Active Travel Academy

Please click on the links below to view a showcase for six of our current or recent ATA projects, with short summaries written by one of the research team and links to additional relevant material. Illustrations by Dulce Pedroso.

A woman cycling is superimposed on a city background, with a ribbon of a route showing her navigating over a bridge, and around queues of stationary traffic. As she leaps a building, a bird asks 'Is she even aerodynamic?'

Asa Thomas – School Streets: the impact of temporary closures on school travel

Akwesi Osei – Barriers to Black men cycling in London

Dulce Pedroso – Still I Ride: how women of colour are reframing discourses in and through cycling

Ersilia Verlinghieri – Nobody Left Behind: Envisioning inclusive cities in a low-car future

Jamie Furlong – Londoners’ attitudes to travel and determinants of this

Rachel Aldred – Studying Low-Traffic Neighbourhoods in London

Listen to the ATA Podcast

Accessibility and Urban Design January 25, 2024
Dr. Harrie Larrington-Spencer, Research Fellow at the Active Travel Academy, interviews Professor Aimi Hamraie, who directs the Critical Design Lab, and whose research focuses on disability, accessibility, and urban design. Show notes and transcript link available at https://blog.westminster.ac.uk/ata/accessibility-and-urban-design-ata-podcast-20241/. Show notes by Professor Rachel Aldred and podcast editing by Chris Gregory of Alternative Stories. Hosted on […]
Queering Cartographic Methods July 6, 2023
Rachel Aldred, Professor of Transport and Director of the Active Travel Academy, interviews Ellis Fannin, a PhD researcher at the University of Manchester, about their research on queering cartographic methods. Show notes and transcript link available at https://blog.westminster.ac.uk/ata/queering-cartographic-methods/. Thanks to Ellis and to our ATA interns, Rob Coates (who prepared and edited the audio files) […]
Barriers to Black men cycling in London June 1, 2023
Dulce Pedroso, PhD researcher at the Active Travel Academy, interviews Akwesi Osei of Possible about his research into barriers to Black men cycling in London. Show notes and transcript link available at https://blog.westminster.ac.uk/ata/barriers-to-black-men-cycling-in-london-ata-podcast-3/. Thanks to Akwesi and Dulce and to our ATA interns, Rob Coates (who prepared and edited the audio files) and James Stevenson […]
Planning for Trans Futures May 2, 2023
Professor Rachel Aldred, Director of the Active Travel Academy, interviews Matt C. Smith of Brighton University about their research into trans in planning, and trans experiences in the city. Show notes and transcript link available at https://blog.westminster.ac.uk/ata/planning-for-trans-futures-ata-podcast-20232/ Thanks to Matt and to our interns, Rob Coates (who prepared and edited the audio files), James Stevenson […]
Neurodiversity in the City April 4, 2023
Professor Rachel Aldred, Director of the Active Travel Academy, interviews Dr. Therese Kenna of University College Cork about her research into experiences of neurodivergence in the city. Show notes and transcript link available at https://blog.westminster.ac.uk/ata/new-ata-podcast-season/ Thanks to Therese and to our interns, Rob Coates (who prepared and edited the audio files) and James Stevenson (who […]
Still I Ride 2: How women of colour are challenging discourses in and through cycling December 7, 2021
Cycling has always been about more than its health, economic and environmental benefits. The rise of women cyclists coincided with the age of the new, educated and independent woman. The early moral outcry over women’s cycling outfits and alleged damage to their feminine physical features may seem ridiculous today yet cycling continues to be linked […]
Still I Ride 1: How women of colour are challenging discourses in and through cycling December 7, 2021
So, in a culture, where the car is really dominant, being a cyclist can make it feel like you’re a second class citizen. And if you already feel invisible in society, because of your identity, because of who you are or the way you look, it may seem odd that you would opt for more […]
Harrie Larrington-Spencer talks accessible cycling with Professor Rachel Aldred April 14, 2021
Professor Aldred talks to Harriet Larrington-Spencer, a researcher at Healthy Active Cities at the University of Salford. Harriet, or Harrie, developed an interest in active travel after experiencing cycling in Copenhagen and the Netherlands, and after losing the use of her left arm following a collision with a driver. Harrie discovered that while a tricycle […]
Active Travel Media Awards - the interviews part one January 28, 2021
Laura Laker interviews Fare City's Charles Critchell, the Active Travel Academy Media Awards' only double winner. In 2019 Charles won our investigations/long-term follow-up category for his piece, Burning Bridges, on the closure of Hammersmith Bridge to motor traffic, and in 2020 won the campaign or research category for a two-parter on non-commercial use of cargo […]
Low Traffic Neighbourhoods - latest evidence from the People and Places study September 23, 2020
Low traffic neighbourhoods have been around for decades – but recently many more have been deployed as part of COVID-19 interventions to help people walk and cycle more, and avoid public transport. New analysis of three years of the People and Places study in “Mini Hollands” in London, by Dr Rachel Aldred and Dr Anna […]

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