Professor David Banister

David Banister is Emeritus Professor of Transport Studies at the School of Geography and the Environment (SoGE) and also the Transport Studies Unit. He is a Senior Research Fellow at St Anne's College. He was Director of the Transport Studies Unit from 2006 until 2015, and during 2009-2010. He was also Acting Director of the Environmental Change Institute in SoGE. 

Until 2006, he was Professor of Transport Planning at University College London. He has been Research Fellow at the Warren Centre in the University of Sydney (2001-2002) on the Sustainable Transport for a Sustainable City project and was Visiting VSB Professor at the Tinbergen Institute in Amsterdam (1994-1997). He was a visiting Professor at the University of Bodenkultur in Vienna in 2007. He was the first Benelux BIVET-GIBET Transport Chair (2012-2013).

David has authored and edited 25 books that summarise his own research and some of the international projects that he has been involved with. He has also authored (or co-authored) more than 350 papers in international refereed journals, together with a similar number of other papers in journals or as contributions to books. Other outputs include research monographs (over 50), and reports for research sponsors (over 100). Over the period 2001-2014, over 120 papers have been presented at major national and international conferences.

Since his retirement from Oxford University (October 2015), he has continued to be actively involved in a range of research activities:

He is a  Commissioner on two major UK charity-based organisations – the Independent Commission on Transport (http://www.theitc.org.uk/) and the Commission for Creating Healthy Cities (https://www.healthycitiescommission.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/What-Creates-Healthy-Cities.pdf).

David has maintained his international links through working on a range of Advisory Boards. For example, he was Chair of the Advisory Board for the Urban Big Data Centre in Glasgow University (2015-2022), and a member of the International Advisory Boards of the Swedish K2 Knowledge Centre for Public Transport, the Hong Kong Joint Lab on Future Cities, the MISTRA-SAMS Sustainable Accessibility and Mobility Services project in Sweden, and as an evaluator for the European Science Foundations Community of Experts.

With more space and time to write (and edit) he has continued his research and publications including five books, and 70 papers that have been published in international refereed journals. One paper has  had 480,000 views https://doi.org/10.1080/01441647.2015.1065456 and another paper is one of the most cited in the transport literature (more than 4000 citations on Google Scholar) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2007.10.005.

David has been Editor in Chief of Transport Reviews for the last 20 years, and during that time it has become one of the top two Transport Journals in terms of its impact factor (since 2016) when its impact factor was 3.329. It has now (2020) increased to 9.643. He retired from the role in January 2021.

He has an established international reputation in transport research, in particular the contribution that the social sciences can make to the analysis of transport. His current research has concentrated on five main areas:

1. Policy Scenario Building

This has been undertaken in the context of sustainable urban development and transport. The perspective taken is a long term one (2030+), and it explores the future of cities and how transport can contribute to that future. Novel methods of modified participatory backcasting have been used to develop visions of desirable city futures, together with the analysis of policy packages and paths to move towards those futures. Two simulation models have been developed, one for role playing (TC-SIM) and the other to use multi-criteria assessment methods (INTRASIM).

2. Reducing the Need to Travel

This includes analysis of pricing and planning interventions to achieve reductions in trip distances, car use and emissions. Much of this research is related to city centre options, including raising densities, settlement size thresholds, mixed use developments, and local neighbourhood design issues. The key concern here is to provide local opportunities and to improve accessibility so that the quality of life in cities can be improved.

3. Climate Change, Energy and Environmental Modelling

This research has acted as an integrating part of the research, as it examines the means by which the carbon and energy costs of transport can be quantified and used in evaluation. It also covers the energy consumption patterns of different settlement types and their associated travel demand patterns.

4. Transport Investment and Economic Development

This research has tackled the important issue of measuring the non transport benefits of transport investments. Methodologies have been developed to identify additionality or new activity (employment, inward investment, land and property value uplift) resulting from transport investments, and this has involved the use of time series data and GIS mapping techniques.

Research Projects - since 2006

1. NERC, ESRC, EPSRC, MRC, BBSRC - part of the TSEC - BIOSYS project on assessing the potential and use of biomass in energy supply: completed 2009.
2. VIBAT-London: visioning and backcasting for London transport to 2050, HEFCE and DIUS, with other similar studies in Delhi: completed 2009. Continued with further commissions from Delhi (ADB), Vancouver, Oxfordshire, Auckland, and Jinan.
3. EEA (European Environment Agency) - Expert advice on Transport, Emissions and the Environment, with TRL and on Scenario Building: 2008-2010.
4. EPSRC - two major studies: iConnect has developed the measurement and monitoring of walking and cycling in the UK, and Visions2030 has used innovative methods to explore the means by which a significant increase in levels of walking and cycling can take place - use of scenario building, visualisation and participatory methods: 2008-2013.
5. OMS (Oxford Martin School) - Helped set up the Institute for Carbon and Energy Reduction in Transport, with the Department of Engineering: 2009-2013; and the Complexity Institute, with the Saïd Business School: 2013-2015.
6. FP7 EU FREIGHTVISION project on long term futures for freight transport in Europe: 2008-2010. This was followed by the FP7 LOGMAN project on logistics and organisational issues relating to freight transport in Europe: 2010-2012.
7. ESRC project on older people's views on their quality of life and its enhancement: completed 2009.
8. ESRC/DfT UK Transport Research Centre scanning project on Climate Change and Transport: 2010-2011.
9. FP7 OPTIC project on examining policy options in combination, including their effectiveness, synergies, rebound effects and unintended consequences: 2009-2012. This has been followed by the TRANSFORuM project: 2012-2014.
10. OxTran - networking project for researchers in the Oxford Region interested in transport: 2008-2010.
11. UN-HABITAT 2013 Global Report on Human Settlements on Sustainable Urban Transport: 2010-2012.
12. OMS (Oxford Martin School) Future of Cities programme project on Visioning and Backcasting of sustainable Transport in Jinan (China): 2010-2012.
13. Danish Council for Strategic Research projects on Drivers and Limits, and on Measurement of Uncertainty in Project Evaluation - 2010-2013. This has been followed by the SUSTAIN project: 2013-2015 and the TRANSTOOLS3 project: 2012-2014. All these projects are in conjunction with DTU.
14. EPSRC Research Centre on Innovation and Energy Demand, with Sussex and Manchester Universities: 2013-2017.
15. EU SPREE Project on servicising and drawing links between energy, water and transport research approaches: 2012-2014.
16. Norwegian Research Council - projects with TØI (Oslo) - URBANEFF (Aud Tennøy) and Travel behaviour change in Greater Oslo (Tom Erik Julsrud).

