The Missing Mile: Informality, Access, and Urban Mobility Finance

We are happy to announce the second VREF “NextGen Research Forum” of 2026, on 10 June  2026 at 12:00-14.00 UTC. This time around we will be focusing on Informal and Shared Mobility, specifically: “The Missing Mile: Informality, Access, and Urban Mobility Finance”. The Forum will be held over Zoom (register below).

This Research Forum will bring together perspectives from mobility finance, travel behavior, climate vulnerability, and informal transport – to ask urgent questions such as: 

• How do we close the gap between where infrastructure money flows and how people actually move through their cities? 
• Can frameworks like the 15-minute city translate meaningfully into contexts where most mobility is informal and underfinanced? 
• What barriers keep informal transport locked out of recognition, investment, and fair formalization? 

Program

Welcome and Introduction
Jane Summerton, VREF

VREF Next Generation Initiative, Short orientation and updates
Maria José Combariza Nieto, Obed Bore (VREF NextGen Team)

Moderators:  Maria José Combariza Nieto, Obed Bore
Logistical Host: Karin Henriksson, VREF

Presentations

“Multimodal Mobility Hubs – The Node, the Place, and the People”
Presenter: Mohamed Elgohary, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
Discussant: Nicole Rosa Bertoldo, Universidade federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Brasil 

”Geopolitics and Gridlock: Urban Mobility in the Age of Financialized Infrastructure”
Presenter: Leah Lazer, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland 
Discussant: Samuel Akintomide Ajayi, Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute, Nigeria 

”Mobility and Access in Nairobi in the Lens of the 15-Minute City”
Presenter: John Omwamba, IUSS Pavia and University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy 
Discussant: Tom Courtright, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa 

Plenary Discussion || Reflections

We warmly invite you to join us

Sincerely, 
Jane Summerton, VREF Scientific Advisor
Karin Henriksson, VREF Communications Manager

On behalf of The VREF NextGen facilitating team: 

Shahan Ahmed (ISM)
Paschalin Basil (MAC)
Obed Bore (ISM)
Nisha Nair (Walking)
Kwame Odame (MAC)
Maria José Nieto Combariza (Walking)