PUTSPACE — Public Transport as Public Space in European Cities: Narrating, Experiencing, Contesting
Funded by Humanities in the Research Area (HERA) — 2019-2022
PUTSPACE aims to humanise transport research by studying diverse narratives, experiences and contestations of public transport, as they have been unfolding in cities across Europe since the late nineteenth century. The project places public transport at the frontline of contesting what is, can be, or should be public in the city. project explores how public transport confronts citizens with social diversity, speaks of different types of ownership, surveillance, subversion, interaction and transformation of social norms.
LiFT — From Low Fares to No Fares: An Analysis of Economic, Operational, Socio-Spatial and Political Dynamics of Fare-Free Public Transport
Funded by FWO (Research Foundation - Flanders) and FNR (Luxembourg National Research Fund) — 2020-2025
Empirically, the ambition of the project is to provide the comprehensive global overview of FFPT to date, while offering an in-depth analysis of on four selected cases of fare abolition programmes. Conceptually, the project advances critical perspectives on transport by developing the link between transport studies and urban studies. It analyses FFPT as a policy that affects not only the economy and operation of local transport networks, but also functions as an inherently urban phenomenon, interacting and conflicting with different publics, spaces, scales and political institutions.
CARIN-PT — Capacities for Resilient and Inclusive Urban Public Transport Infrastructure and Built Environment
Funded by JPI Urban Europe — 2020-2023
The project advances a dual perspective on urban public transport and built environment by examining inequalities in terms of needs, capabilities, decision-making and accessibility to public transport. It explores the social justice of public transport and built environment policies in terms of who benefits (distribution), whose needs are considered (recognition), who decides and how (participation). In close collaboration with policy-makers and service providers, the project will consider micromobility, fare structures, flexible on-demand PT and transit-oriented development (TOD) in the urban regions of Tallinn (Estonia), the Flemish cities (Belgium), Stockholm (Sweden) and Oslo (Norway). The project aims to bring about a shift in how mobility policies and services are developed, implemented and delivered so that urban built environments and PT become integrated and inclusive.