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Author: search.filters.author.Imran MStart date: 2020

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Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Automated and disrupted mobilities: Insights from the New Zealand industry sector
    (Elsevier Ltd, 2025-10) Shammut M; Imran M
    This paper aims to understand the readiness of automated vehicles (AVs) technology in New Zealand (NZ) through the lens of the mobilities paradigm. Drawing on interviews with AVs industry participants, the findings are categorised into three interrelated themes: (1) hard infrastructure, (2) soft infrastructure, and (3) future infrastructure development. First, hard infrastructure highlights the complexities of urban environments and AVs difficulty in predicting road users' movements. Second, soft infrastructure reveals that connectivity standardisation could enhance AVs communication, yet coverage inconsistencies may disrupt AVs Over-The-Air (OTA) updates. The findings also show how the AVs industry is perceived as ‘owners’ of AVs personal user data, raising ethical concerns around monetisation and surveillance. Third, future infrastructure development could help facilitate AV deployment, particularly through greater collaboration between and across the tech-industry, government, ‘ethical hackers’, and the use of techniques like ‘network slicing’. This paper concludes that while achieving driving autonomy is complex, deploying AVs in limited urban settings (e.g., shuttle services) offers opportunities to incrementally learn from real-world conditions. Overall, this paper responds to controversial and underexplored questions around AVs data ownership, industry use of personal data, infrastructure resilience, and government-industry collaboration for AV-ready cities. This paper contributes to the mobilities paradigm by extending our understanding of the unintended technological consequences of AVs uptake, and offers context-specific insights for policymakers, urban planners, and the industry to better understand the barriers and opportunities towards AVs implementation in future cities.
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    Governance of automated mobilities transition in Aotearoa New Zealand
    (Elsevier Ltd., 2024-08-01) Shammut M; Imran M
    This paper explores how political-institutional factors influence the transition towards automated vehicles (AVs) in New Zealand (NZ). Using the lens of ‘mobilities paradigm’ and analysing policy documents along with interviews data from government officials, the findings reveal the complexity of governing AVs transition due to fragmented responsibility, contested visions, and high interdependency across government agencies. The findings suggest that strong political leadership coupled with infrastructure investments and building regulators’ capability are important catalysts of change towards AVs transition in NZ. The paper concludes that the complex governance environment, and the central government action and inaction to set priority for the AVs agenda, may hinder or facilitate a smooth transition towards AVs in NZ. This paper contributes to the mobilities paradigm by enriching our understanding of the political-institutional challenges associated with the emergence of AVs and offers illuminating policy guidance to better inform decision-making around governing the future transition towards AVs.
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    New Zealand public transport agencies' responses to COVID-19: Understanding public transport services, infrastructure and communication measures
    (John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2024-05-01) Whale J; Imran M
    COVID-19 brought public health challenges to the public transport system throughout the world. As a result, a range of response measures were implemented to ensure the safety of passengers while maintaining a functioning system. This paper explores the responses of public transport agencies in New Zealand's metropolitan cities (Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington) to the COVID-19 pandemic by examining their physical and communication measures. We analysed public transport agencies' websites to understand the response measures implemented, including the accessibility of COVID-19-related information, and the communication of information via websites and social media platforms. The results show that 13 service responses were implemented across the three public transport agencies, with Auckland implementing the most measures. Seven infrastructural responses were implemented, with Christchurch implementing all seven. Wellington was found to be the public transport agency that used social media the most during the pandemic. The website accessibility findings suggest that the more accessible a public transport agency's website was, the less information was present. The research concludes that all three public transport agencies in New Zealand performed reasonably well and were able to maintain a safe and responsive public transport system.
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    Transitioning towards a circular economy solar energy system in Northern Australia: insights from a multi-level perspective
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2023-05-04) Mathur D; Gregory R; Imran M
    Increasing resource efficiency and decreasing waste by 2030 through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse is one of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Australia is predicted to have up to 145,000 t of solar panel waste by 2030 and many large-scale solar systems are proposed to be built across Northern Australia. Research suggests that solar panel consumption and waste patterns are not dissimilar to other forms of e-waste such as mobile phones. Consequently, there is a need to rethink how the end of life of solar panels is managed. In this paper we raise the question of how Northern Australia should plan for managing solar panel waste arising from these huge installations in the future. This paper draws on the multi-level perspective, as a framework for conceptualising the transition challenges associated with promoting a circular solar energy system in the region. Adopting this approach facilitates consideration of social, technical and political drivers of solar panel waste and their implications for governance and planning in regional Australia. It is suggested that planning activities aimed at strategic, tactical and operational levels can help Northern Australia transition into a sustainable regional future. Practitioner pointers: Need to develop planning system/framework/process for waste arising from solar farms. Usefulness of the multi-level perspective for identifying the range of stakeholders, barriers and drivers. Rethinking regional development of Northern Australia through a new industry space between the solar and waste sectors.