲 Giving a sub total of €6.1 billion. This converts to US$7.2 billion, GB£5.12 billion and A$10.5 billion.

In addition to this is internal country, regional and city funding throughout Europe.

What’s Up?

Irene refers to this report, co-authored by Dr Merdith Glaser and Barbara Oliviera Soares about barriers to cycling in Amsterdam.

Irene also talks about a new UK travel survey showing very mixed and overall disappointing results for cycling activity trends there.

Phil refers to the City of Adelaide’s Integrated Transport Strategy, for which public comment closes on 25th May 2025.

Phil also talks about autonomous vehicles and in particular a report on Waypoint, the official blog of autonomous vehicle company Waymo, that reports up to 92% lower crash rates.

Finally, here’s an illustration of Gartner’s Hype Cycle that Phil refers to.

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Kirsty Kelly is quietly spoken, but in this interview she shares great insights with authority.

Since 2019, Kirsty has been CEO of the AITPM (Australian Institute of Traffic Planning in Management) which is Australia’s national association for transport professionals.

Under Kirsty’s leadership, the AITPM recently published a groundbreaking Policy Issues Paper: The Path to Net Zero: Decarbonising Australia’s Transport System. You can download the full paper here.

In this interview we discuss six highlights of the paper’s 22 recommendations. AITPM is a professional membership association, not a lobby group, but many of these recommendations are in alignment with the things that lobby groups are calling for.

Kirsty has taken a keen interest in sustainable urban development for many years. Prior to joining the AITPM she was CEO of the Planning Institute of Australia – the peak professional body for Australia’s urban and regional planning professionals.

Kirsty is a qualified urban planner who has practiced her profession both within local and state governments and in private practice. She’s also been a member of range of boards and advisory groups.

In the What’s Up? section that follows our interview with Kirsty, we mention two organisations:

Yarra Bug Podcast is an excellent long-running podcast that is also broadcast on 3CR community radio in Melbourne.

Camcycle is an advocacy organisation based in the small university city of Cambridge UK. Its dynamic CEO Roxanne De Beaux recently completed a speaking tour of Australia that we attended and we hope to have Roxy as a future guest on the Squeaky Wheel Podcast.

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Matt is a great communicator who not only gives many insightful comments, but does so with a smile on his face and a glint in his eye.

In our interview he covers a wide range of topics from the “D-Day Invasion” of cars that lands in every schoolground twice a day, through to “autobesity”, the need for better urban planning and more.

Matt is a leading transport researcher and renowned expert on urban planning who has spoken widely via local state and national media, plus given keynotes at many conferences

Until recently Matt was Deputy Director at Griffith University’s Cities Research Institute. He has secured five national research grants and led major transport collaborations with Brisbane City Council and Queensland’s Department of Transport and Main Roads.

Matt grew up in Melbourne and graduated with a Bachelor of Planning and Design (hons) for the University of Melbourne. He then moved to Brisbane in the late 1990’s where he did his PhD in Urban Planning at the University of Queensland.

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Sara Stace is a city shaper, urban transport innovator, and bold advocate for better streets. With a career spanning 30 years across federal, state, and local governments, as well as the private sector, she has played a key role in shaping cities, land use, and transport policies. She's also recently started her on consultancy, Vivendi Cities.

In this episode, Sara discusses Better Streets Australia's campaign leading up to the 2025 Australian federal election. The campaign presents five key policy ‘asks’ and has already built a coalition of 100+ companies and non-profits.

Sara refers to Infrastructure Australia mid-way through our conversation and mentions that she was not sure of the minimum project value threshold before projects must be assessed by them. It is $250 million.

🔗 More about the World Cycling Alliance: here.

🔗 More on Better Streets: here.

🔗 Follow Sara’s insights on LinkedIn: here: 

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For more than a quarter of a century, Kevin has been one of the world’s most senior and successful leaders of cycling advocacy organisations.

At the time we spoke to Kevin he was just about to retire after building Cycling Industries Europe (CIE) from small foundations into a large, successful, industry-funded peak advocacy group. 

Originally from the UK but having lived in Brussels for many years because it’s the headquarters of the European Union, Kevin and his team have just seen the European Declaration of Cycling. This is a landmark – highest level statement from which billions of Euros of funding and other benefits should flow. 

Kevin chose to take a huge pay cut and to end an international corporate career in major food and beverage companies in order to join Cycling UK, then years later the European Cyclists Federation, then his most recent role at CIE.

In this podcast Kevin shares many pearls of wisdom from his life’s experience both in the corporate and advocacy worlds, including tips for how to increase the effectiveness of  advocacy organisations of all sizes.

