Roles-Work-MaaS-Friends

My roles

I have always worked in transport since finishing my PhD in transport policy and travel behaviour in 1990 (though I did push transport to the rear for about 4 years to work in smart cities, eGovernment and multiplication smart card systems).

I’ve worked mainly in the UK but have spent a lot of time working throughout Europe and Canada…...plus a bit in Australia.  I particularly enjoyed living and working in Brussels and Paris.

Currently I provide advice to a range of organisations (technology companies, local authorities, national governments) though Sympatric. 

I am also a co-founder of a Mobility as a Service (MaaS) advisory and services company called Fuse Mobility.

Since 2004 I have been a Non-Executive Director of Lothian Buses which provides over 2 million journeys every week in Edinburgh and the Lothians with a fleet of over 700 vehicles.  I currently act as Senior Independent Director on the Lothian Board. Between 2013-2019 I was a Non-Executive Director of Transport for Edinburgh the then newly created integrated transport authority for Edinburgh. 

If you want to look at the jobs I have done, have a look at LinkedIn. 

My work

It is always about making public, shared and active transport more visible and easier to use – usually by harnessing technology - always about what people need and overcoming the barriers to deliver this.  Most of the work is about making future transport real.

Some tech I have focussed on: ticketing systems, smart cards and payment, urban traffic control, apps and digital marketing, Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (business case and user needs).

Some transport areas: MaaS (see “Some words on MaaS” below) transport policy, inclusion, policy evaluation, future mobility, rural transport, transport governance, business case development.

2023 "Capercaillie" Award from Scottish Rural & Islands Transport Community! Presented by Jenny Milne.

I really enjoy

Designing and facilitating collaborative workshops to develop new insights and strategies to improve public and shared transport.  Unlocking creativity and teambuilding.

Working in teams committed to improving transport services – designing and delivering people-centred, practical innovation to simplify and increase the reach of transport.

Some current and recent work

  • Helping a Canadian housing developer and their technical team develop the strategic mobility narrative for a new large settlement built around First Nation Principles.
  • Being part of a great team (led by Andy Hyde) devising a CIHT online course to help professionals design transport for people with dementia - have a listen to the podcast of the webinar here.
  • Working in a team to help a UK government agency understand and design user centred high impact end-to-end journeys at the interurban scale. Designing a demonstration project in this area to help them learn and engage differently.
  • Being part of an international panel of experts in MaaS advising Queensland Federal Government in persona development and MaaS roadmap.
  • Advising and challenging a tech start-up company on their user engagement methodology pre-launch.
  • Designing and facilitating a senior executive workshop for a transport service provider.  This to both develop strategic insight and inform a new business plan (with team building as an intended consequence).
  • Designing and delivering an Edinburgh-based training event (workshop, mystery traveller, visits) on UK mobility for the very engaging and interesting team at Dutch Transport information company 9292.

Some words on MaaS

Mobility as a Service has been a focus for quite a few years.  This has basically involved using service design and technology to making transport better.

It was triggered by this career changing chat to my Dad and Mum in 2010 about giving up their car (and subsequent difficulties in setting up a taxi account on their behalf) which led to Car Freedom (see below).

This led to a number of proofs of concept and full implementations over a number of years.  Read about some of them here on the Fuse Mobility website.  

In 2018 I was invited to give evidence to UK Government Transport Select Committee Inquiry into Mobility as a Service and talk about some of these services.  This was to help form future government strategy: it was an interesting conversation. The final report of the Committee is here.

Some current wonderful collaborators