In the blink of an eye, 20 years have flown by. In 2002 I had just become Chair of the Transport Planning Society. I was encouraged to apply for a newly advertised professorship at the University of the West of England. UWE was looking to establish itself as a centre of excellence in transport.

At the ripe old age of 33 I set off for UWE. I wanted UWE’s contribution to transport to be distinctive. The established centres of excellence in transport studies tended to be rooted in civil engineering. It was my colleague Susan Kenyon who came up with the idea of ‘transport and society’ as a name. It was spot on. I designed a logo and built a website for the Unit for Transport & Society. We were on the map. The following year we were conferred Centre status by UWE and became the Centre for Transport & Society.

As its founding director, I did my inaugural lecture in 2003 as a new professor. It was titled…..wait for it….. ‘Transport and Society’. A paper based on the lecture was published by Transport Reviews (https://lnkd.in/eEZVnQiN). In a sense, this was our manifesto. I include part of the abstract below.

“The paper makes the case for transport research, policy and practice to
acknowledge more fully the inherent links between transport and society. It argues that greater recognition and understanding of such links is crucial to confronting the present realities. Transport does not merely serve society: it shapes society, as in turn society shapes transport. The future of each is dependent on the other, and this fact must be recognized. The paper advocates in turn that the transport profession must move from its heartlands in engineering and economics also to embrace more fully such disciplines as sociology and psychology … Discussion of public attitudes and the role of the media are included in the context of assessing how politicians can be encouraged and supported in their implementation of realistic but unpopular policies.”

Throughout my time at UWE I’ve been blessed by supportive bosses and fantastic colleagues. Graham Parkhurst (who joined our team shortly after me) became CTS Director in 2010 as I moved into the role of Associate Dean for Research and Enterprise. My love of transport endured and in 2018 I took up the Mott MacDonald Chair in Future Mobility at UWE.

I’m very proud to be associated with both UWE and Mott MacDonald. To all those friends and colleagues who have enriched my career at UWE to date – you know who you are and I am so grateful for your support.

As I look ahead we face the greatest challenge of our lives. Our politicians have largely failed to confront the reality of transport and society shaping one another. The seduction of technological innovation and economic prosperity perpetuates a paradigm that puts profit and power before people and planet. Now the chickens are coming home to roost as climate change is upon us; but the fight for sustainable transport continues!