In the podcast, starting from the 10 minute 35 second point, Kevin mentions several financial amounts. All of these amounts he refers to are in Euros.

When the podcast was recorded the exchange rate was $1.62 Australian = €1 Euro. Therefore the amounts he refers to converted to Australian dollars are:

·      First European budget when Kevin joined: €600 million = A$972 million

·      Current budget spending €4.7 billion = A$7.56 billion.

·      Additional €2 billion from covid funding = A$3.24 billion.

 
Links:
The European Declaration on Cycling
Here is a link to the full declaration

Cycle Industries Europe 10 Point Manifesto.

Here is a link to Stephen Yarwood, former Lord Mayor of Adelaide, urban planner and “city futurist”, referred to by Kevin from when he visited Velo-city Adelaide.

In 2022 we also did an in person video interview of Kevin at Eurobike in Frankfurt, German. That interview has some overlap, but a lot of other material not covered in our podcast. You can watch that interview here.

CIE new CEO. At the time of writing these show notes the new CEO to become Kevin’s successor had not been announced, but here is a link to the CIE news page where the announcement will appear.

Finally there’s are recording of Kevin’s speech to a crowded room at the Cycle Industry Leaders Breakfast that was presented on 4th July 2024. This was recorded on a phone from a seat in the audience so the sound quality is not great, but the speech itself is worth listening 

Visit our Micromobility Report Podcast page to read the transcript of this episode and view more content.
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The Micromobility Report Podcast will entertain and inform you through conversations with change makers working in all aspects of micromobility across business, government, academia and advocacy.

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Phil Jones is a quietly spoken achiever who has played a significant role behind the scenes in some of the UK’s most important advancements in active travel. Phil lives near Birmingham, UK where he has worked as a Charted Civil Engineer for over 40 years.

In 2003 Phil founded PJA (Phil Jones associates) which has grown to over 130 staff today and is widely recognised as the leading expert consultancy regarding cycling and active transportation, particularly in relation to transport planning, engineering and placemaking. PJA is also actively involved in the Australian market, with some team members based here.

Phil was a key player in providing technical expertise for Wales’ groundbreaking national implementation of 20 mph (30 kph) speed limits.

He also serves on the board of Active Travel England and helped write the UK Department of Transport’s Manual for Streets.

Phil also serves on a number of other boards and advisory panels, including a significant amount of pro-bono work for advocacy groups.

Links:
PJA website
https://pja.co.uk/

 UK’s  Manual for Streets
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/manual-for-streets-2

Active Travel England website
https://www.activetravelengland.gov.uk/#

Active Travel Capability Ratings System
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-active-travel-capability-ratings

20 mph speed limit Wales, half million signature petition.
https://www.cambrian-news.co.uk/news/half-a-million-signed-petition-to-reverse-20mph-limits-where-cymru-is-at-seven-months-into-going-slow-680223

Agilisys report re positive impact of lower speed limits in Wales.
https://agilysis.co.uk/2023/09/25/wales20/

AITPM policy paper on decarbonising transport.
https://www.aitpm.com.au/policy/decarbonising-transport

Streets Ahead Podcast link to the Louise Hague M.P. interview
https://shows.acast.com/streets-ahead/episodes/louise-haigh-mp-secretary-of-state-for-transport

Visit our Micromobility Report Podcast page to read the transcript of this episode and view more content.
Our Micromobility Report website contains hundreds of micromobility articles that we’ve published since launching in 2020. Subscribe to our free bi-monthly newsletter!
The Micromobility Report Podcast will entertain and inform you through conversations with change makers working in all aspects of micromobility across business, government, academia and advocacy.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kylie Nixon is one of Australia’s most experienced active transport professionals, but also a mum who encourages her kids to walk and ride and of course, worries about their safety.

She graduated from the Queensland University of Technology with a Bachelor of Civil Engineering, followed by a Post Graduate Diploma in Urban Regional Planning.

Kylie is an Associate Principal for the global consultancy Arup, where she’s worked for 28 years. Her career with Arup has taking her around the world including living in London for about six years and working as part of the team planning infrastructure for the 2021 London Olympic Games.

She then returned to her hometown of Brisbane. With Brisbane having been awarded the 2032 Olympics, Kylie is hoping to apply some of the experience and lessons she learned from London to help make the most of Brisbane’s unique Olympic opportunity.

Visit our Micromobility Report Podcast page to read the transcript of this episode and view more content.
Our Micromobility Report website contains hundreds of micromobility articles that we’ve published since launching in 2020. Subscribe to our free bi-monthly newsletter!
The Micromobility Report Podcast will entertain and inform you through conversations with change makers working in all aspects of micromobility across business, government, academia and advocacy.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.