NEWS

5th September 2011

John Austin is speaking later this week at a major international conference in Vienna, Austria, on The use of Facebook and Twitter by the public transport sector in a time of major service disruption. 

24th August 2011

John Austin has written a feature article on the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway for the latest issue of New Transit. See it here.

9th August 2011

We now have a new Links page, chiefly for blogs that we particularly like.

19th July 2011

The House of Commons Transport Commitee issued its report on 'Taxis and private hire vehicles: the road to reform' today, and the National Association of Taxi Users (NATU), of which John Austin is Vice Chair, is delighted that many of its recommendations show a way to achive better quality provision of taxis for users.  NATU's Press Release is here; for the Transport Commitee's report see the UK Parliament website here.

4th July 2011

John is featured in the new TAN News Blog, online at transportassociates.blogspot.com

11th June 2011

John is contributing to the MSc course Traffic & Transport Information Design organised jointly by the International Institute of Information Design (IIID) and the University of Applied Sciences FH St. Poelten, Austria, under the auspices of UNESCO. 

5th May 2011

John Austin writes in the April 2011 issue of New Transit on the way Bus Service Quality affects Demand.  The article can be downloaded here.

8th December 2010

John Austin was a speaker at the Taxi User Conference, organised by Social Research Associates Ltd, held today at the superb Coventry Transport Museum. Coventry, situated at the heart of England, was a key centre for UK motor manufacturing for many decades, and is still the home of LTI, the manufacturer of the famous London black taxis.

The Conference marked the launch of the National Association of Taxi Users (NATU) and of the UK Taxi User web portal at www.taxiuser.com, the new ‘one-stop shop’ for taxi users. Social Research Associates Ltd is very active in carrying out research into the comparatively neglected taxi mode, and has constantly challenged the perception that taxis are mainly used only by the well-off: the reverse is actually true.

Research shows considerable unmet potential for taxis both as a main method of travel and as part of mixed mode journeys. With likely forthcoming cuts in public expenditure for bus services and their users already leading to significant bus service cuts, and with new DfT guidance on taxi licensing issued earlier this year, the time was right for a Conference to focus on the needs of taxi users.

Speakers at the Conference raised the needs of all groups who travel by taxis including women, children, and disabled people: John Austin spoke on “The future potential of taxis to increase the use of public transport”. This can be accessed here

6th December 2010