Speakers

Peter Stonham 

Chairman 

Landor LINKS 

Peter Stonham holds a degree in transport and has studied and written about the subject for more than 30 years. He is editorial director of Landor LINKS, which he founded, and has led the development of Local Transport Today and its other specialist magazines and on online networks.

Professor John Miles 

Chairman, IMPACT Working Group on Cities and Supporting Infrastructure

University of Cambridge

Professor Miles’ research interests lie in exploring the transitional pathways which might take us from today’s balance of energy demand and supply to that balance in future which will satisfy the conflicting requirements of universal provision, environmental protection, security, and affordability. Current themes are:

Transport: Exploring the potential to reduce urban emissions through the use of radical alternatives to conventional transport systems. Examples include the introduction of autonomous vehicles, on-demand bus services, and the use of city-wide real-time data to improve travellers’ options and reduce carbon footprints.

Electric Vehicles: Exploring the potential for electric vehicles to operate economically and reliably in the near future. Particular examples include the demonstration of electric buses operating under arduous urban conditions; the introduction of low-cost electric bus alternatives to tram and light-rail systems; the use of wireless charging systems to aid electric vehicle operations; the economic and infrastructural challenges of charge-on-the-move systems.

Professor Phil Goodwin 

Professor of Transport Policy 

University College London & University of the West of England 

Phil Goodwin is Professor of Transport Policy at the Centre for Transport and Society, UWE Bristol, and Emeritus Professor at University College London. He was previously Director of the Transport Studies Unit, an ESRC centre of excellence at Oxford University and UCL, a transport planner at the Greater London Council, and non-executive Director of the Port of Dover. He was a member of SACTRA and co-author of its three reports on Transport and the Environment (1991), Induced Traffic (1994), and Transport and the Economy (1999). He has carried out research for the DfT and other agencies on travel demand, transport appraisal, road and public transport projects, road pricing, suppressed traffic, smarter choices, wider economic benefits (and losses) and transport strategy.

Joseph Seal-Driver 

Director 

DriveNow UK

Joseph Seal Driver is the UK Director for DriveNow, the drive-by-the- minute London car sharing service from BMW, Mini and Sixt. Born in Cambridge, Joseph is now a confirmed North East Londoner, having lived over the past eight years in all three of DriveNow’s launch boroughs: Hackney, Islington and Haringey. Joseph’s whole career has been based around sustainability and he is a keen advocate of London’s fast growing Sharing Economy. He rents out his Kings Cross-based driveway, uses Air BnB whenever he travels abroad and uses DriveNow for his car journeys. Having gained an Environmental Science degree from the University of Leeds, Joseph worked at the Eden project and at sustainable communications consultancy, Futerra. He previously worked at Zipcar for four years, managing all regional cities before being head hunted for the role at DriveNow.

Harry Clarke

Commercial Director 

RingGo

Harry has been Commercial Director of Cobalt Telephone Technologies and is well-known for his work in pioneering its RingGo brand. He is passionate about helping local authorities and their customers gain the benefits and economies of the
digital transaction technologies that are transforming the parking industry. He has worked in the automated transaction processing specialists for over ten years. Trained as an Engineer and subsequently as an Army officer, Harry’s expertise in telephone transactional technologies dates from his time at Mercury Communications the emergent Telecoms Carrier which he joined following his MBA studies at Cranfield. Before joining Cobalt, Harry worked to transform the call handling and transaction processing for the Automobile Association in Basingstoke. 

David Birkbeck 

Chief Executive Officer 

Design for Homes 

David Birkbeck is chief executive of Design for Homes which he has led since its incorporation in 2000 as a social enterprise for promoting what works well in housing. He recklessly assumes that homes should be better designed and produced in greater volumes. Design for Homes’ outputs included writing the original Building for Life tool, and co-authoring the 2012 rewrite which has special focus on car parking issues.  In 2005 he wrote ‘’Car Parking:What Works Where” which was the starting point for the Space to Park research and website. Design for Homes manages the government’s Housing Design Awards and is also a judge, and he sits on the design advisory board at the Homes and Communities Agency. He is an NHBC councillor which provides him with priceless insight into industry practice.

John Dales 

Director 

Urban Movement 

John is Director of Urban Movement, which specialises in transport planning and the design of complex urban streets and spaces. A traffic engineer and urban designer with over 30 years’ experience, John is also a design advisor to several UK local authorities, Chair of the Transport Planning Society, a Trustee of Living Streets, and author of the ‘Street Talk’ column in Local Transport Today.

Vanessa Kelly 

Major Infrastructure Delivery Officer 

Cambridgeshire County Council 

Since 2013, I‘ve worked as a member of the Cycling Projects team at Cambs County Council, mainly helping to deliver the Cycle City Ambition schemes within Cambridge. Prior to this, I worked on two PTP projects, managed three Workplace Cycle Challenges, and was a committee member of the Cambridge Cycling Campaign.

Joe Green 

Smarter Choices Manager 

Sustrans (West Midlands) 

With a background in youth & community work, participation and engagement have always been central elements to Joe’s work. In his current role with Sustrans, where he oversees their Smarter Choices programme in schools, workplaces and communities across the West Midlands, this is something he continues to promote and champion.

