Thoughts, insights and rants about futures, climate change, system change, transport, wicked problems, EDI, and heavy metal

By Professor Glenn Lyons

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  • Warning – the 15-minute country is coming

    Warning – the 15-minute country is coming

    Watch the video for this post here. 📢 Exclusive – thanks to an undercover investigation by the anti-woke and anti-antifa press alliance, we can reveal the alarming news that plans are in place for the 15-MINUTE COUNTRY. While we thought we had fought off the threat of local communities having access to what they needed Read more

  • Rebel with a cause

    Rebel with a cause

    It’s hashtag#metalfriday and I get to be me on the front cover of Transportation Professional 💚💙🤘. I want to explain why this is the year the CIHT President is ditching the suit and shirt for a heavy metal t-shirt and leather jacket. It’s no secret that I love heavy metal. It’s part of who I Read more

  • Lightening speed

    Lightening speed

    With lightening speed, the new Labour Government is embracing climate action, equality-diversity-inclusion, and professionalism. The polls for the general election were only just opened a week ago. Has anyone else found the last week breathtaking? Here’s just a taste of week 1 of the new Government: CLIMATE ACTION – “New UK government lifts ‘absurd’ onshore Read more

  • Future mobility meets the Nolan Principles

    Future mobility meets the Nolan Principles

    Today I had the pleasure of being one of the speakers at the launch of the latest report in London Transport Museum’s Interchange Programme – a report called ‘Making transport fit for the future‘. I didn’t have a hand in this report but if I say it focuses upon ‘Decide and Provide’ then you’ll not Read more

  • Creating a public realm for all

    Creating a public realm for all

    Nearly 1 in 4 people in the UK have a disability. Being disabled stems from having impairments or differences, compounded by the barriers created by design of the public realm and how society is organised. We can certainly do something about the latter as the launch today of CIHT’s new report highlights. It’s an attention-grabbing Read more

  • The Mott MacDonald journey continues at UWE

    The Mott MacDonald journey continues at UWE

    📢 BREAKING NEWS I’m delighted to announce that my role as the Mott MacDonald Professor of Future Mobility that started in 2018 has been extended by a further three years. My love of transport stretches back into the last century, but it was a flurry of excitement in the transport sector in the mid 2010s Read more

  • A glimpse into disability and a chance lift the veil of ignorance

    A glimpse into disability and a chance lift the veil of ignorance

    Will you be bustling about our transport system this week? Will you feel disabled by the design of that system? Perhaps you are fortunate to not have a sight impairment or don’t need to use a wheelchair. But suppose that wasn’t the case? “1 in 5 people has a disability … 9 out of every Read more

  • The Emerald Isle

    The Emerald Isle

    Day 1 – what a start. We’ve got this Ireland. We’ve got this Northern Ireland. We’ve got this. 20 June was the first full day of my presidency for the Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation (CIHT). It couldn’t have been better. The ferry from Hollyhead to Dublin. Faultless. Glenn Hingerty – luckily two Glenns Read more

  • Make Earth Great Again!

    Make Earth Great Again!

    For my CIHT presidential year I am focusing on the importance for all of us of authentically being sustainable, professional and inclusive. We need to walk the walk on climate action, on equality diversity and inclusion, and on professionalism. As part of my journey I have got a green cap to accompany me that has Read more

  • CIHT Presidential Inauguration address – my journeys

    CIHT Presidential Inauguration address – my journeys

    I’d like to start with some thank yous. To Karen McShane – a woman I’ve come to greatly admire in this past year – you’re an inspiration and have brought so much to your term as President – dedication, compassion and conviction. Thank you Karen. To my Institution – for being prepared to put its Read more

  • Don’t Koch this up Glenn

    Don’t Koch this up Glenn

    Don’t Koch this up Glenn. When I first saw this quote about voting I was immediately put off when I saw it was by ‘Koch’. Then I realised it was by an accomplished politician rather than the fossil fuel friendly brothers. Here’s the quote: “If you agree with me on 9 out of 12 issues, Read more

  • Judge Dredd and the Penalty Fare Notice

    Judge Dredd and the Penalty Fare Notice

    Here’s my Penalty Fare Notice story, hot off the press. And since it is #metalfriday I thought I’d bring Anthrax into it 🤘. I had my £83.80 open return for Grateley-London. My usual taxi to get from Grateley to home couldn’t manage the pick up on time but could collect me at the next station Read more


  • Digital Genocide

    I have been an academic throughout my career. I am shaken to the core by what I have just read. A researcher in the US federal system has just had an opinion piece published in the BMJ (one of the world’s oldest general medical journals – formerly called the British Medical Journal). It has been…


  • It’s like being forced to watch the second series of a poorly produced Netflix drama. I had a look on Google Maps and it currently says ‘Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)’. I found the meme below on Bluesky. And the four-year period is barely underway. Today is a day of love. Whatever your gender…


  • This is a ‘pick ‘n’ mix’ of some of the things I’ve been reminded of and explored with bright minds over the last two days in London. They might not all take your fancy, but one or two might be really tasty. 1. Don’t let yourself get stressed over things you can’t control (which can…


  • You may be fixating in the news at the moment on other things – and monstrous things are indeed at play – but here’s a reminder that climate change isn’t going away. And it’s not caused by DEI. During the CIHT CLIMATES initiative we’ve repeatedly prepared a slide called ‘In the news over the last…


  • I’ve just watched Avatar. It hit me hard between the eyes compared to the last time I’d watched it. Having just read a book on colonialism I now appreciate its purpose as an allegory (a story with hidden meaning). Greedy humans – corporate and military together – have found a beautiful planet years in stasis…