Catherine Evans Joint TPS Bursary Winner 2016 /2017 – September 2017

It has been a year since I was told that my 500 word proposal was successful and I was allowed to research my paper on the year’s topic: Technology in Transport.

As cliché as it sounds, the past 12 months have gone by so quickly that it only feels like the other day I was staring at a blank screen trying to write the first lines of my paper. Since the press release announcing the bursary winner results, the main change I’ve seen is the overwhelming amount of interest in my topic.

 I hope that through showing my enthusiasm into my research, ideas about using different data outside of the traditional transport topics, such as house hunting, can be transformed. This information can be utilised into usable information that is actually relevant to our work. Through more exposure I hope this can encouraged people to look further into where they can be gathering information from to inform their research and work. Aside from the long-term aims, the main day-to-day change I’ve noticed, since completing my bursary, has been the interesting conversations I get to have with people about a topic I’m massively interested in, and actually know a little something about now.

I no longer feel like a completely fresh-faced graduate, but someone who has a slight voice on one aspect of transport planning others may not know so much about. The recognition from the TPS Society has definitely given me the confidence to voice my ideas and opinions with peers and clients alike.

In addition to the daily growing conversations and confidence, a number of key moments have occurred that would not have happened without the bursary award. Firstly, I attended the Transport Practitioners meeting in June. This was a great event where I got to share my findings in the form of a poster. During the event I met many interesting people and got to talk in more detail about my papers findings. Attending all the talks and workshops also help broaden my horizons within Transport Planning, gave me a greater understanding of the breadth of the field, and presented me with more ideas on where my research could potentially go in the future. From this I have also been given the opportunity to present my findings company-wide across SYSTRA next month. I’m hoping this experience will help me to show people my research, start some more conversations and encourage other people to get involved in my research.

In the future I hope to use my findings to help bring innovative ideas into the realm of transport planning and to further my research on whether we can use information from the housing market and turn it into useful behaviour change data. I would love to look further into the propensity for change if the right information was out there for people moving locations and how best to inform people of the sustainable travel modes at their new property during the research phase, not after they have moved in and made their travel decisions.

 My paper can be found on the TPS website, and if anyone would like any further information or discussion, feel free to email me at: cevans@systra.com.

The TPS Bursary has helped me both personally and professionally to be more confident in my abilities, get to know more like-minded people in the transport planning field, and given me an amazing platform to talk about something I’m deeply interested in.