Courtney Babb

My academic interests focus on the social sustainability of cities, urban mobility and accessibility, and issues of governance in urban planning.

I am a lecturer in the Department of Planning and Geography at Curtin University. I teach units in transport and land use integration, planning for sustainability, participatory planning, and planning research design and methodologies.

My PhD research focused on the relationship between children’s active and independent mobility, their wellbeing, and the tools that are used to evaluate the built environment. The research was part of an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Grant, CATCH (Children’s Active Travel, Social Connectedness and Health).

I have previously been employed as a research associate with the Planning and Transport Research Centre (PATREC) looking at issues relating to the integration of land use and transport planning in urban environments. Projects included an analysis of the transport and land use function of train stations in the Perth Metropolitan Area; the development of a framework categorising a comprehensive range of Travel Demand Management instruments and a review of policy appraisal methods; and a study of the transport patterns of grocery and supermarket freight. I have also been a researcher with GAMUT (Australian Centre for the Governance and Management of Urban Transport), investigating barriers to the implementation of integrated transport and land use policy, and with an ARC Discovery Grant investigating the impacts of transit led development in a new railway corridor.