Transport expert set to deliver inaugural lecture

A nationally-renowned academic will be exploring the issue of transport when he delivers his inaugural speech at the University of Plymouth next week. Professor Jon Shaw, of the University’s School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, will be asking why the topic of transport has fallen off the radar of policy-makers in the UK in comparison to other countries. The inaugural lecture – entitled ‘Come on up for the rising: transport geography and policy in the UK and beyond’ – is being held to commemorate his recent receipt of a professorship. Professor Shaw said: “The subject of transport was once a key element of human geography, but it has become rather detached from mainstream concerns in recent decades. For various reasons our transport system has fallen behind those in comparator European countries, and transport as an issue ranks low on lists of voters and politicians’ concerns at general elections. “I have become more and more interested in how and why transport – surely fundamental to human societies by any analysis – is often marginalised in geography and policy circles. Professor Shaw is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport.