Keynote Speakers

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Rein Ahas Lecture by Prof. em. Kay W. Axhausen

Dr. K. W. Axhausen is Professor emeritus of Transport Planning at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich. Before he worked at the Leopold-Franzens Universität, Innsbruck, Imperial College London, and the University of Oxford. Over the past 40 years, he has worked on measuring and modelling movement behaviours, making significant contributions to the scientific literature in areas such as stated preferences, microsimulation of travel behaviour, accessibility, evaluation of travel time and its components, parking behaviour, activity timing, social networks, and the collection of travel diary data, including GPS tracking. His current work focuses on the electric bicycle city project.

“Activity space from idea to measurement“

Transport planning and related behavioural research have long assumed that individuals have well-defined activity spaces, long before their precise measurement was feasible. The talk will begin with a discussion of the basic idea and its difficulties of capture. The talk will then discuss today’s possibilities for capturing them using GPS, GSM, and other big data sources. It will conclude with recommendations for their affordable measurement.

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Keynote speech by Prof. Mimi Sheller

Professor Mimi Sheller is the Inaugural Dean of The Global School at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, in Massachusetts, USA. She helped establish the “new mobilities paradigm” and is considered a key theorist in the interdisciplinary field of mobilities research. Sheller completed her AB in History and Literature at Harvard University and her MA and PhD in Sociology and Historical Studies at the New School for Social Research. She was awarded the Doctor Honoris Causa from Roskilde University, Denmark (2015). She was founding co-director of the Centre for Mobilities Research at Lancaster University, England, with John Urry, and then became Professor of Sociology, Head of the Sociology Department, and founding Director of the Center for Mobilities Research and Policy at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Sheller was founding co-editor of the journal Mobilities, past President of the International Association for the History of Transport, Traffic and Mobility (T2M.org). She serves on numerous editorial boards and international advisory boards, and is co-editor of the Berghahn Books Series, Exploring Mobilities.  

Sheller also works in Caribbean Studies and is currently Co-Principal Investigator for the Caribbean Collaborative Action Network (2022-2027), a NOAA Climate Adaptation Program team, and PI for a NOAA-BIL award on Improving Engagement Methods for Coastal Resilience and Reducing Climate Risk (2023-2027). She has published more than 180 articles and book chapters, and is author or co-editor of fifteen books, including Advanced Introduction to Mobilities (2021); Island Futures: Caribbean Survival in the Anthropocene  (2020); Mobility Justice: The Politics of Movement in an Age of Extremes (2018); and Aluminum Dreams: The Making of Light Modernity  (2014). 

 

“Mobility Data Justice in the Age of AI “

In recent work with Frauke Behrendt, we have argued that “datafication” is now central to the governance and control of movement, and hence to the production of unequal mobilities, leading us to also consider the need for “mobility data justice.” Being mobile nowadays more often than not involves the production, collection and distribution of data (consciously or not): from mobile phones and ride-sharing apps, car sensor data for diagnostics and car insurance apps ticketing apps for public transport, geofencing of urban bike or scooter share schemes, use of Google maps and GPS data, step counting or running fitness and wellbeing apps, traffic sensors and Internet of Things (IoT) data from traffic lights or car parks, etc. All these sources may be feeding training data for Machine Learning (ML). Unequal access to data now emerges as a crucial feature of the uneven distribution of capabilities for potential movement, or for the stopping of mobility. This elicits the following key questions that I will address in this talk: What happens when the algorithmic divide collides with the injustices of inequitable mobility regimes, and how do both together reshape the mobile and networked terrain of struggles for justice? How are bodies, infrastructures, cities and mobility regimes caught up in and produced via these algorithmic inequities within new horizons of automation and AI? 

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Keynote speech by Asst. Prof. Tiina Rinne

Tiina Rinne is an Assistant Professor of Sustainable Transport System Planning and an Academy Research Fellow at Tampere University, Finland. Over the past decade, her research has explored how the built environment can promote health, with a particular focus on everyday mobility practices, mobility-related urban and transport planning interventions, and creating age- and child-friendly environments. She has made notable contributions to the scientific literature on participatory mapping methods and advanced their application in urban and transport planning research. At present, her work examines how prioritizing active travel modes in winter maintenance affects children’s mobility practices, the efficiency of maintenance and behavioral interventions, and the role of families in supporting active mobility.

 

“Indicators and Insights: Driving Change in Urban and Transport Planning”

Cities are at the heart of today’s health and environmental crises and urban and transport planning hold the keys to change. But creating cities that truly support the well-being of people, other species, and ecosystems is complex and deeply context-dependent. To meet this challenge, we must move beyond asking why societies need to transition and start answering how and what needs to change.

This shift demands robust indicators, measurement, and monitoring systems, the tools that not only quantify progress but remain meaningful and actionable for practitioners. Yet metrics alone are not enough. Planning succeeds only when it combines technical indicators with the behavioural and social dimensions of urban life. This talk will share insights from urban and transport planning research and practice to explore how measurement and monitoring can drive transformation while highlighting that many aspects of how cities shape behaviour are complex and not easily measurable. 

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