Transport Talks

In 2020 as covid took hold and one-third of the planets population went into lockdown, some cities across the world rapidly rolled-out provision for active travel – re-allocating road space to allow for people to walk and cycle - helping, for instance key workers get safety to hospitals…. and so on – but these changes sometimes incurred strong emotions from the public and became politically charged.

To explore the politics of active travel, the podcast features an interview with Councillor Julian Bell, the former Labour leader of Ealing Council for 11 years and Board member of Transport for London.

Today’s podcast comes at an interesting time, with COP26 having taken place last week and one of the major outcomes being the shift to electrification and with it being Road Safety Week and the theme this year is road safety heroes, CIHT thought it would be best to explore micromobility and how with TIER, a micro mobility company, how they are paving the way for Road Safety for E-Scooter.

Shalini Kumar, CIHT's policy adviser on Infrastructure interviews Georgia Heathman, Public Policy Manager for UK and Northern Ireland at TIER.

The podcast offers a fascinating insight and how the transition to e-scooters should incorporate education, infrastructure and vehicle design.

Glasgow will soon be host to the Conference of Parties – COP – 26 that starts in 10 days time as the world seeks to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system".

In the run up to this, just this week the government published their Net Zero Strategy, ‘Build Back Greener’. From a transport perspective this builds on the Department for Transport’s Transport Decarbonisation Plan launched this July.

To explore the podcast features an interview with Andrew Crudgington, CIHT’s Climate Change Associate. Previously he was Director of External Affairs and Head of Policy at the Institution of Civil Engineers. In his role at CIHT he is focused on supporting the profession to make a full contribution to delivering the UK’s Net Zero target.

There are a lot of things challenging the construction sector – supply chain issue, cost increases, covid, skills shortages…to name a few…But there is also a need for the construction sector to challenge itself. To create a more diverse and inclusive environment, to become more digitally enable, to reduce costs, be more efficient, and so on.
Could the solutions to the latter help solve the former?

This podcast features an interview with Carol Massay - Head of Construction at The Access Group.

Air pollution kills an estimated seven million people worldwide every year. World Health Organisation data shows that 9 out of 10 people breathe air that exceeds WHO guideline limits. And UK air pollution is 'linked to 40,000 early deaths a year'

The podcast is in support of the International Day of Clean Air for blue skies.

This episode explores the links between air pollution and transport.

Featuring on the podcast:
Andrea Lee - Campaigns and Policy Manager, Clean Air at Client Earth and Dr Suzanne Bartington from the University of Birmingham who is a Clinical Research Fellow in Environmental Health and Honorary Consultant in Public Health.

In 2013 Ella Addo-Kissi-Deborah died at the age of 9. In the Coroner - Philip Barlow’s - report he highlighted the medical cause of death as:

1a) Acute respiratory failure
1b) Severe asthma
1c) Air pollution exposure

Ella is the first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as the cause of death on their death certificate; the implications of this are explored in the podcast.

About the speakers:

Andrea is the Clean Air Campaigns and Policy Manager for environmental law organisation ClientEarth, which has successfully challenged the UK Government in court for failing to meet legal levels of air pollution. Andrea has worked in sustainability and sustainable transport projects for more than 15 years and has been part of the clean air team at ClientEarth since 2013.

At ClientEarth, she campaigns for a national network of Clean Air Zones to urgently reduce illegal levels of air pollution, alongside measures to provide help and support for people and businesses to quickly move on to cleaner forms of transport. She is also campaigning for new clean air legislation to better protect people’s health and ensure that the UK meets stronger World Health Organization guideline levels for air pollution by 2030 at the latest.

A strong believer in the importance of collaborating and bringing out different voices, Andrea also coordinates the Healthy Air Campaign. Together this national coalition of health, transport and environmental NGOs is advocating for more ambitious action at all levels of government to tackle air pollution.”

