Upcoming events
THINK Seminar: public transport resilience to climate change in the UK
23rd October 2023 10:00 – 11:00 online
Join 3 speakers as we explore how climate change in the UK will impact public transport provision and what can be done to adapt to changes.
THINK Winter 2023 hybrid conference
Fully funded places in person or online.
13th Dec 2023 in Cardiff – booking now open. Details at: https://THINK2023WinterConference.eventbrite.co.uk
If you would like to submit an idea for a presentation or poster for the conference please complete our form and email back to think@aber.ac.uk by 27th Sept.
To find out more about the accessibility of the in-person venue and the online experience please read our Accessibility Statement.
September 2023
THINK online seminar on the role of electric-cargo bikes in the UK
1. Jake Neighbour and Harry Tainton from Sustrans will share their experience of the E-Move project.
E-Move is an electric cycle loan scheme for people living in Aberystwyth, Rhyl, Barry, Swansea, Newtown and their surrounding areas. Jack Neighbour is the project officer at Sustrans Cymru responsible for coordinating loans across Aberystwyth and Newtown. Jack has a wealth of experience in identifying and overcoming challenges associated with the delivery an e-cycle loan project.
Harry Tainton is a senior evaluation officer with the research and monitoring unit at Sustrans. Harry is responsible for evidencing the impact of the E-Move project and trying to identify what barriers exist to wider adoption of electric cycles across Wales.
Between them they will talk about the practical aspects of delivering a successful electric cycle loan scheme in Wales, the impact of E-Move and then a brief look into future work that would be necessary in realising the wider adoption of electric cycles.
2. Graeme Sherriff is Reader in the School of Health and Society at the University of Salford.
He conducts research on active travel and shared micromobility, including bike share, e-scooters and e-cargo bikes. He will talk about recent developments in Greater Manchester in relation to e-cargo bikes in particular and reflect on what policy support would help to drive update of these vehicles.
3. Will Vaughan is the Founder of Pedicargo a company that has provided award winning pedal powered services to organisations since 2007. Will shares his experience of working with health care services and local authorities to provide solutions such as waste collection and offering a low carbon pedicargo delivery service to rival fossil fuel vehicles. His organisation saves money for the health service and local authority whilst improving safety, service provision, reducing cost all whilst reducing carbon emissions’
Online Teams joining instructions will be emailed to you a day before the event.
THINK announces winners of the Transport Issues in Rural Communities Grant 2023
We had nine applications for our Transport Issues in Rural Communities award of up to £2000.
They were high quality and interesting project ideas and we chose those which clearly showed a defined rural community in need and exploring a practical way to help that community to solve its transport and health related challenges, and projects which could be delivered before July 2024.
The three projects that the THINK award is supporting are:
Explore Future Six Council Local Community transport using Electric Buses & Bikes
Led by Kate Inglis, Community Councillor on Llangattock Community Council
Llangattock is a rural village with approximately 1000 residents, set in the Usk Valley in Powys. Llangattock Village is experiencing increasing problems with the number of cars and insufficient parking. Existing public transport in the area is very limited with infrequent services to the smaller villages. This existing service is under-used and we would like to understand why this is.
The key method being a local survey/questionnaire, designed and analysed by a professional consultant expert in community transport, who can help Llangattock Community Council to understand the demand, physical reach and routes, means of operation and to help with a business case to support an application to fund a larger project to set up a local Community E-bus and E-bike service.
Exploring prospects of shared e-micro mobility in Rural India
Led by Dr. Anshuman Sharma, Assistant Professor and Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) and Dr Yasir Ali, Lecturer, Transport and Urban Planning Group, School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, Loughborough University
This project will investigate the motives and barriers behind adopting shared electric micro-mobility modes (such as electric rickshaws) in rural India via a survey, considering sociodemographic characteristics, such as age group, gender, economic status, marital status, and education. This project will investigate the factors encouraging/discouraging rural inhabitants to adopt shared electric micro-mobility modes. The project will also devise interventions for mitigating obstacles and uptaking shared electric micro-mobility modes.
Community Transport Initiatives – Volunteer Drivers (barriers to volunteering)
Led by Rhian Hathaway, Grants Officer, Bridges Centre and Andrea Charles, Community Wellbeing Project Manager
The lack of public transport options in rural Monmouthshire has created significant challenges for residents in accessing essential services and maintaining social connections. The community car scheme, although a promising solution faces difficulties in recruiting volunteer drivers, hindering its ability to meet the demand for transportation assistance. This research project comprising of surveys and in depth interviews aims to identify and address the barriers to volunteer recruitment, ultimately improving the effectiveness and reach of the community car scheme. By addressing these issues, the project will contribute to enhancing mobility, fostering community engagement, and improving the overall well-being of residents in Monmouthshire.
