News

Dr Hannah Budnitz was honoured to win this year's Royal Town Planning Institute Early Career Researcher Award for her research into the non-work activities and trips taken by telecommuters. Read why it is important to land use planners to consider the location and accessibility of non-work destinations.

Dr Juan Pablo Orjuela has been working with low-income women in Itagüí, part of the Medellin metropolitan area (Colombia), but COVID-19 has brought new challenges on how to engage with communities in the midst of lockdown measures. Read his blog entry on the PEAKUrban website on how the co-creation of a group name and image has helped in the process.

Prior to the global pandemic, climate researchers identified an uncomfortable truth: the very meetings and events meant to support the fight against climate change were themselves causing vast greenhouse gas emissions through international air travel.

The University of Oxford's #TruePlanet campaign, which featured researchers from across the School of Geography and the Environment, has been selected as a finalist in the Guardian's annual awards. The campaign, which highlighted Oxford's global research on climate, energy, food, water, waste and biodiversity, is shortlisted in the category of marketing and communications.

Inactivity is now one of the top four risk factors for premature deaths. In response to this, the Transport Studies Unit's Christian Brand has helped develop the World Health Organisation 'HEAT' tool, which quantifies the health and carbon benefits of walking and cycling, and is used by local and national governments across the globe.

In an attempt to incentivise people to use cars less often, in favour of greener public transport options, all buses, trams, and trains in Luxembourg were made free of charge at the start of this month. The TSU's Tim Schwanen discusses the initiative, and its political nature, and questions whether it will balance out social and economic inequalities - in an article on the Are We Europe website.