Steer x Active Travel Academy: Research Talks

Steer x Active Travel Academy: Research Talks

Steer is proud to announce its collaboration with the Active Travel Academy at the University of Westminster. This exciting partnership aims to bridge the gap between local government and academic researchers to benefit active travel projects and initiatives globally. 

To help deliver this vision, Steer is sponsoring the publication of inclusive summaries for several key pieces of research from the Active Travel Studies journal.

As part of this initiative, we invite you to our Research Talks, a series of engaging online events where you’ll hear directly from the authors of three significant and diverse studies on active travel. These sessions are designed to empower active travel practitioners to integrate insights from academic research into their projects and initiatives, driving meaningful change in communities worldwide.

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What to expect

• Expert insights: Hear directly from leading researchers on groundbreaking topics in active travel.
• Practical applications: Learn how research findings can be implemented into your projects to benefit the communities you serve.
• Global perspectives: Our authors’ research will be relevant to your projects, no matter where you are in the world. 
• Author Q&A: Engage with the authors and ask questions about their work.

Who should attend?

• Local government representatives 
• Urban planners and active travel advocates 
• Policy-makers and researchers 
• Anyone passionate about advancing active travel 

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“It’s a Boy’s Thing”: The social practice and regulation of cycling in secondary schools, Thu 23 Jan, 14:00-14:45 (UTC)

An essential event for anyone involved in the strategy, planning, delivery, or evaluation of cycling projects. 

Uncover the cultural and social forces shaping cycling as a gendered activity among adolescents. This session explores research – grounded in Ireland but with global relevancy – that highlights the barriers preventing teenage girls from cycling and offers insights into how these norms can be challenged.

Research insights:

• In Ireland, teenage boys are nearly 10 times more likely to cycle to school than girls, reflecting a significant gender gap in adolescent cycling.
• Cycling is often viewed as a demonstration of masculine traits, making it more acceptable for boys.
• Societal expectations around femininity can discourage girls from cycling.
• Peer dynamics and cultural norms perpetuate cycling as a "boy-only" activity.

Join us to learn how gender norms are enacted and reproduced in the context of cycling, shaping its practice and participation among adolescents and future adult cyclists, and what can be done to change this.

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Meet the speakers

Lisa Martin, Director, Steer 

Lisa has over 25 years of experience with a focus on delivering sustainable mobility through the design and implementation of travel behaviour change strategies and programmes that include education, incentives, and infrastructure interventions. She has advised the local, regional and central governments in the UK, Australia and the US, and private sector clients across a broad spectrum of behaviour change studies. She has a track record in successfully delivering sustained levels of a modal shift away from the car. 

Dr. Robert Egan, Research Fellow, Centre for Transport Research, Trinity College Dublin 

Dr. Robert Egan is an interdisciplinary researcher who explores cycling in low-cycling contexts, with a focus on Ireland. His research is broadly situated within the mobilities paradigm. To date, he has examined the lived experience and practices of cyclists in Dublin; the secondary school cycling gender gap; cycle parking planning; discourses of active travel planning opposition; and e-cargo bikes for business and family mobility.

Jane Hackett, Sustainability Manager, Trinity College Dublin

Jane is an experienced Sustainability Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the environmental, sustainability, and planning sector. She has developed nationwide behaviour change programmes related to sustainable transport, climate action, and infrastructure provision. Her role at Trinity College Dublin focuses on embedding sustainability throughout education, research, operations, and community through stakeholder engagement, training, and collaboration. Jane is passionate about creating resilient communities that tackle climate change while fostering inclusivity and fun.

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Gender and the e-bike: Exploring the role of electric bikes in increasing women’s access to cycling and physical activity, Thu 27 Feb, 18:00-18:45 (UTC)

An essential event for anyone involved in the strategy, planning, delivery, or evaluation of e-cycling projects. 

