19 reasons to attend the 2019 Transport of Tomorrow Symposium

The Hon Melissa Horne MP

We are pleased to welcome Minister Horne to the symposium to share some of her thoughts on the future of transport in Victoria, a state which will continue to experience rapid urban population growth in the decades to come. She will outline why and how a multi-pronged approach to mobility is being used, as well as how data is key to making improvements to the movement of both people and freight.

Maureen Thurston – Chief Experience Office, Aurecon

Re-imagining transport: how design-thinking can create new paths forward

Sometimes we think we know what we want – until we do it and realise we were wrong. This applies to any part of life, but has a particularly large impact when it is transport systems that thousands – or even millions – of people use each day.

Maureen’s background in design-led thinking takes a step back from what we think we know and turns things on their head. The ability to re-imagine an issue is a powerful tool, even more so when investing large amounts of money and time. She will take us through the design-led approach and how it can help us think differently to deliver outcomes in transport that really work.

As an industrial designer, educator, entrepreneur, lecturer, author and consultant, Maureen has been developing and deploying ‘design thinking’ for over 30 years in many different sectors.

Find out more about Maureen in our interview, Maureen Thurston: transport by design

Neil Scales OBE – Director-General, Transport and Main Roads Queensland

Mobility as a Service – A Queensland perspective

Current trends in Intelligent Transport Systems, big data and the shared economy present an exciting new range of possibilities for the future of transport. Queensland’s Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) has taken a multi-pronged approach to understanding the changing transport landscape, acting as leaders and enablers of change by exploring Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in Queensland.

What does TMR think is crucial in understanding Mobility as a Service, from a customer, industry and government perspective, and how it can contribute to our vision of a single integrated transport network accessible to everyone?

As Director-General of the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads Neil has a clear MaaS vision for Queensland, and by extension, Australia. His hands-on involvement in MaaS makes him one of the important national voices on this important transport shift.

Find our more about Neil in our interview, Neil Scales OBE: scaling-up for smart mobility

Glynn Barton – Director of Network Management, Transport for London

Healthy, happy streets: How technology and a new approach are getting people out of their cars in London

People are at the heart of every transport system. There are many factors that affect people’s choices in how they get from A to B, and it is increasingly recognised that the choices made have a direct impact on the well-being of the population, the local area and our global environment.

Active transport choices can take the load off congested and unsafe city streets, and create a healthier, happier population. But how do we get people to make this choice?

Transport for London is tackling this head on by embedding the ‘Healthy Streets’ approach into its planning for the future and cementing it in the Mayor’s Transport Strategy. The Healthy Streets approach maximises the use of walking, cycling and public transport on our roads and is based on ten indicators.

As Transport for London’s Director of Network Management, Glynn has had a leading role in its planning and implementation and will deliver some fascinating insights into the transport planning around the needs of people in one of the world’s busiest cities.

Find our more about Glynn in our interview, Glynn Barton: happy streets, healthy cities

Phil Williams – Director of Strategic Projects, Iomob

A global mobility ecosystem: starting today

Mobility is in the midst of its largest disruption since the invention of the car. Electric vehicles and powertrains, autonomous driving, and entirely new transport modes are reshaping the way people move.

Nowhere is this more evident than in cities, which are the new battlegrounds between insurgent startups and cautious governments. The early actions of rideshare companies has defined them as adversaries.

Now, a new focus is emerging on digital enablement to power an open ecosystem where ambitious companies can innovate, while cities play a guiding role for the benefit of their citizens.

Phil wades into the battleground, and has theories on who and what will win.

Kate Mackay – Technical Director, Transport Planning, Mott MacDonald

Bringing user perspective to the evolution of MaaS

In order to fully harness the opportunity and value of MaaS and determine its future effectiveness, we need to step back and consider how it changes the mobility ecosystem for the user. We need to reflect on where MaaS has come from, and what we know about how people make travel decisions.

Kate will outline how MaaS has the potential to become the ‘mobility system beyond the private car’ and suggest that MaaS is neither new or revolutionary, rather it is an evolution of transport integration. She will present a taxonomy of MaaS (similar to the levels of vehicle automation) designed around the user perspective.

She will then discuss a behavioural framework illustrating how people may choose, or not, to take up MaaS. Kate will focus on the user perspective, and offers an introduction to socio-technical thinking about MaaS and its prospects.

Find out more about Kate in our interview, Kate Mackay: planning transport futures

Akshay Vij – Institute for Choice, University of South Australia

Designing tomorrow’s transport systems: challenging assumptions of how we understand what travellers want

Shared, electric, connected and autonomous modes of transport could be the panacea that the transport sector has been waiting for. Or they could be its worst nightmare. The outcome will depend on how consumers engage with these new systems and services, and the consequent economic, social and environmental impacts of their decisions.

