On 30 November, Professor Mitch Langford, a WISERD co-director based at the University of South Wales (USW), presented WISERD research from the ESRC-funded project, ‘Inequalities, civic loss and well-being’, to the Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee at the Senedd.
The Senedd’s Areas of Research Interest (ARI) event comprised a series of speed talks made to Members of the Senedd, their support staff, relevant cross-party groups and Senedd researchers.
Professor Langford outlined the USW team’s latest research regarding the accessibility of public transport and other key services relating to health, education, culture, and well-being.
The Area of Research Interest this project links to is ‘Active travel and modal shift’. The research has involved developing innovative methods to examine geographical patterns of exclusion to services at detailed spatial scales, using digital transport timetables and the location of bus stops to provide a fuller picture of access for those most dependent on public transport.
Professor Mitch Langford said: “This event provided an important opportunity to present our approach to examining spatial and temporal changes in public transport provision to Senedd members and wider stakeholder groups.
“These provide robust data-driven metrics to quantify and benchmark access to services including transport, to monitor changes over time, and to provide evidence-driven evaluations of the effectiveness of current and future policies. Such techniques have the potential to help the Welsh Government meet the policy goal of having 45 per cent of all journeys made by public transport and active travel by 2040”.
The event will support the Committee in deciding on its priorities for the remainder of the Senedd, alongside the outcomes of the priorities consultation it ran over the summer.
You can find out more about this research project in our interview with Professor Gary Higgs, another researcher on the team.
Photo by Jonny Gios on Unsplash.