2019 Transport Research Symposium: Ethics and transport planning

The 2019 Transport Research Symposium will bring together planning professionals, community leaders, activists, academic researchers, and students to explore the ethical dimensions of urban transport planning.

The symposium is co-hosted by RMIT University Centre for Urban Research, Planning and Transport in City Regions Program, Transport@RMIT and RMIT Critical Urban Governance program and The University of Melbourne’s Melbourne School of Design, Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute and Future Cities Research Cluster. The symposium

Participants in the symposium will explore the ethical questions that confront politicians, policymakers and planners doing urban transport planning in the contemporary city. The event has two principal aims:
(1) to grow a critical mass of thought provoking perspectives on transport planning in Australia 
(2) explore new possibilities for collaborations across academia and practice. 

Call for contributions
The symposium invites participants to interpret their current academic, professional or community-based activities through an ethical lens. Specifically, it solicits critical perspectives on urban transport planning where contemporary practice intersects with pressing social and environmental concerns. The convenors of the symposium invite contributions which respond to the six themes that emerged from the August 2018 Ethics and Transport Planning conversation series.

• Inclusion: the relationship between transport governance, urban citizenship and planning outcomes.
• Distribution: foregrounding questions of social and environmental justice in transport planning.
• Well-being: the influence of transport provision and choice on health outcomes in communities.
• Experience: recovering the social function of transport—mobility infrastructure as commons.
• Accountability: making politicians and decision-makers accountable to the evidence.
• Knowledge: the ethics of visioning and modelling urban transport futures.

Contributions may comprise short academic papers (3,000 words or more + presentation), individual or group presentations (approx. 15 minutes) or workshops (time allocation TBD) that explore the above six themes. Contributions are eligible to be published in an edited proceedings that will broadcast the work of participants to a wider audience.

Prospective participants should submit an abstract detailing the nature of their contribution to transportsymposium2019@gmail.com by Friday 23 November 2018. Please email James Whitten at jwhitten@unimelb.edu.au with any questions/enquiries.

Timeline for submissions/notifications
Abstracts (300 words) due: Friday 23 November 2018
Successful submitters notified: Friday 30 November 2018
Papers or workshop briefs due: Friday 18 January 2019
Presentation slideshows due: Friday 1 February 2019

Convenors
Dr Ian Woodcock, Lecturer, Sustainability and Urban Planning, RMIT University
Dr Andréanne Doyon, Lecturer, Sustainability and Urban Planning, RMIT University
Dr John Stone, Senior Lecturer in Transport Planning, University of Melbourne
Dr Crystal Legacy, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning, University of Melbourne
Scott Przibella, Senior Transport Planner, Transport for Victoria and MPA Candidate, University of Melbourne
Rebecca Clements, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Melbourne
James Whitten, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Melbourne