Roundtable research

These report documents reflect the roundtable discussions organised by the Smart Mobility Unit at the University of Hertfordshire. Stephen Joseph led the roundtables on the future of transport outside cities. They were sponsored by DfT, England's Economic Heartland, Hertfordshire County Council, the Connected Places Catapult and Gascoyne Estates.

The starting point was that while there’s a lot of research and policy work on transport and mobility in cities, there is much less work on what the future of transport might look like in more rural areas, especially places like English counties with a mix of market towns, edge lands of cities and small villages.

The roundtables aimed to help fill this gap. Following lockdown, they migrated online.

A programme of small online meetings was developed on key topics on transport outside cities, also reflecting the impact of COVID-19.

Participants were drawn from the following sectors: national, sub-regional and local government, transport consultancy, property development, academic research, non-governmental organisations. Stephen Joseph facilitated the discussion.

The idea was to have papers/slides circulated in advance and then have a small group of invitees to discuss and comment on them. The meetings were minuted but unattributed. The events were kept short, again reflecting experience with online events.