Dr Suzanne Bartington (Principal Investigator) is a Clinical Research Fellow in Environmental Health in the Institute of Applied Health Research and Honorary Consultant in Public Health at Public Health England. Her research portfolio extends across three core themes: (i) health and environmental impacts of ambient and indoor air pollution; (ii) sustainable transport mobilities specifically links between active travel infrastructure and health; (ii) environmental public policy formulation, implementation and evaluation. Suzanne has cross-cutting interests in development of new methods for monitoring, analysing and modelling impacts of air quality and application of mixed-methods approaches for public health intervention evaluation. Existing research includes studies funded by the Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC), National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Public Health Research and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

In this episode you will hear a recording from a CIHT webinar that was held back in January. This features an interview with Professor Nick Tyler from UCL.

So – why share this now – well the topic felt right to share

Given there was research published this week – commissioned by England’s Economic Heartland – that said the legacy of COVID-19 could transform capacity on the roads in its region, removing around one in nine peak hour vehicles.

And - as of Monday this week - most legal restrictions on social contact have been lifted in England –- it felt a good time to look at what the impact of covid has been, and might, be for the future of transport.

In 2019, the Secretary of State for Transport asked the department of transport to carry out an evidence stock-take to gather the facts on the safety of smart motorways and make recommendations.

So, the question is are smart motorways safe. This podcast features an interview with Kate Carpenter, Fellow of CIHT and an expert in road safety and then later plays clips from the Transport Select Committee hearing on smart motorways.

As the UN Decade of Action – started in 2010 has concluded – where are we heading next for efforts to reduce those being killed or fatally injured on road networks across the world?

Road safety is an urgent health and development matter. The number of deaths on the world’s roads remains unacceptably high, with an estimated 1.35 million people killed each year. In addition, as many as 50 million people are injured. Road traffic crashes are the eighth leading cause of death globally for people of all ages, and the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged 5–29 years. Road traffic deaths and injuries shatter lives and throw families into poverty. On average, they cost countries 3% of their GDP.

To explore this question, CIHT is joined by Matts Belin.

Dr. Matts-Åke Belin has over 30 years of experience within the Swedish government primarily worked with overall safety policies, strategies and collaboration with different stakeholders. In 2007 – 2009 Dr. Belin worked for World Health Organization in Geneva where he participated in the development of global road safety strategies and global partnerships.

Dr. Belin has also chaired the technical committee 3.1 on National Road Safety Policies and Programme, World Road Association and served as the international representative at the US Transportation Research Board (TRB) standing committee ANB 10 Transportation Safety Management. Dr. Belin is also the Swedish delegate in UN Road Safety Collaboration and he has served as national and international senior policy adviser and supported different Vision Zero initiatives around the world. Dr. Belin was also deeply involved in the preparation and organization of 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Stockholm February 2020. Currently, Dr. Belin is Director of Vision Zero Academy at the Swedish Transport Administration.

Parallel with his work within the Swedish government, Dr. Belin also has an academic carrier. Dr. Belin has a PhD in public health policy from Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. He is also affiliated with KTH Royal Technology Institute, in Stockholm, where he is serving as an adjunct professor on traffic safety. Dr. Belin is also responsible for a research program funded by the Swedish Transport Administration, in order to promote research in policy, implementation and innovation within the transport sector with focus on Vision Zero.

ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance and is shaping industry and investment. This is having an impact on the construction and infrastructure sector and the impacts of this are wide ranging.

This podcast features an interview with Mark Coates, Strategic Industry Engagements Director in the UK for Bentley Systems.

This podcast episode explores the impacts of covid on the construction and transportation industry. Is the industry reinventing itself now from the covid pandemic? What is the role of digital communications in construction?

Featuring an interview with Marek Suchocki from Autodesk.

Buildings are made of concrete and steel, both of which produce a lot of emissions when they’re being made. In fact, these two materials account for around 10 percent of the world’s annual greenhouse gases. The interview looks at how the industry is addressing the carbon challenge.

The role of technology in attracting people to the construction sector is also explored.