FIT announces initiative on transport knowledge dissemination

A new initiative to explore and address changes in the way newly-emerging specialist knowledge, expertise and insight is collected and disseminated in the transport sector is being launched by The Foundation for Integrated Transport (FIT) in partnership with LTT Editorial Director Peter Stonham.

The project is being supported through a donation from Peter Stonham, founder and long serving Editorial Director of LTT, one of the sector’s leading publications, reflecting his career dedication to advancing independent and investigative journalism, documenting transport’s social and political history, and encouraging the awareness of original new thinking and research.

Under a Memorandum of Understanding between FIT and the donor, the funding will be allocated to a restricted fund with specific priorities, including:

• Facilitating an informed discussion of the contemporary transport professional landscape for quality information and knowledge exchange, examining the flow of specialised information necessary to achieve both internal shared understanding within the professional sector, and external influence.This includes informing and shaping public opinion and decision-making processes.The conversation will reflect the evolving context of a radically transformed digital world, re-shaping the media business, publishing, knowledge sharing, and opinion exchange, disrupting traditional channels, processes, values, and commercial models.

• Supporting specialised national and local high quality analytical and investigative journalism focused on transport issues, and enhancing the dissemination of these stories to aid decision-makers, practitioners, and the public. This may be undertaken by way of a FIT Fellowship to support someone actively working in this information chain.

• Preserving and curating the history of transport decision-making knowledge will also form part of the project, including ensuring the archives of Local Transport Today (LTT), which spans over 900 editions since 1987, are readily accessible for future generations, whilst continuing the LTT professional mission and ethos.

As an initial first step the Foundation and Peter Stonham will be organising a special round table on the above topics in the next few months, and are inviting expressions of interest from people who would like to join that discussion, and/or to engage with the activities of this initiative.

This two parties believe their collaboration represents a significant step in fostering the future of transport information distribution, journalism and commentary to secure and enhance the quality and breadth of policy and practice discussion. It is hoped to support the process of content creation by a new generation of specialist independent journalists and writers, whilst ensuring that the public and decision-makers alike are well served with the best available information and that the history and legacy of past decisions remains accessible.

Stephen Joseph, FIT Chair, said “this initiative adds an important new dimension to FIT’s research funding and sponsorship activities by recognising the issue of how good quality and independently generated information is at risk by changes in the media landscape, and must be secured and available to both practitioners and decision-makers to support the achievement of sustainable transport”.

Peter Stonham said: “I recognise and respect the mission of FIT and its founder Simon Norton, and see a good match between its role, and that of my own life in specialist publishing and information creation and distribution as undertaken by LTT and the associated activities of Landor LINKS. Independent, challenging and reliable sources are essential in informing objective policy making in an era where personal opinions and self-serving spin are both strongly held and easily spread via digital channels, though often with an absence of evidence, quality control, properly collated facts and the presentation of a suitable breadth and depth of balanced opinion”.

Anyone interested in being a part of this project should contact admin@integratedtransport.co.uk