Honorary MBE for Tom van Vuren

Tom van Vuren has been awarded an honorary MBE for services to transport. Honorary decorations are awarded to people who are neither British nor Commonwealth nationals but who have made a “significant contribution to relations between the UK and their own country”. 

Tom van Vuren is a chartered transport planning professional with almost 40 years’ global experience in the delivery of transport planning, modelling and research projects. In 2004 he was appointed as a visiting professor by the University of Leeds, and he also serves on its Advisory Board.

Since 2006 he has chaired the annual Modelling World conference, in the UK and in Dubai. Between 2007 and 2010 he chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association for European Transport and in that capacity chaired the European Transport Conference.

Through applied R&D and peer review, Tom van Vuren has contributed to the Department for Transport’s TAG strategic modelling advice and he is a member of the DfT’s Joint Analysis Development Panel and its RIS External Analytical Advice and Challenge Panel, reporting to the DfT Chief Analyst.

Since 2021 he has volunteered as the director for policy at the Transport Planning Society.

He told LTT: “What pleases me most is that a colleague in my professional transport planning circle has taken the effort to make a case for this honour, recognising the importance of modelling and data, quantified evidence, for transport-related decision-making, and for what I believe in: understanding the theory but applying it in a practical context. 

“As far as I can see, many people receive these honours for careers in the military; all I can be accused of is apparently waging a war against the motorist! Our profession isn’t that old, only around 50 or 60 years, really; and many of the tools we use now were developed for a historically data-poor environment, with mathematical models filling the gaps. 

“Now, if anything, we drown in data, so our modelling challenge is different. I also can’t remember a time in my career that transport was as political as today. Transport modelling and data analytics are critical, but we must change to be heard.”

Meet Tom van Vuren MBE at Modelling World in Birmingham on 2-3 November.