Dr Vanessa Ternes

Vanessa Ternes is a Research Associate in the Transport Studies Unit. Her research explores the intersection of transport policy, climate change and fairness. She uses qualitative and participatory methods as well as systems thinking to understand perceptions and lived experiences of transport transitions. 

She completed her PhD at the University of Leeds (2026), where she studied the role of fairness in transport decarbonisation: Her research thus examined how fairness is (not) considered in planning processes, and how public perceptions of transport policies affect fairness outcomes. Prior to that, Vanessa’s background is in climate change and sustainability: She completed her MSc in Climate Change Science and Policy at the University of Bristol (2019) and worked for London-based charity The Restart Project on campaigns against electronic waste.

As part of the INCLUCity+ project, Vanessa now researches how logistics is embedded in planning for low traffic neighbourhoods and what the fairness implications are.