August 2023
The THINK delivery team welcome a new member for 9 months – Dr Burcu Tekeş!
Dr. Burcu Tekeş is an Associate Professor at Başkent University, Turkey. She is currently also working with us as a post-doctoral research associate in THINK project.
Burcu holds her Ph.D. in Traffic and Transportation Psychology and MSc. in social psychology. She previously had experience with Vision Zero: Road Safety project in Turkey as the senior expert on human behaviour. Burcu’s research mainly focuses on applied psychology particularly in traffic and transportation, environment and health. She has over 30 research publications, including a book on Traffic Psychology.
Here you can find more about Burcu’s work: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Burcu-Tekes
June 2023
THINK hold online public workshops:
Gender+ Bus: Making bus services safer for women in rural communities
We are holding two online workshops on the 15th of June for 1.5 hour length at 11am and 6pm for women living in rural communities and smaller towns in Wales to share their views and experiences of using public bus services and give input into what can be done to make using buses safer and more inclusive.
You can find out more about the Gender+ Bus project here
This event is hosted by Lucy Baker, a Post-Doctoral Research Associate within the Psychology Department at Aberystwyth University.
Gender+ Bus: Making bus services safer for women in rural communities Tickets | Eventbrite
7th June 10 – 2 and 22nd June 2-5pm online
Systems mapping active travel for all in the UK
THINK convene systems mapping exercise to capture the interconnections that inform accessible active travel (walking, wheeling and cycling) for all in the UK. To request further information and a place on this please email think@aber.ac.uk
May 2023
THINK workshop: Introduction to Co-production and Citizen Involvement
Read more on the Co-Production resources page
THINK launch Mentoring Scheme
Find out how to become a mentor or mentee on the Mentor Scheme page
https://think.aber.ac.uk/think-mentor-scheme/
April 2023
THINK online seminar on ‘The Gig Economy, Logistics, Health and Wellbeing’
You can watch it back online:
THINK Gig Economy, Logistics, Health and Wellbeing seminar – YouTube
March 2023
THINK held two training sessions with Disability Wales
The course covered:
- What is Disability?
What comes to mind when you think of ‘disability’? We will be questioning what disability is and how it can be perceived.
- The Models of Disability
There are two main models of disability: the Social Model, and the Medical Model. We’ll be talking about what they are, their differences and why Disabled People use the social model. We’ll also discuss why we believe it’s important to use the social model and the easy ways/ changes we can all do.
- The Importance of language
How words can have negative impacts on disabled people and create or continue incorrect assumption or connotations. We’ll also look at the words disabled people use and why we think it’s important.
- Engaging with disabled people
- Feeling comfortable when talking with disabled people – top tips (we’re not scary!)
- People often tell us they worry about upsetting or offending disabled people by asking or saying the wrong thing. At this session we’ll talk about the Dos and Don’ts so everyone can feel happy and confident talking to disabled people. There will be no judgement at this session, ask anything!
- What engagement methods work best for different disabled people and varying health conditions. We’ll go over where communication support can be accessed, or software found.
- We’ll look at the barriers which exist when disabled people try to engage, and how these can be minimised or removed.
- Accessible Research
The benefits and barriers of different research methods, including how to reduce or remove barriers for disabled people to fully engage. We’ll look at how to create accessible virtual surveys that work with screen readers and other software used by disabled people. We’ll also look at what formats work best and gives tips to ensure focus groups are accessible for all whether virtual or face to face, and how disabled participants can be found and invited to take part. We’ll talk about reasonable adjustments and communication support including palantypists and British Sign Language interpreters and where/ how they can be booked.
January 2023
THINK hold Public Agenda Setting Workshops
You can read the write up of the workshops on our publications page
https://think.aber.ac.uk/think-academy-publications/
Transport and Health in the Communities Projects
The Transport and Health Integrated Research Network is delighted to announce it is supporting four projects addressing the role of transport in creating a healthy community. The projects selected were:
Age Connects Morgannwg: Transport Research
Led by Bethan Shoemark-Spear, Strategic Development, Partnership and Policy Manager for Age Connects Morgannwg.
Age Connects Morgannwg note an increased demand for support with transport issues from the older people in their area and want to know more as to why this is the case, for example, is it lack of public transport? Is it that they can’t safely get to their nearest bus or train station? Do they lack confidence to travel alone? The project will allow facilitated discussions with older people and support staff and give time to analyse the responses in order to provide a service more tailored to older people’s needs helping them to become independent and to get outdoors.
Increasing Mobility of Young Girls by Giving Scooties
Led Dr. Nashia Ajaz, Lecturer- Gender Studies at Fatima Jinnah Women University, Pakistan.
