ProfessorStephen Greaves

Professor Stephen Greaves has firmly established himself as an international expert in two critical areas of travel behaviour research, namely 1) travel survey methods, and 2) sustainable travel behaviour. In terms of 1), Stephen has demonstrated how new technologies (GPS, smartphones), have allowed us to re-imagine how we might collect large-scale, multi-year travel/mobility data, to support a variety of contemporary transport policy questions. Successful examples include ARC-supported projects involving a 3-year investigation of cycling in Sydney using a combination of smartphone-based and web-based tools, and a 6 month investigation of driving behaviour using a GPS/web-based solution. Stephen has also been involved with more practical applications of how new technologies and ways of thinking can help address growing problems of non-response and survey fatigue with traditional surveys that provide municipalities with critical information for policy decisions. Evidence of his international reputation was the award of a prestigious visiting research fellowship in 2014 with the Université Paris-Est in Paris researching the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) technology in the French national travel survey.

In terms of 2), Stephen has been involved with research projects that have tackled key elements of the broader ‘sustainability’ of travel behaviour. These have included specific focus on exposure to pollution while travelling, safety implications of driving, micromobility, and autonomous vehicles, which currently come with more questions than answers. Stephen’s research in these areas has been characterised by a strong inter-disciplinary perspective including working with environmental scientists on air quality issues, insurance/actuarial experts on financial mechanisms to encourage behavioural change, and public health experts investigating the travel/health/economic impacts of active transport investments.