Professor Glenn Lyons

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  • Qualifications:BEng (hons), PhD, FCIHT, TPP (hon)
  • Position:Mott MacDonald Professor of Future Mobility
  • Department:Faculty of Environment and Technology (FET)
  • Telephone:+4411732 83219
  • Email:Glenn.Lyons@uwe.ac.uk
  • Social media: LinkedIn logo Twitter logo

About me

Glenn is the Mott MacDonald Professor of Future Mobility at UWE Bristol. The appointment bridges between academia and practice and Glenn divides his time between the university and Mott MacDonald (on secondment). In a challenging time for the transport sector, the position aims to co-develop and extend transport expertise in relation to understanding and responding to a changing and uncertain mobility landscape, which is shaped by technological possibilities and societal needs and preferences in the context of the climate emergency.

Formerly Professor of Transport and Society at UWE Bristol (2002-2017), Glenn is the Founder of the Centre for Transport & Society and was its first Director until August 2010 when he was appointed as Associate Dean – a position he held from 2010 to 2017. He was responsible for overseeing: (i) the sustainability of, and ongoing enhancement to, the then faculty's research environment; (ii) the delivery of high quality outcomes from research in terms of new contributions to knowledge, impact beyond academia arising from the research and enrichment by research of teaching and learning; and (iii) advancing enterprising capability and behaviour amongst staff and students including external networking and partnerships.

Alongside Glenn's research he has a longstanding and active involvement within the wider transport profession. From 2000-2003 he was the Director of the Transport Visions Network which brought together some 250 young professionals from universities, public authorities and consultancies. He was the 2002/2003 Chairman of the Transport Planning Society, an organisation that promotes and supports the continuing professional development of transport planners. Concluding in 2005, Glenn chaired Bristol City Council's Best Value Review of Integrated Transport. From 2007-2010 he was Chairman of the Universities Transport Study Group in the UK. From 2008-2012 he was a Trustee of London Transport Museum Limited. Since 2015 he has been a member of the DfT's Joint Analysis Development Panel. In 2016 he became a Trustee of the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund. Following previous terms on the  Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation's Council and Board of Trustees, Glenn was appointed Vice President of CIHT in 2023. He was also presented with the prestigious CIHT Institution award in 2022.


Area of expertise

Having originally conducted research in the areas of artificial neural networks, driver behaviour and urban traffic management, the prevailing theme of his research today is transport and society. His research focuses upon the role of new technologies in supporting and influencing travel behaviour both directly and through shaping lifestyles and social/business practices. A former secondee and expert advisor to the Department for Transport's Transport Direct initiative for national travel information provision, Glenn has led major studies for the DfT and UK research councils into traveller information systems, teleworking, virtual mobility, travel time use, user innovation, road pricing, public and business attitudes to transport and future mobility.

He has been involved in many strategic futures studies. In 2014 he was seconded to the New Zealand Ministry of Transport in the role of Strategy Director and was responsible for leading a major piece of national work examining future demand for travel out to 2042 and its implications for policy and investment. He has since specialised in handling uncertainty in transport planning and policymaking and pioneered the development of FUTURES – a six-stage vision-led approach to strategic planning for an uncertain world. A joint initiative between UWE and Mott MacDonald, FUTURES is now being applied internationally. Glenn was a member of the Wales Roads Review Panel. As part of a team led by Mott MacDonald, Glenn has provided futures support to the Department for Transport since 2019.

Glenn's publications are shown below and further details are available on his Google Scholar Profile. His LinkedIn profile is available here.

Specific areas of expertise:

  • Transport Planning
  • Impacts of information and communications technology on personal travel
  • Traveller information services
  • Travel behaviour
  • Attitudes to transport
  • Travel demand management
  • Transport, society and lifestyles
  • Transport and social exclusion
  • Future mobility and accessibility
  • Handling deep uncertainty
  • Transport decarbonisation

Publications

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