Where do you think you’re going…?

25th June 2009 Newcastle upon Tyne

10:00am – 6pm

Newcastle University and Imperial College hosted a different sort of Workshop to help shape future research into sustainable intelligent transport.

It was sparky; it was challenging; it thought the unthinkable – and it was FREE with refreshments provided.
You didn’t miss it, did you?

– Will the internet and technology influence how we travel? Whether we travel at all?
– Can technology help mobility?
– How useful is “user-generated content”?
– How far can mobile internet and Web2.0 get you? – literally
– Where is transport research going?
– Did Beethoven have a food processor?

Over 70 participants came and listened to new thoughts on old problems; shared with eachother what they think matters; showed us what they’re up to; joined in when people asked the questions they’ve always wanted to pose on transport and the internet; suggested the areas you think need investigation.

Proceedings were be live blogged and tweeted from the event; together with remote contributions. These will be forwarded to EPSRC as the outcome of the workshop and as part of the SIMM final report.

If you’d like details about the workshop please contact Hannah Bryan: hannah.bryan@newcastle.ac.uk at Newcastle University (0191 222 6420).

Topics from User generated travel information, journey planning, traffic control and reputation management to electric vehicles were discussed at the one day workshop organised by Newcastle University’s Transport Operations Research Group (TORG) and Imperial College London as part of an EPRSC project to determine the direction of travel of transport research over coming years.  TORG is involved in Newcastle University’s ‘SIDE’ Digital Economy Research Hub and the northeast electric vehicle demonstrator project which also includes the Tanfield Group, Avid Vehicles and Nissan.     

Some feedback:

• Really great event
• Thanks for a great day out in Newcastle. Only 10 mins from Hoults Yd to Station by Brompton. Multi-modal travelling!
• Excellent crack with @mikeyparker, @paul_vaclik and @davidcoxon after @wdytyg. Well wicked event, and thanks to @hannahbryan for sorting it.
• Keep in touch online! It was interesting. Congratulations for the organization
• The excellent cover it live transcripts make up a bit for not being able to attend the Digital Transport workshop yesterday. Thanks
• A bloody good conference
• Very interesting and stimulating event! I’ll be looking on Flickr for the photos
• Justin Souter’s done a great job of live blogging today’s diverse range of topics
• Excellent day, great attendance, funky venue, novel pyromaniacs lunch, well done
• Sad to be missing out on #wdytyg because the transportation issue of being nowhere near, but enjoying the liveblogging
• Congrats and thanks given from everybody for opening up a debate in experimental and v.successful way

Proceedings can be seen via the workshop website https://digitaltransport.wordpress.com and as the four individual sessions at

• Directions of Travel
• Building Blocks of the Digital Economy
• Responses to Session 2
• Pre-aperitif Discussion

Search for #wdytyg on Twitter and wdytyg on Slideshare and Flickr for slides and photos respectively and wdytyg on your favourite search tool for blog entries by attendees.