The Transport Planning Society offers £500 bursaries to young transport planners to produce original thinking on a topic of current relevance to transport planning. The topic for the 2015 competition was “How can Demand Management be achieved without full Road User Charging?”

The Society is delighted to announce three winners :

Hannah Beaven (WSP) – “Making the Case for Active Travel Initiatives as a Travel Demand Management Tool – Ways forward given Problems with Evaluation”

Melina Christina (Atkins) – “Time to Spread the Peak!”

Tom Fleming (ITP) – “Travel Budgeting – the New Incentive-led Approach to an Integrated System of Travel Taxation”.

Melina Christina was awarded the prize for Bursary of the Year at the TPS meeting on 3 March 2016.

Melina explained the potential benefits of peak spreading on London Underground. Through a literature review and a survey of central London employees, she identified the opportunities and constraints involved, and the incentives needed to achieve it, such as financial savings for travelling off-peak and realtime information about crowding. Case studies from overseas supported her conclusions.

Tim Morton, TPS Director responsible for the 2015 Bursary competition, commented “All three Bursary papers were well researched and very thought provoking. The TPS Board particularly liked Melina’s paper because it was a rounded piece of work and her employee survey added a new insight to the subject.”                                                                     

The competition for the 2016 Bursary Awards will be announced in April