We know that transport is one of the biggest hurdles in Bristol’s response to the climate emergency. Emilia’s time with WESTACT outside of Praxis Research works to jump that hurdle, and platform unheard voices in transport conversations in the West of England.
WESTACT - West of England Shared Transport and Active Travel - are a community engagement organisation working towards sustainable, integrated, and socially just transport systems. They aim to highlight and share a diverse range of perspectives, particularly ones that are often pushed to the side in transport decision-making. Through stalls in village halls and workshop days in Bristol City Centre, WESTACT hears from loads of different people about how poor public transport and active travel systems in the West of England, like the buses and poor quality cycle lanes, impact their daily lives.
In 2024, Emilia ran an event as part of WESTACT called ‘Imagining the Future of Transport.’ The all-day event at Sparks was attended by x number of people, with workshops, stalls, talks, and activities for people of all ages and abilities. There was a panel with organisers and campaigns for safer streets for children, bus franchising, and climate action, with information about accessible transport design and videos by young people speaking on their transport needs. Towards the end of the day, everyone got involved in creating a People’s Passenger Transport Executive.
Shortly afterwards, WESTACT organised a Transport Hustings for the West of England Combined Authority Mayor elections. The Hustings were created in collaboration with local transport campaigners such as the Bristol Cycling Campaign and Walk Ride Bath, among others. The Mayoral candidates were asked the important questions about transport in our city and the wider region, and asked what their commitments were if they got into office.
WESTACT ventured out into more rural areas with their Imagining the Future of Public Transport series in 2025, setting up shop in village halls and directly in the heart of some of the communities most excluded in transport discussions. They spoke to residents whose bus services have been cut and whose train stations have been closed for decades; who have poor pedestrian crossings and no cycle lanes; who can’t leave or even move around their village safely. Their experiences will continue to be shared with the local and regional government - the people with decision-making power who need to hear it most
Having collaborated with other regional campaigns for better transport, WESTACT realised there was a piece of the puzzle missing: there was no group demanding better for our bus network. And so Reclaim Our Buses was born, a campaign to bring the buses more into public control through franchising in the West of England. The campaign pressures WECA through lobbying at council meetings, petitions, and artistic protest actions highlighting how the West of England is getting left behind by poor buses.
All of these projects complement Praxis Research’s work. With both theory and practice - the two sides of the praxis coin - amplifying the appetite for change from a variety of ordinary voices brings the practice through to the theory, putting the experiences of those most impacted into the policy-making and research rooms. Engaging communities in making things better for people and the planet is a shared goal between WESTACT and Praxis Research.