Transport Talks

As the world moves to electric vehicles this episode explores the supply of one of the key metals, cobalt and the mining industry. The interview is with Christophe Le Bec - an economic journalist with Jeune Afrique. He covers news from the petroleum, mining and industrial sectors (automotive and aeronautics). He is interested in transparency and governance issues, as well as in employers 'and work...

Big Data is all around us - but what use is it if our roads are still congested, our cities crowded, our air polluting. How can we make meaningful change using insights from data? This podcast focuses on the science behind our cities - how we can use data to understand how to plan our cities and how this can, in turn, help improve peoples' health. The episode features an interview with Laurence Oa...

How to reduce accident rates for the workforce that keeps our transport network operating? This episode looks at how Highways England's, Commercial Director, Malcom Dare set the supply chain the challenge of halving accident rates by adopting a new set of common standards. This challenge meant every supplier must half its Accident Frequency Rate (AFR) within the next 12 months and support own supp...

This episode focuses on the issues associated with the building blocks of our infrastructure: the raw materials that are used for constructing and maintaining our highways. And, it is fair to say, the materials sector has faced major challenges – recently with Covid-19, but in the background, there is uncertainty around Brexit and supply-chain issues, and then there is a wider challenge of the nee...

Innovation is - at its core - about solving problems. The response to Covid-19, a global pandemic illustrates how we all have to be innovative to smaller or greater extent – to test existing medicines to developing a new vaccine to an economic response and so on. For our transport system this has meant a combination of things – innovation of processes, of how we work, of technology. But the transp...

How to digitally build Britain. In recent years there has been an emphasis on how infrastructure can be maintained through digital technology. In this podcast Marek Suchocki Infrastructure Engagement Lead at Autodesk speaks with Justin Ward from CIHT. In the wake of COVID-19, the construction sector faces an existential crisis of what do next. Marek Suchocki discusses the potential of adopting dig...

The Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps, announced (on 9 May) a £2 billion package to create new era for cycling and walking. In this podcast Justin Ward interviews Phil Jones. Phil has over 30 years’ experience in the planning and design of development infrastructure, with particular expertise in traffic analysis, transport planning and highway design. The discussion focuses on what in...

Barriers to imposing car-free streets are being lifted following a government decision to enable key workers to walk or cycle more safely. This podcast features an interview with Roger Geffen, Policy Director at Cycling UK. With approximately one-third of the global population in lock-down, vehicle traffic from the road network has reduced considerably. There has been a decline in public transport...

New guidance is allowing the highways sector to maintain worker safety and social distancing, while aiming to operate as close to business as usual as possible. This podcast features an interview with Suffolk Highways' assistant director of operational highways Mark Stevens. “How do you mitigate the effects of Coronavirus day to day, and equally how do you build a post Covid-19 future?” asks Mark...

How trees can be used to tackle roadside air pollution. Interview with Professor Prashant Kumar from the University of Surrey's Global Centre for Clean Air Research. Further research and evidence: Paper reference in the interview and available for free download: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-020-0115-3 Professor Kumar says: “We have a long history of research in this area, starting with our first...

The coronavirus pandemic has led to huge drop in air pollution. In this podcast Paul Monks, professor of air pollution at the University of Leicester, discusses the important lessons to learn. Monks is the former chair of the UK government’s science advisory committee on air quality. The interview explores what exposure to air pollution might mean with regards to risk with COVID-19 and the emergin...

This episode is relevant to today's global events as the world looks to respond to, and be resilient to, Covid 19 - a global pandemic. The CIHT podcast is an interview with Justin Ward speaking with Juliet Mian, an infrastructure resilience expert. Juliet has many years of experience on a wide range of infrastructure projects across many sectors. She is Technical Director of Resilience Shift, Asso...

In the second part of this podcast series, CIHT explore what positive changes can be made to address the huge climate - and ecological - emergency challenge before us. In this episode we are looking at what can be done in the uplands for water management, the benefits of trees and permeable paving and what how tech can do to help. Featuring interviews with: - Dr Gemma Jerome from Building with Nat...

Severe flooding has once again hit parts of the UK, this time during Storm Dennis, damaging homes and leaving many people stranded. We have a huge climate - and ecological - emergency challenge before us and we are seeing significant changes in weather patterns, increased flooding, heating etc. This podcast focuses on the extent to which green infrastructure and sustainable drainage can contribute...

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that to keep the rise in global temperatures below 1.5C this century, emissions of carbon dioxide would have to be cut by 45% by 2030. Now it seems, there's a growing consensus that the next 18 months will be critical in dealing with the global heating crisis. CIHT recently launched its Climate Change Pledge. Climate change requires us...

This podcast explores how the United Nations delivers inclusive social development Daniela Bas, the Director at the Director of the Division for Inclusive Social Development (DISD) at the United Nations explains what the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) mean for disability-inclusive transport around the world. The discussion explores how sport is important to the UN’s SDGs. Universal Desi...

In this podcast we explore wellbeing and the bottom line. Are there hard-line business benefits to wellbeing. Does improving wellbeing boost the bottom line? In this podcast Justin Ward speaks with Michael Smyth, HR Director at GRAHAM. GRAHAM is an industry leading construction, facilities management and investment company with a national footprint.

The advances made in digital technology have transformed how we live and work and will continue to have far-reaching impacts for some time to come. In this CIHT podcast Justin Ward speaks with Giles Perkins, Head of Future Mobility at WSP. Giles is leading work for the ADEPT SMART Places Live Labs Programme, a two-year, £22.9m project funded by the Department for Transport that will run until Spri...

Transport practitioners are all familiar with consultations, surveys and pop up events but how can we make sure we are really engaging with the communities affected by our work. This podcasts discusses with James Gleave, Transport Planner and founder of Mobility Lab UK, just how we can create a more user-centred transport sector.

This podcast further explores the issues of improving transport for people with disabilities. The guest on this episode is Ann Frye, an international specialist on the mobility needs of people with disabilities and older people. Ann works as an expert advisor on both international and UK projects on accessibility. This explores a brief history of accessible transport in the UK, looks at how the UK...

The UK Roads Liaison Group (UKRLG) recently published an Asset Management Competence Framework designed to help highway authorities implement the recommendations of the group’s Code of Practice ‘Well-managed Highway Infrastructure’. In this podcast, Justin Ward from CIHT speaks with John Paterson from Atkins – a member of the SNC Lavalin Group - who was the lead consultant on the Asset Management...

Over 1 billion people globally experience disability: I in 7 people. So, the question of how we ensure that transport is accessibility and inclusive around the world is vital to explore. This podcast features an interview with Charlotte V. McClain-Nhlapo – Global Disability Advisor at the World Bank Group. Charlotte's TED Talk has received over 10,000 views. The discussion explores what exclusion...

Edward Simpson, Professor of Social Anthropology and Director of the South Asia Institute at SOAS was commissioned by UK Aid from the UK Government to explore what insights social science can bring to our understanding of the political economy barriers to the implementation of low carbon transport in urban south Asia and Africa.

This latest CIHT podcast provides an insight into how authorities are implementing the UK Roads Liaison Group's code of practice ‘Well managed Highway Infrastructure’. Authorities are expected to have fully implemented the code by 28 October 2018. The podcast features interviews with David Latham, who is Kent County Council's highway policy and inspections manager and chair of the South East 7 Gro...

The history of the building of the UK's motorways is a fascinating story. This podcast features the stories from Howard Stevens and John Carrington who were involved with the design and building of the motorway and have also played key roles in preserving the history of motorways.