Discover how e-bikes can help close the gender gap in cycling in low-cycling contexts. This session examines how e-bikes both reinforce and challenge traditional gender norms and how they could serve as a tool to boost women’s cycling rates.

Research insights:

In low-cycling countries, women are significantly less likely to cycle. While previous research highlights the need for better cycling infrastructure and gender equality to encourage more women to cycle, this study explores how e-bikes might also play a key role.

Using interviews with e-cyclists, e-bike retailers, and cycling planners and policy-makers, this research uncovers the gendered dimensions of the e-cycling experience, revealing that e-bikes can:

• Help women fulfil care responsibilities and meet traditional expectations of appearance while cycling.
• Increase women’s confidence and assertiveness on the road.
• Offer less fit women more positive and empowering cycling experiences.
• Enhance the availability of high-quality bikes for women and foster more inclusive bike retail environments.
• Improve women’s transport options, and make it easier for them to get enough exercise.

Join us to explore how e-bikes can transform access to cycling for women, fostering inclusivity and confidence on the road.

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Meet the speakers

Dom Smith, UK Active Travel Lead, Steer

A nationally recognised expert in active travel infrastructure planning and delivery, Dom has over 20 years’ experience in local transport across the public and private sectors. He brings over a decade of experience from Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), where he oversaw the delivery of a c£250m infrastructure programme of over 120km of active travel infrastructure, including more than 20km of protected cycle lanes on major road corridors. Dom’s influence extends internationally, having collaborated with active travel leaders from Copenhagen and Amsterdam among others, further showcasing his commitment to world-class infrastructure design. At Steer, Dom leads UK-wide active travel initiatives, supporting our clients realise their ambitions for active travel through visionary network planning and the development and delivery of transformative design solutions. 

Dr Kirsty Wild, Senior Research Fellow, Population Health, University of Auckland 

Kirsty is an environmental sociologist who works in public health.  She has a particular interest in healthy environments and has worked with community organisations, universities, governments and the World Health Organization (WHO) on a range of projects related to transport, healthy neighbourhoods, sustainable food systems, pandemic resilience, and climate change.  

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Clutter and compliance: Improving scooter parking interventions and perceptions, Thu 27 Mar, 18:00-18:45 (UTC).

An essential event for anyone involved in the strategy, planning, delivery, or evaluation of scooter projects. 

Explore innovative strategies to address the challenges of improper e-scooter parking and improve public perceptions of shared e-scooter programmes. This session features insights from two related studies, including field experiments and public perception research, offering actionable recommendations for cities aiming to create tidier, more accessible urban spaces.

Research insights:

Shared e-scooter programs often generate complaints about improper parking, leading to cluttered sidewalks and pedestrian accessibility challenges. The research found that:

• People consistently overestimate scooter misparking.
• People think scooters mispark far more than cars.
• People conflate tidy scooter parking with compliance.
• Policymakers should focus on straightforward, effective solutions to scooter parking rather than flashy technological fixes

Join us to learn how intuitive parking solutions—such as designated parking corrals—can improve compliance and align with public expectations of orderly urban spaces. 

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Meet your speakers

Alia Verloes, North American New Mobility Market Lead, Steer

Alia is a public policy specialist and urban strategist with a focus on shared mobility. She leads the New Mobility market in North America, exploring the potential and impact of disruptive transportation technologies in cities across the world. Alia’s work covers a wide range of new mobility services including shared micromobility, zero-emission vehicles, automation and on-demand services. Her work also considers implementation of mobility hubs and MaaS services in the context of shared use business models. Alia holistically incorporates DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging) principles in all of her work and provides key insights that can inform strategic direction as well as future project development efforts. At Steer, Alia is part of an internal think-tank on 15-minute cities where she looks at the impacts new mobility solutions to build a more human-centric and environmentally sustainable urban future. 

Nicholas J. Klein, Associate Professor, Department of City and Regional Planning / College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, Cornell University

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