Jon Little 

Complementary Measures Manager: Mini-Holland 

London Borough of Waltham Forest 

Jon Little is currently working with the London Borough of Waltham Forest on the delivery of their £30 million Mini Holland cycling programme having helped develop the successful bid. Jon has 15 years’ experience in the sustainable transport field working for consultancies and local authorities on a diverse range of projects including the Lambeth Neighbourhood Enhancement Programme, Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme and the London 2012 Olympics.

Oliver Davey 

Traffic Engineer 

Urban Movement 

Oli believes that all of us responsible for the design of our streets and other public spaces are uniquely placed to help make people happier, wealthier, healthier and greener through our work. No other profession has the potential to have such a broad and profound affect on so many peoples lives.

Dr Steve Melia 

Senior Lecturer in Transport & Planning 

University of The West of England 

Steve Melia is a Senior Lecturer in Transport and Planning at the University of the West of England and author of Urban Transport Without the Hot Air.  His research concerns the relationship between transport and the built environment, including parking policy and carfree development.  He was previously a parliamentary candidate and freelance journalist.

Nick Lester-Davis 

Corporate Director of Services 

London Councils 

Nick Lester-Davis is London Councils’ Corporate Director of Services, responsible for the provision of all those services carried out collectively on behalf of all the London boroughs. These range from parking and traffic enforcement to Freedom Pass and door-to-door transport. He was previously London Councils’ Director of Transport, Environment and Planning and, as London Parking Director, was responsible for introducing civil parking enforcement into the UK in 1993.

Rachel Lee 

Policy & Research Coordinator 

Living Streets 

Rachel Lee is policy and research coordinator for Living Streets, the UK charity for everyday walking. Since joining the organisation in 2012, she has authored several reports and continues to work on a wide range of issues - such as promoting a Private Members’ Bill on Pavement Parking.

David Graham

Head of Strategy (Workplace & Schools) 

Living Streets 

With a background in behaviour change promotion, David currently works with UK partners and stakeholders to increase walking rates across schools and businesses. David has extensive experience working with school communities around cleaner air and active travel, and previously worked for local government on Safer Routes to School programmes. 

Professor John Polak

Chairman, Centre for Transport Studies and Director, Urban Systems Laboratory

Imperial College London

John Polak is Professor of Transport Demand, Chairman of the Centre for Transport Studies and Director of Research in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Imperial College London. He is currently leading the development of Imperial's new Urban Systems Laboratory.

He is co-editor (with Scott LeVine) of a 2015 special issue of Transportation on shared mobility. 

Professor Polak has served as an advisor to central and local government and industry on a wide range of transport issues, both in the UK and overseas. Professor Polak has been in the forefront of innovative transport model development in the UK for a number of years and has published extensively on a number of aspects of intelligent transport systems, travel demand modelling, network performance estimation, network control and traffic management. 

Sampo Hietanen

CEO 

ITS-Finland & Helsinki Mobility as a Service

Sampo workw as the CEO of ITS-Finland, a network of over 80 organisations varying from authority, business to research. He has been the first person to introduce the concept Mobility as a Service, a paradigm change in transport offering. My background is in executive positions in civil engineering and ITS and I've been founding and heading several international businesses in these fields. I am actively involved in developing new business models in transport and promoting the big shift in changing system structures with modern technology. And I especially have fun doing all this.

Brian Matthews 

Head of Transport Innovation

Milton Keynes Council

Milton Keynes is becoming one of Europe’s leading centre of innovation in transport and technology. It is home to the UK's centre of transport innovation expertise Transport Systems Catapult (TSC) and to the UK's major driverless car pilot project, along with Network Rail and Trek UK. Says Brian: 'Travel demand is likely to rise by 60 per cent while capacity can only increase by 25 per cent. That deficit has the potential to harm the quality of life, the environment and economic prosperity and growth unless alternative forms of transportation are identified. But managed well, the increased travel demand can mean significant social and economic benefit for the city.

Milton Keynes has welcomed the launch of electric buses with the trialling of low carbon transport systems, a vehicle demand response system and driverless pods. Milton Keynes’ Local Transport Plan now recognises both the continuing role of the car and the increasing awareness of the needs of business to be able to deliver growth. 'It seeks to influence and challenge everyone to think differently about how they travel,' says Brian.

John Siraut

Technical Director - Economics 

Jacobs 

John Siraut, Technical Director Economics at Jacobs specialises in the wider economic and social impacts of transport policies and investment, as well as advising on economic development and regeneration issues generally. He has advised a wide range of clients on parking issues including company purchase, charging tariffs and the impact of parking on retail activity.  

Max Crane-Robinson

Commerical Director 

NCP

Max Crane-Robinson joined NCP as a regional Managing Director in May 2009, taking full responsibility for the strategic, commercial and operational accountability across the Southern region. In October 2010 Max became Commercial Director and heads up the Marketing, Product and Pricing and Insight teams. Max is responsible for defining and implementing strategies and innovation that grow long term core revenues, improve the user experience and enhance NCPs value proposition for both consumers and clients.