LSE Cities researchers recognised at the 2026 LSE Impact Prize
LSE Cities researchers have been recognised in two categories at the 2026 LSE Impact Prize, which celebrates excellent engagement, impact and culture across the School.
Dr Philipp Rode, Charlie Hicks and Dr Alexandra Gomes won the Outstanding team impact prize for “Fair car use budgeting: an innovative tool for urban transport policy and deliberation”. Their research explores how fair car use budgets and public deliberation can inform urban transport policy, drawing on work with London car drivers to examine fairness and approaches to reducing car use.
LSE Cities developed UrbanMiles, a digital tool that uses road space data to estimate how far people can travel by car before causing gridlock, helping users explore questions of fairness and the distribution of car use budgets. Working with partners, the team also contributed to deliberative processes that informed Hackney Council’s transport strategy.
Commenting on the award, Dr Philipp Rode said: 'Driving in cities, where space is at a premium, should not be seen as an unquestioned right. We must acknowledge that driving in inner-city areas means making an exception for one’s own needs and choices, in environments where it’s simply not feasible for everyone to drive. That doesn’t make these needs or desires illegitimate, but it does mean recognising that not everyone can be accommodated equally. This award recognises our collaborative effort to put fairness at the heart of transport policy and involve people in shaping how cities reduce car use.'
Dr Alexandra Gomes, alongside Dr Asseel Al-Ragam, Sharifa Alshalfan, Tanushree Agarwal and Joao Peres, was also named a runner-up in Outstanding engagement for “Kuwaitscapes: a research-to-action framework for civic engagement in Kuwait”, an LSE Middle East funded project. Through a card game and digital participation platform, Kuwaitscapes makes urban research accessible and invites people to share ideas about public space and sustainable urban living.
Congratulations to all our colleagues and their collaborators on this recognition!