Geography in practice: the future for rural mobility

While much research on transport and mobility is focused on cities, there is a need to look at transport policy and governance options for areas outside and on the edge of city-regions. These areas account for a lot of private car use and hence surface transport carbon emissions. The University of Hertfordshire’s Smart Mobility Unit has been developing work in this area including a series of roundtables. It has been working closely with Transport East, the lead sub-national transport body on rural transport in England and has held a call for evidence on rural mobility.

This webinar will set out outcomes from the roundtables and from Transport East's call for evidence and look at future action in this area.

The University of Hertfordshire Smart Mobility Unit (SMU):

The University’s Smart Mobility Unit brings together interdisciplinary expertise and professional services to apply practical solutions and innovations in transport to benefit the university and its wider community. Launched in March 2018, the Unit builds on the university’s long-established expertise in transport research and ground-breaking projects in smart mobility. These include smart bus ticketing and EValu8, which delivered the Government’s ‘plugged-in places’ scheme to develop the take-up of electric vehicles across the East of England from 2010.

Transport East:

Transport East is the Sub-national Transport Body for Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock. A third of our population live in rural and coastal areas, so improving rural connections is one of our core priorities. Our Rural Mobility Centre of Excellence brings together evidence, good practice and insights to support local authorities, operators and others working to improve rural transport provision.

Dr Scott Copsey - Principal Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Hertfordshire

Professor Stephen Joseph - Department of Psychology, Sport and Geography at the University of Hertfordshire

Sharon Payne  - Transport East