I believe economic and social research should be directly applicable by governments, practitioners, associations, and the public. That’s why I have produced research outputs directed at these users. Academic papers are a boring and sterile way to present research results. Who wants to plough through never-ending equations, jargon, and acronyms, only to find at the end that “more research is needed”?
One way for researchers to be directly useful to the “real world” is to do what governments or the industry ask us (and pay us) to do, in consultancy projects. I have worked on 46 consultancy reports commissioned by governmental organizations, transport authorities, and private companies. They are all listed in this other page.
Another way to be useful is to adapt research results so that they can be used to support the decisions made by governments or companies. Below are some examples from my research.
Decision-support tools
These tools can be used to find solutions for problems or to analyse and forecast the effects of those solutions. Most of the tools that I’ve created are open access and can be used by anyone with minimal data or technical knowledge. I have produced other tools, not listed below, because they were confidential. They are listed under point 4 here.
Option Generation Tools for Streetspace Allocation
Community Severance Valuation Tool
Demand and revenue forecasting
Policy briefs and guidelines
These documents describe problems in clear, non-academic language, recommend solutions for those problems, and detail technical procedures for governments to implement those solutions. All documents are open access.
The CREATE Guidelines for Urban Mobility Policy
The MORE Handbook for Active Street Planning, Design, and Management
The STEPS-Havana Policy Briefs