Scooties are mopeds in Pakistan. This project aims to help female students aged 18-25 years, who face mobility restrictions due to the cultural and religious norms in Pakistan. Many female students discontinue their education due to facing sexual harassment and abuse when using public transport, which is predominantly made for and used by men in Pakistan. The project will offer purchasing of scooties along with training and support to female students. The project aims to give young women their right to mobility, and independence, and help them gain confidence. The project will connect with a similar initiative in Wales.
Social inclusion through community-led transport
Led by Gemma Lelliott, Director for Wales, Community Transport Association (CTA).
The aim of the project is to work with a particular community who face significant societal barriers to inclusion – people with learning disabilities – and to identify transport options and support that will help to foster social connection. Good transport services open up access to services and activities within the local community and provide people with learning disabilities with more choice and control over their lives, this is especially the case for those living in rural communities where access to public transport has declined over recent years. This project is a catalyst to encourage discussion and action around changing working practices, and identify ways in which the Community Transport Association can support operators to extend services in order to better support people’s wellbeing.
The overall aim of the project is to use it as a stepping stone for future work – it will create a snapshot of key sticking points and help us to identify the next steps. The project is the springboard from which we can collectively start to address some of the organisational, institutional and attitudinal barriers to travel and make a real difference in supporting people with learning disabilities to feel included in a transport network fit for the future. The project wants to help implement real and impactful changes to how bus, rail and community transport services are delivered if they are not meeting the needs of people with learning disabilities and we recognise that this work will take much longer than the initial project.
Encouraging Active Travel In Newtown (EAT IN)
Led by Ruth Stafford, Project Officer, Mid Wales. Sustrans.
This project is to help people living in Newtown, particularly in the Treowen estate area, to walk, cycle and wheel more. The project will provide information on transport options, especially around active travel, and work towards setting up a relevant travel companion scheme to support residents (if appropriate).
January 2023
Places of Play seminar, January 17th 16:30-17:30 online
If you missed this event you can watch online https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQEppOkwIUs
We will be joined by guest speakers Dr Matluba Khan and Professor Alison Stenning who will be giving talks on involving children and young people in designing and planning urban spaces and creating spaces for play. The talks will explore the benefits of enabling play in public spaces and places in which people of all ages can come together to socialise outdoors and the challenges today in creating spaces for play, or simply hanging-out with neighbours, friends and family, in communities.
For full details and to register for a free place, please use see our Eventbrite page: THINK Seminar Places for Play Tickets, Tue 17 Jan 2023 at 16:30 | Eventbrite
Previous events in 2022
December 2022
Minister Opens The Centre for Transport and Mobility (CeTraM)
The official launch of Aberystwyth University’s new research centre, The Centre for Transport and Mobility (CeTraM), took place on the 1st December during the University’s Festival of Research. The new centre co-directed by Professor Peter Merriman (Department of Geography and Environmental Science) and Professor Charles Musselwhite (Psychology; co-Director of THINK) will be focusing on different aspects of mobility and transport through the lenses of the social and behavioural sciences and humanities.
The theme of the day was on transport, mobility and health and started with a poetry reading from Matthew Jarvis, reading his poem about walking – Milltir Sgwâr part of three poems written in praise of walking for THINK (see https://think.aber.ac.uk/in-praise-of-walking/ ).
Keynote presenter Dr Justin Spinney from Cardiff University discussed that we needed to measure travel and transport differently, do we measure what is really important? Where does joyful travel for example fit in transport models?
Dr Rachel Rahman Director of the Centre of Excellence in Rural Health discussed how rural areas can have difficulty of access to active travel – poor pavements, poor lighting, lack of connectivity which leads to lack of spaces for informal and formal meeting.
Finally, Professor Peter Merriman reminded us that mobility and movement are central to our lives. Mobilities capture this using a variety of creative methods including those from arts and humanities and these are important in informing policy and practice but often don’t get the attention they deserve.
The official launch was carried out by Lee Waters, MS, Deputy Minister for Climate Change for Wales, who spoke of the need for such a centre to underpin the transport issues of the day, asking us all to think differently about transport reminding us that transport is fundamentally about people and about social justice.
The talks were supported by information and stalls from THINK, sharing some of the key research to date, and SUSTRANS who shared details of their E-Move project.
CeTraM looks to build on this launch by involving more academics from different disciplines and invites people from policy and practice to get in touch. Keep up to date with the work of CetraM at https://cetram.aber.ac.uk
Charles Musselwhite chm93@aber.ac.uk
Peter Merriman prm@aber.ac.uk
October 2022
THINK launches the Transport Issues in the Community Small Project Fund
HCRW conference in Cardiff
The THINK delivery team attended the HCRW conference in Cardiff on 13th October 2022 and had some interesting conversations at the stall and launched the Transport Issues in the Community Small Project Fund.
The THINK delivery team will be at the HCRW conference in Cardiff on 13th October, come and say hi at our stall!