Additional smaller projects on Transport and Health (WHO), ASEAN Cities (ITPS and TRL), High Speed Rail (Warwick Business School), UK Foresight programme, and the TSB Feasibility Study on Oxford (MobOx).

David taught on the Final Honour School Option course 'Transport and Mobilities'. He also taught half the 'Cities, Sustainable Transport and Mobilities' option for the MSc Courses, as well as core sessions of the MSc on Transport and Climate Change, on Energy and Sustainable Transport, and on Public Acceptability in Transport.

David was responsible for 12 undergraduate students in geography at St Anne's College with Dr Nick Middleton, organising and taking a full part in their weekly tutorial sessions. 

He contributed to the Transport module taught for the MSc in Sustainable Urban Development run by ContEd, and on the four new Leadership Courses being run by the TSU as part of their emerging portfolio of advanced courses.

Recent Graduate Research Students (since 2006)

David was editor of the Journal Transport Reviews (2000-2021) and he is still one of the joint editors of Built Environment (1993-). 

He has been an International Assessor for the Delft Technical University Research Centres 2006, OTB 2002, 2004, TRAIL, 2006, and a member of the Transumo Scientific Consultative Committee 2005-2010. 

He has been an assessor for Volvo Foundation's Future Urban Transport research programme 2006-2007, their PhD programme (2008), and the 2009 VINNOVA assessment of Swedish Transport Research Centres. 

He was involved in the assessment of the EU ERC Advanced Investigators Grants (2007-2012 - Vice Chairman and Chairman 2013-2014), and the ERC Synergy Grants (2012-2013). He was involved in the European Parliament's STOA study on the future of long distance travel in Europe (2007-2008), and he has been involved in research with several international agencies, including EU 7th Framework Programme projects, The European Environment Agency, The Asian Development Bank, ITPS in Japan, the Copenhagen Research Forum (2012), the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, OECD, WHO and UN Habitat.

David has also advised on appointments and promotions for International Chairs in the USA, Canada, Israel, Netherlands, Finland and Australia, as well as at various institutions in the UK, including: Newcastle, Leeds, Loughborough, Aberdeen, Liverpool, Bristol and London.

He has acted as an adviser to several government departments (Defra, DfT, DECC, Cabinet Office, and the NAO). He has been a member of numerous Research Council Committees including; EPSRC Link Programme on Future Integrated Transport 1999-2004; EPSRC Link Programme on Inland Surface Transport 1996-2002, and the ESRC Professorial Fellows panel (2010). 

He has been the director of the ESRC Transport and Environment programme, a member of the EU STELLA/STAR TransAtlantic Research Network organising team 2000-2005, the ODPM Planning Research Network (2003-6) as well as the HEFCE RAE Town and Country Planning Panels (1999-2001 and 2006-2008).

David has delivered numerous invited keynote speeches for overseas conferences, these include: Amsterdam, Gent, Luxembourg, Barcelona (2013); Jinan, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Bruges, Brussels, Stockholm, Copenhagen (2012); Tokyo, Vancouver, Berlin, Barcelona, Munich, Kyoto, (2011); Copenhagen, Paris, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Lisbon, Volos, Stockholm, Berkeley (2010); Delhi, Copenhagen and Paris (2009); Dublin and Brussels (2008). He was awarded the Transport Policy Prize for his 2008 Transport Policy paper entitled 'The Sustainable Mobility Paradigm' at the 12th World Conference on Transport Research.

Books

(2025) The Imperatives of Sustainable Development: Needs, Justice, Limits. Second Edition. London: Routledge. 

Banister, D. (2018) Inequality in Transport. Marcham: Alexandrine Press. 

Published papers

D’Acci, L., Banister, D., White, R. (2024) Liveable urban morphogenesis: planning, self-organisation, and a third way (isobenefit urbanism). Nature: Humanities and Social Science Communications 11, 578.

Loo, B., Tsoi, K., Banister, D. (2021) “Mind the (Policy-Implementation) Gap”: Transport decarbonisation policies and performances of leading global economies (1990-2018). Global Environmental Change 68, May 2021, 102250.

Holden, E., Linnerud, K., Banister, D. (2014) Sustainable development: Our Common Future revisited. Global Environmental Change 26, pp130-139. 

See Google Scholar  for full overview of publications.