Dr Richard Kingston and Dr Bryan Marshall provide a critical view on smart cities and discuss some of its implications to rethink the role of citizen engagement in urban and transport planning. One of the core ideas behind Smart Cities is that the progress in information technologies enables urban and transport planning to be based on better informed decisions using data-driven solutions to urban problems. Yet our understanding of how the emerging role of technology and data in our cities will shape public participation in urban and transport planning is still limited. A well-discussed pitfall is that smart city technologies can give the false idea that urban planning becomes simply a matter of efficient administration, leading to technocratic approaches in decision-making. Despite the potential of such smart technologies to engender new forms of public participation and reduce information gaps between citizens and local governments, another pitfall is that not all social groups equally have the appropriate skills and resources to use these new technologies to influence planning decisions. In both cases, an uncritical adoption of smart cities can undermine participatory planning, either by withdrawing the political and participatory dimension of planning, or by exacerbating the social imbalance of who gets to be heard. This seminar will provide critical view on smart cities and discuss some of its implications to rethink the role of citizen engagement in urban and transport planning.

Martin Cassini, Equality Streets, gives a talk for the Transport Studies Unit Hilary Term Seminar Series.

Justin Spinney, University of Cardiff gives a talk for the Transport Studies Unit Hilary Term Seminar Series.

Tim Schwanen, Transport Studies Unit, University of Oxford gives a talk for the Transport Studies Unit Hilary Term Seminar Series.

Nigel Tipple, Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership gives a talk for the Transport Studies Unit Hilary Term Seminar Series.

Stuart Hay, Vice Chair of Transform Scotland and Scottish Director of Living Streets gives a talk for the Transport Studies Unit Hilary Term Seminar Series.

Jack Snape, Committee on Climate Change gives a talk for the Transport Studies Unit Hilary Term Seminar Series.

Anne Shaw, Birmingham City Council, gives a talk for the Transport Studies Unit Hilary Term Seminar Series.

Mark Major, The Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, European Commission, gives a talk for the Transport Studies Unit Hilary Term Seminar Series

Part of the Transitioning towards Electric Vehicles seminar series held at the Transport Studies Unit of the Oxford University Centre for the Environment. The electrification of the vehicle fleet involves a mass of actions to be taken by European, national and local government, a range of industries and consumers. It involves coordination between transport and energy policy if the benefits of decarbonisation are to be realised. The changes must also fit (and compete for resources) with broader policy imperatives such as the economy and health. This talk draws on results from a study of climate change governance which explored the roles and expectations of decision-makers in different organisations at different governance levels working upwards and outwards from four city regions in England and Scotland. It examines the balance between bottom up innovation and top-down steering and makes recommendations about the sorts of policy tools that may facilitate or accelerate uptake and the policy pre-conditions that must support these.