Vij’s research has made significant contributions to the development of methods for the analysis of consumer behaviour, and their application to transport contexts.

In this talk, Vij will discuss the importance of understanding consumer needs and desires, how we can avoid past pitfalls, and design future transport systems that benefit all citizens.

Find out more about Vij in our interview, Akshay Vij: choice modeller

Professor Michael Milford – Queensland University of Technology

Navigating the potential disruption of driverless cars in Australia

Formula 1 is fast, but autonomous vehicles are giving it a run for its money in terms of the pace of research and development happening globally – and this has implications.

Michael’s presentation sets the stage with an overview of what’s happening around the world followed by a commentary on the key concepts and current issues in autonomous vehicles limiting their deployment. He then zeroes in on Australia and assesses how state-of-the-art autonomous vehicle technology will interact with Australian infrastructure.

It’s a challenging and exciting area, and Michael has his finger on the pulse, along with being hands-on in advanced research.

Find our more about Michael in our interview, Michael Milford: positioning the future

Professor Zuduo Zheng – University of Queensland

Modelling the transition to CAVs – can we prove the benefits?

Zuduo will use his expertise in understanding the impact of the transitional period of introducing connected and automated vehicles to bring us up-to-speed with the latest research findings on modelling this transition.

Along the way he will also debunk some common CAV misconceptions and illustrate how we can use a data-based approach to assess whether we can prove the benefits that they purportedly offer. This includes the extent of the benefits and at what point in the transition these benefits might become apparent.

Find our more about Zuduo in our interview, Zuduo Zheng: CAV man

Professor John Nelson – Chair in Public Transport, ITLS, University of Sydney

Who takes the lead in the MaaS agenda? Lessons from the UK.

One of the big uncertainties with MaaS is “who takes the lead?”. Experience from the UK (and elsewhere) suggests that it can be any one of business, government, transport agencies and operators or established MaaS organisations.

This talk showcases the Scottish Government country-wide approach (modelled to some extent on the Finnish experience) which includes the creation of industry-body MaaS Scotland, the championing of a number of MaaS pilots, and the creation of a dedicated MaaS pump-priming fund.

John also considers factors behind the need to relaunch Whim in the West Midlands, as well as findings from the recent enquiry of the UK Parliament’s Transport Select Committee which is calling for a funded national programme of pilots to ensure that the MaaS concept is adequately tested.

Find out more about John in our interview, John Nelson: public transport planning, policy, strategy

Yale Wong – ITLS, University of Sydney

Digital public transport in an era of shared and collaborative mobility

This presentation will introduce the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) multimodal setting and provide details of some of the major features of this new mobility future (with and without autonomous vehicles), which include digital platforms, mobility contracts (bundles, budgets and brokers), market preferences for these offerings (using evidence from stated preference studies) and the nature of the MaaS entity in matching consumer preferences.

Yale will also talk about the participation of suppliers under future business models (as operators, aggregators or simply equity investors), before concluding with a discussion of what this might mean for future public transport contracts.

Find out more about Yale in our interview, Yale Wong: a smarter future

Tony Canavan – Global Government Transport Leader, Ernst and Young

Government and the new mobility ecosystem

What might be the implications for Government arising from developments in smart mobility? Yes, there will be the multi-modality, multi-participant, and joint partnership of the public and private organisational aspects of Mobility as a Service that will be likely happen in the near future.

Simultaneously, there’s broader transport aspects, such as infrastructure planning and prioritisation, intelligent infrastructure, CAVs and EVs, and all their relevant and interconnected systems.

Then there’s the more strategic, policy and planning aspect of transport — how government funding models will change, and how smart mobility offerings might integrate or complement public transport and transport policy more broadly.

Tony has a wealth of experience across both the government and private sectors, with extensive experience in transport planning, major infrastructure project delivery, project governance, public private partnerships, and public infrastructure. And he’s ready and excited about all of these new possibilities.

Find our more about Tony in our interview, Tony Canavan: lives local, thinks global

Scott White – Executive Director – Transport Management Centre, Transport for NSW

Insights from a multi-modal transport management centre

Scott will present on the evolution of the NSW Transport Management Centre from a roads-focused centre to a multimodal coordination centre that is at the forefront of current transport management thinking in Australia.

He will also share insights into the current Intelligent Congestion Management Program which is a key enabler for the evolution of transport management in Sydney. Scott White has more than 28 years’ experience senior operations experience in complex transport environments.

Scott has worked with both public and private sectors to ensure quality delivery of transportation services in the UK, Canada, USA and now here in Australia.

Find out more about Scott in our interview, Scott White: transport manager

Professor Hussein Dia – Swinburne University of Technology

Digital innovations and disruptive mobility -hype or reality?