International Conference on Transport & Health (ICTH) 2022 – Global Infrastructure
Looking upstream to identify downstream Social Determinants of Health (SDOH)
Conference runs: 13 – 30 June 2022
IN-PERSON and VIRTUAL DAYS
- Cardiff, Wales (UK) – (13:00 – 17:30 on 21st June and 09:00 – 17:00 on 22nd June)
- Denver, Colorado (USA) – 27 & 28 June
- Montreal, Canada – 16 & 17 June
For THINK members only (it’s free to join here Get Involved – The Transport and Health Integrated research NetworK (THINK) (aber.ac.uk)) , you can bring along a colleague or friend for free, just email their name as your ‘THINK member guest’ as instructed when booking.
THINK are excited to be partnering with ICTH to deliver the Cardiff transit stop of the International Conference of Transport and Health. Join us on 21st and 22nd June in person in Cardiff, or you can purchase a virtual only ticket and join us online or watch recordings at a time that suits you.
Jenny Mindell, Professor of Public Health at University College London will be our keynote speaker on 22nd June. There will be international presentations of research abstracts (on topics such as walking, disability and inequity, infrastructure, perceptions of mobility, new health services using drones, commuting and work) and social events. In-person abstract sessions will also include virtual presentations. Refreshments, dinner vouchers on the 21st and a cricket match on the 21st are included in the ticket price.
The detailed programme for the whole conference (13-30th June) with listed authors and abstracts is now available Programme: In-Person & Virtual (tphlink.com)
The first afternoon on the 21st June will be held at the lovely Bute Park where you can try out assisted bikes, e-bikes and trikes from Cardiff Pedal Power and finishing with an optional trip to witness a famous British past time – a cricket match with dinner and warm up entertainment including live music beforehand.
The second full day will be in the centre of Cardiff on the 22nd June, with easy access by foot, bike, train or bus (including international connections from London), and the venue is close to many accommodation options for those travelling from further afield.
For information on how to get to the second day venue at Glamorgan Cricket Ground – Sophie Gardens please see the venue website
The entire ICTH programme (13th – 30th June), including real-time in-person and virtual sessions will be recorded and available to all registered delegates to watch back at a time that suits you.
For more information and to register for a place please see the main conference website. Cardiff, Wales: 21-22 June (tphlink.com)
IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT PURCHASING TICKETS!
When booking a ticket you have a few options on the booking page:
- This option gets you full virtual access for all online livestreaming and recordings from 13-th 30th June and includes in-person access to the Cardiff event hosted by THINK. “ICTH IN-PERSON & Virtual Access ($399 + $16 processing fee) TOTAL $415.00
- This option is available if you have already joined the Transport and Health Science Group (THSG) or the International Professional Association for Transport & Health (IPATH) which would provide you with access to a discount for the virtual and in-person conference fee as well as all the benefits of becoming members of those organisations year round. “ICTH IPATH/THSG IN-PERSON & Virtual Access ($349 + $14 processing fee) type 6 TOTAL $363.00”
- This option is if you only want to attend any of the virtual livestreaming or recorded events from 13th-30th June, including virtual attendance at the Cardiff event. “ICTH Full Standard – Virtual ONLY ($249 + $10 processing fee) TOTAL $259.00”
- This option is the same as 3 but with a student discount “ICTH Full Student – Virtual ONLY ($149 + $6 processing fee) TOTAL $155.00
- This option is for members of THSG or IPATH who only want to attend virtually “ICTH Full Standard IPATH/THSG Member Virtual ONLY ($199 + $8 processing fee) TOTAL $207.00
- This option is for students who also have membership of THSG or IPATH “ICTH Student IPATH/THSG Member Virtual ONLY ($99 + $4 processing fee) TOTAL $103.00”
After you have selected one of the above options you can add if you want to attend the Cardiff event in person in the following section “In-Person Site Selection AND IPATH/THSG Membership (NO processing fee)” and here is where you can also request to join IPATH.
Book directly here ICTH 2022 – Global Infrastructure Registration (constantcontact.com)
NB The processing fee applies to each of the ticket options: it’s to cover the costs of paying the bank processing fees for registration.
Previous ICTH photos from http://www.tphlink.com/icth-2022–global-infrastructure.html
Previous Events in 2022
If you are a public health expert, transport academic, infrastructure engineer, estate manager, NHS worker, transport and health researcher, social prescriber, transport or health policy maker, or anyone else with an interest in tackling the challenges encountered when transport and health intersect, join one of our workshops to identify solutions to these challenges.
In this workshop, we will:
• Identify key priorities for transport and health
• Identify barriers to achieving transport and health priorities
• Consider how best to support those working collaboratively in transport and health
• Develop an agenda to move forward in addressing key priorities in transport and health