, and the Alderman responsible for transport and mobility policy. He took over the portfolio and immediately set about trying to make Ghent a more beautiful, peaceful city. As I can confirm from having visited, he really succeeded! But not without a lot of difficulty, even including death threats. Today’s episode is a masterclass in the art of transport changemaking: the focus on experimentation, clear strategy and the need for urgency. He also highlights the power of storytelling, the limitations of data and highlights that, despite the death threats, the Circulation Plan helped him increase his majority at the next election. Come with me to Belgium and see just what a motivated, inspiring transport changemaker can do.

Founding a startup is hard, but it’s even harder when you’re dealing with the most painful and emotive moments in peoples’ lives. That’s what Dan Garrett decided to do when he created Farewill, now the country’s largest “Deathtech” firm. His business enables peoples to self-serve themselves wills, as well as offering other services including probate and even cremation. How do you move fast when you’re dealing with something as important as death? How do you get the right balance between risk, rules and pace?

Mini Holland is the poster-child for the transformation of an urban area. A network of congested residential streets in North East London has become peaceful and tranquil. The local high street converted from a double-parked rat-run into a desirable pedestrianised destination. As the first Low Traffic Neighbourhood of the modern era, council reps from across Britain (and Europe) have visited to learn lessons. Not that I needed travel far: it all happened in Walthamstow, where I live, and my kids were two of the many who benefited. It was the vision of , and he tells me the full inspirational story in today’s episode.

Autonomous public transport has the potential to transform our cities. Suburbs that are not currently served by public transport could be cost-effectively connected for the first time, while conventional bus routes could be expanded. One city that is taking the lead in experimenting with autonomous public transport is Paris, under the leadership of James Dick at RATP. In today’s episode, he tells me just how close he believes they are to delivering autonomous buses out on the road, driverless and at scale. It’s a great conversation with a transport leader passionate about the future and making sure that our sector meets it head-on and with positivity. Enjoy!

Gian-Mattia Schucan founded Fairtiq to make travelling by public transport effortless: no tickets, no gates, no stress. We talk about the journey from idea to reality, what operators really want from innovators and how to make change happen in public transport. I’m sad to say that this is the last episode of Season 4 but, don’t worry, I’ll be back with Season 5 in September.

“It's fine when you're swinging big to have a few misses in a controlled environment” - , making it very clear that it’s fine for public sector organisations to try things and fail. In today’s episode, I talk to Jonny about what value for money really means, why BCR is often misused and how the NAO supports innovation in the public sector. The conversation about BCRs is also fascinating: highlighting that value-for-money rules don’t require complex decisions to be boiled down to a single number. Do take a listen to this one!

Olly Glover went from rail consultant to MP in a political whirlwind. We talk innovation in legacy sectors, the chaos of becoming an MP overnight and the culture of Westminster. Plus: why UK transport policy feels stuck and how we could actually fix electrification.

I spoke to Lars Strömgren, Stockholm’s Vice Mayor for Transport and Urban Environment, about the city’s journey from car-centricity to a cycling-friendly capital. We talked about his childhood on the back of his grandmother’s bike, the cultural shifts that made cycling mainstream and the urban planning philosophy that underpins Stockholm’s transformation - including how storytelling, kid-focused design and even building with wood all fit into a sustainable transport vision.

My guest this week is Anjali Devadasan, founder of Treeva, a startup generating energy from passing vehicles and trains. Her turbines harness airflow to power local infrastructure like lighting and EV chargers. We talked about the technology, the challenges of scaling, and her personal drive to tackle climate change, inspired by her family’s personal experience of climate-change induced flash floods. Anjali also shared great advice for founders around protecting time for strategy, running real world experiments and building around purpose. A truly inspirational conversation with someone who’s achieved incredible things very early in her career.

In Oslo, Christian Willoch and his team at Ruter are doing something most cities haven’t even begun to talk about – using autonomous vehicles to strengthen public transport, not compete with it. In this episode, I visit the pilot project they’ve got going, with real members of the public travelling on Ruter-branded autonomous vehicles in exactly the kind of outer suburb in which this technology will be transformative. We talk about why Oslo's approach isn’t about robotaxis, but about public service and affordable mobility for all. Christian shares the lessons they’ve learned, the challenges ahead and why cities need to start planning now before they’re caught off guard. Afterwards, I take a ride in one of their autonomous vehicles. You can listen into my live audio commentary of the experience…

Stephen Bush, Associate Editor at the Financial Times, is one of the few political journalists who truly gets transport policy. In this episode, we talk about why transport matters far more to economic productivity than politicians realise, why ambition in major infrastructure projects has declined since the financial crisis and why simply nationalising services won't fix public transport. Stephen also shares insights on why London’s success is the exception not the rule (and how its future success is not guaranteed) and we discuss whether a mayor of a major British city (Greater Manchester, for example) could become Prime Minister.