The 2020s are predicted to be a decade of transformation for urban mobility, and Hussein sees at least six forces that are expected to disrupt the urban mobility landscape. Each of the six is quite significant on their own, but the convergence and coming together of their disruptive forces is what will create real value and provide urban mobility innovations.

But how will the future of transport look in the coming years, with autonomous on-demand shared electric vehicles? Will personal ownership of cars decline, giving way to Uber-style fleet-operated autonomous shared vehicles? Will mobility be offered as a subscription service? Are we edging closer to a vision of “zero accidents, zero emissions, and zero car ownership”? Will we still be allowed to drive in the future? Can it all possibly go wrong? And what do we need to do today to prepare for a future in a highly automated world?

So many questions here, and so many more … Hussein will answer them, and set you thinking.

Find out more about Hussein in our interview, Hussein Dia: tackling the urban transport future

Understanding traveller preferences & changing behaviours: how do we best interpret and use the data

Facilitated by Aurecon

What happens when we let empathetic understanding of user wants, needs and expectations guide outcomes rather than developing solutions that require people to adapt behaviours to them?This hands-on session will explore a number of common transport policy goals and tease out why users don’t always intuitively make choices that deliver better network efficiency outcomes.

We will explore how challenging assumptions and honing our understanding of diverse user needs can lead to better and more sustainable interactions between people, places and systems in our ever-increasing urban population.

The workshop summary will be made available to all participants to facilitate future initiatives.

Navigating the transition to CAVs on our roads: challenges, opportunities and what to do with them

Facilitated by Andrew Hooley, Transport for NSW

What happens when we let empathetic understanding of user wants, needs and expectations guide outcomes rather than developing solutions that require people to adapt behaviours to them?This hands-on session will explore a number of common transport policy goals and tease out why users don’t always intuitively make choices that deliver better network efficiency outcomes.

We will explore how challenging assumptions and honing our understanding of diverse user needs can lead to better and more sustainable interactions between people, places and systems in our ever-increasing urban population.

The workshop summary will be made available to all participants to facilitate future initiatives.

Movement & Place: Using technology & digital solutions effectively to move people efficiently & safely across our cities.

Facilitated by Arup

In this workshop we will develop our understanding of how to use technology and data to achieve better movement of people through our cities. The session will generate the critical conversations needed to get to the crux of the issues, drawing on participant contributions and the expertise of our keynote and theme speakers.

Using the Movement & Place framework as the strategic planning tool we will discuss and develop digital activities for planners and engineers to deploy practically. The aim is to improve the efficiency and safety of moving people around our cities using applied technology and data tools.

This interactive and engaging session will cover aspects such as:

• What is Movement & Place?
• The impact/benefits of new mobility on how we manage limited road space
• Understanding evolutions in SPACE (Shared, Personalised, Automated, Connected & Electric)
• How do technology solutions fit within the tool box of responses?
• Engaging with industry to trial and test solutions
• ‘Launch & Learn’
• What are the human factors that we should consider in our planning?

A follow up paper by Arup and iMOVE will be circulated to participants to inform future initiatives.

Mobility as a Service: creating a transport ecosystem in Australia

Facilitated by Andy Taylor, Cubic Transportation Systems

The concept of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is central to the idea of change in transportation. Generally understood as a vision of mobility where travel happens through a combination of public, private and shared transportation modes, it remains an ambiguous term. Yet, understanding what MaaS truly stands for is very important for our cities and communities. It can mean the difference between effective MaaS projects that benefit the local community, and those that only congest our already crowded cities and divert investment away from crucial public transit infrastructure initiatives.

In this interactive workshop facilitated by Cubic Transportation Systems’ Strategy Director and MaaS Alliance board member Andy Taylor, we will take an in-depth look at what we really know about MaaS.

Over the course of two hours, we will explore where MaaS is today, what lessons have we learned from existing implementations, what pitfalls do we need to be wary of, and, what benefits can MaaS deliver to its various stakeholders. Through exploring these challenges and opportunities together we aim to identify some logical next steps and priorities for delivering MaaS in Australia.

A follow up summary of the session will be provided to all participants, including any key areas for future initiatives.

Creating successful collaborations

Facilitated by Gary Liddle, Enterprise Professor – Transport, University of Melbourne

Panel features:

• Glynn Barton, Director of Network Management, Transport for London
• Tony Canavan, Global Government Transport Leader, Ernst and Young
• Phil WIlliams, Director of Strategic Projects, Iomob
• Ian Christensen, Managing Director, iMOVE

Collaboration is widely seen as a crucial component for us to create the transport systems that meet our needs. now and into the future. However, the complexities and nuances of successfully working together across disciplines, sectors, and countries can thwart even the best planned and resourced initiatives. So, let’s learn from each other how to get best outcomes for our efforts and funds.

In this session our experts discuss key elements of successful collaborations and draw on their own experiences to help us form ideas of how we can improve our own future efforts.