The transport group
Beginnings (to 1980)
The Transport Group began with the appointment of Ken Ogden in 1969. Ken initiated the undergraduate transport subjects and developed research programs in freight movement.
Ken was joined by Mike Taylor in 1971 and Tony Richardson in 1973. Mike focused his research on local area traffic modeling and developed the LATM (Local Area Traffic Model) package. Tony developed an interest in behavioral modeling, bus priority and data collection procedures.
Mike left to join CSIRO in 1974; Bill Young joined the academic staff in 1977. Bill's research interests were focused on the interaction between land-use and transport.
The group continued to develop its undergraduate teaching and research activities, Ken moving into the road safety area, Bill into parking, and Tony into data collection and interpretation.
Coursework Masters Degree
In 1978 the group initiated a coursework Masters in Transport. This program was the only coursework masters in Victoria and attracted a large number of the high quality professionals. Many of these initial students are now in senior transport positions in Australia.
The coursework masters also spawned the highly successful Traffic Engineering Practice (TEP) workshop and the policy lecture series.
Staff Changes (1980 - )
Tony Richardson left the group in 1982 to join the Ministry of Transport as Director of Research and Development; Mike Taylor returned (from CSIRO) in 1983. Mike continued his research in local area traffic modeling and, with Bill, developed a series of short courses (Traffic Flow Theory, Traffic Survey Methods, Traffic Simulation, Parking Design and Data), which were offered around Australia.
Mike moved to the position of Professor of Transport at the University of South Australia in 1988. He was replaced - briefly - by Donna Nelson (1989-1991), who in turn was replaced by Geoff Rose in 1993.
In 1996 Ken Ogden left the Institute to take up the position of Manager, Policy and Planning with the RACV. Peter Daly came to the Department as a lecturer in 1996 (later leaving to join Ken at the RACV in 2000). Stephen Greaves contributed to the Group with his work in synthetic data sets (2001 - 2004).
In 1998 Bill Young was appointed Professor in Civil Engineering and became Head of the Department in 1999. Geoff Rose took over as Director of the Institute of Transport Studies (Monash) in 1998.
(The steady expansion of the group continued in 2003 when Professor Graham Currie was appointed to the externally funded Chair in Public Transport.)
Key Centre in Transport
In 1995 the Monash Transport Group along with the Institute of Transport Studies at the University of Sydney bid for funding for The National Key Center in Transport Management. It was successful in gaining this funding and started the Institute of Transport Studies (Monash) in 1996. Bill Young took over as Head of the Monash Node of the Center, transferring this to Ken Ogden in 1996.
The formation of the Key Center inter alia allowed the development of an education program for Bus and Coach operators and the parking industry, which has been outstandingly successful (attracting 2000 students to year 2005).
[The above has been a one sided account, not mentioning the vital contributions of visiting professionals, laboratory and secretarial staff. Above all, the students (undergraduate and postgraduate) are as important as all the rest in the quality of achievement.]