Elke Van den Brandt has transformed Brussels' streets – and taken a political battering for doing so. As the city’s mobility minister, she’s championed slower speeds, safer roads and public spaces that feel more like “living rooms than corridors”. We talk about her 30km/h city-wide limit, the backlash it sparked, the silent majority that supports it and the power of empathy, small projects and showing up in person. It was a superb insight into how political bravery, behavioural science and empathy (backed up by strong leadership) can work together to reshape cities for the better.

Here’s a taster of what’s coming up in Season 4. Subscribe to enjoy the full series!

For the last episode in Season 3, Tom Nutley of Urban Sharing joins me to unpack the challenges and missed opportunities in micro-mobility. From transport dead spots to Silicon Valley hype, we explore how cities and operators can deliver real public good through better integration, infrastructure and sustainable models. Tom doesn't hold back! I'll be back in May for Season 4.

How does Britain’s knowledge economy shape its cities? Paul Swinney from the Centre for Cities joins me to explore the North-South divide, the role of transport in economic growth and why second-tier cities underperform. We discuss what agglomeration means and why it matters, how post-pandemic work trends are reshaping transport needs and why investing in urban connectivity is key to unlocking Britain’s economic potential.

Lee Waters did something unfashionable in modern politics: he led. As both Minister for Transport and Minister for Climate Change in Wales, he curtailed road-building, introduced a national 20mph speed limit and set in motion reforms to create an integrated, publicly owned transport network. This episode is a masterclass in the reality of political change: why transport is so often overlooked, how to challenge decades of car-first orthodoxy and why evidence-based policy isn’t enough without political courage.

Frank Elter may be a part-time Professor, but he’s a very real-world professor. As Chief Scientist and Vice President at Telenor Research, he’s responsible for innovation and planning for one of Norway’s telecoms giants. He has thought deeply about how corporations can stay innovative. He’s thought about it concerning his work, and he’s researched at his university. He’s even written a book. On this edition of The Freewheeling Podcast we talk about how modularity can help organisations be “ambidextrous” (i.e. able to focus on operations and innovation), and the fact that every approach creates new problems to solve. He also tells a pretty remarkable story about how Telenor started its most innovative project to date!

The UK public sector spends somewhere between £300 billion and a trillion. A lot of that goes through public procurement processes. That creates enormous innovation potential. Yet, being honest, the words “public sector procurement” aren’t seen as synonyms for innovation. This week, the new Procurement Act 2023 comes into force, so it seems a good time to stop and look at why public sector procurement is a challenge and what can be done about it. My guest is a former colleague. I knew Rikesh Shah when he was a colleague as Head of Open Innovation at Transport for London, but now he heads up the Government’s Innovation Procurement Empowerment Centre. In this conversation, we discuss how cultural barriers, such as fear of failure, hinder innovation in procurement and the barriers startups face in selling to the public sector. Rikesh talks me through how the new Procurement Act introduces pre-market engagement as a requirement and he emphasises the benefits of a process called the Competitive Flexible Procedure. Above all, though, it’s about the need for public sector organisations to embrace experimentation and iteration.

Why don’t we build homes people wish to live in? Terraced streets are popular and sustainable and support shops, services and transport, so why do we keep building low-density, car-dependent suburbs? And what needs to be done to create a nationwide tram renaissance? These are just some of the questions I get into in discussion with David Milner, the MD of Create Streets. Create Streets is a curious outfit: officially, it’s a design consultancy. But it has a policy and lobbying arm, and is highly influential with the current Government. Not bad for just 10 people… If, like me, you would love to see some big changes in how we design and build towns, this is an episode you’ll enjoy.

Everyone agrees we need more sustainable transport but no-one has enough money to pay for it. Could ‘land value capture’ be the answer? This is the approach where by transport lines are funded through the increases in the land value that the stations stimulate. Well, George Hazel thinks so. In fact, he knows so, because he developed the land value capture method used for the recently-reopened Northumberland line. In today’s episode he tells me how it works; but only after a fascinating discussion on the “Seven Deadly Wins” for making a city succeed.