Mobility Design Lab
A uniquely situated group of design researchers working across the mobility landscape.
From personal to public transport, bikes to buses, family cars to autonomous vehicles, Mobility Design Lab (MDL) researchers are experts at designing to better understand how and why we get from place to place. Affiliated with the Monash Institute of Transport Studies, the Mobility Design Lab is focused on how design might improve the physical, environmental and experiential aspects of mobility.
The Mobility Design Lab combines evidence-based research methods and real world solutions with design-led innovations that challenge prevailing orthodoxy. Our research mediates connections between science, government, engineering and user experiences of mobility systems. We engage with user-centred and participatory research techniques to reveal new insights into passenger experiences. We are passionate problem solvers with a strong track record of realising our work made real in the world.
Our research is at the forefront of design-driven, industry-relevant solutions, from the everyday to the complex.
Augmented on-road driving simulator for autonomous vehicles using virtual reality (VRAV)
The most authentic experience yet of being a passenger in a fully autonomous vehicle using a combination of real world driving and augmented reality visualisation.
Live, Drive, Ride like a local
Improving road sharing in the Alpine Shire through human stories.
More accessible railway stations
Examining how design can help public transport companies address disability access compliance for a more equitable and accessible rail network.
Parked bicycles in Australia
Understanding the bikes people park, and how they park them.
Rail passenger boarding, alighting and dispersal experiments
Investigating how rail carriage interior design influences passenger boarding and alighting times using agent-based modelling techniques.
Solar Bike Project
Designing the world’s fastest solar bicycle – running purely on sunshine.
Urban Mobility Design Book
A comprehensive review of cutting-edge design work addressing key contemporary themes in mobility.
Volgren EV roof design
A new look for Australia’s transition to electric route buses.
The Wheelie
Easier bike parking means easier bike transport.
Candidates undertaking Monash University’s Graduate research degrees are challenged to apply new thinking to interpret – and solve – complex questions. Here are some of the projects they’re currently investigating.
Mitali Kedia
Introducing urban design qualities to improve the physical and functional dimension of cycling infrastructure.
Jiyoon Lee
Enhancing user experience of mobility as a service ecosystem.
Julian O’Shea
Adventures with sustainable vehicles for positive social change.
Jennifer Rivera-Gonzalez
Designing cities where safety is the centre of road transport.
Abhinav Vidyarthi
Supporting the creation of ‘smart’ roads and pavements and their interface with road users.
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Graduate research opportunities
Opportunities exist to join the Mobility Design Lab PhD cohort. Refer to the links below for information on how to apply.
Bicycle logistics and mobility in India and Australia
Develop designs for new bicycle vehicles following an in-depth investigation into the requirements of bicycle vehicles to play a strong role in the future of sustainable mobility in India and/or Australia.
- Scholarship may be available
- Apply by 7 March 2021 @ 11:55 pm AEST
- Supervisors: Dr Robbie Napper, Associate Professor Selby Coxon and Nishant Sharma
- Undertaken within: Mobility Design Lab
Advancing active mobility
The role of the bicycle in sustainable transport. Of particular note here are studies that engage with industrial design studio practice to manipulate the intrinsic and socially constructed properties of bicycles to make them are more acceptable transport mode choice in low cycling mode share cultures like Australia.
- Scholarship may be available
- Open call
- Supervisors: Dr Robbie Napper and Associate Professor Selby Coxon
- Undertaken within: Mobility Design Lab
Design to assist the transition from driving to other modes for elderly road users
Design projects that investigate the safe design and use of assistive technology such as; the motorised mobility scooter (MMS) and in particular examines some contradictions and ambiguities associated with this increasingly popular form of mobility. This project will have shared supervision between the Mobility Design Lab and Monash University Accident Research Centre.
- Scholarship may be available
- Open call
- Supervisors: Associate Professor Selby Coxon and Prof. Jennie Oxley
- Undertaken within: Mobility Design Lab
Improving accessibility to rail station infrastructure for those with physical and cognitive impairments
Design research that seeks to address improved accessibility to public transport from those who have physical impairment. This project will have shared supervision between the Mobility Design Lab and Monash Institute of Rail Technology.
- Scholarship may be available
- Open call
- Supervisors: Associate Professor Selby Coxon and TBA - Monash Institute of Rail Technology
- Undertaken within: Mobility Design Lab
Pedestrian safety amongst Autonomous Vehicles
Design project seeks to address how pedestrians will navigate safely a road network dominated by Autonomous Vehicles. How will the man machine interface be effective between robot and pedestrians and active transport users?
- Scholarship may be available
- Open call
- Supervisors: Associate Professor Selby Coxon, Prof Jennie Oxley and Dr Steve O'Hern
- Undertaken within: Mobility Design Lab
Research that investigates human powered logistics
The future of human powered logistics. We invite proposals that use industrial design studio practice to carry out research on cyclelogistics. These may engage with transferring technology from one culture to another or developing new vehicles, or other approaches to this problem.
- Scholarship may be available
- Open call
- Supervisors: Dr Robbie Napper and Associate Professor Selby Coxon
- Undertaken within: Mobility Design Lab
Research that investigates the design of a variety of home delivery systems
The number and frequency of home delivery services has grown enormously over recent years, accelerated by the global COVID-19 pandemic and the ubiquity of digital platforms that serve a wide variety of needs from food takeaway services to goods and services. The design of vehicles and objects to facilitate these needs has largely been iterative rather than considered and so the Mobility Design Lab welcomes research that addresses these issues that underpin safe and reliable delivery services from micro mobility to delivery trucks.
- Scholarship may be available
- Open call
- Supervisors: Associate Professor Selby Coxon and Dr Robbie Napper
- Undertaken within: Mobility Design Lab
Recent news
Forget your fixie, we’re more likely to ride bikes if we can carry more on them
Under COVID-19 lockdowns, bike sales have been booming. Quiet streets and more time at home have opened a new opportunity for bicycles in our otherwise car-dominated culture. In our recent analysis, my colleagues and I looked at the bikes people ride for transport, and we found more than half of them aren’t well equipped for this purpose.
15 Oct 2020
Returning confidence in public transport in a post-COVID-19 world
Public transport is essential because it's by far the most spatially efficient way to move large numbers of people about the city. However, the notion of sharing confined public spaces for potentially extended periods of time will play heavily on the minds of a public learning to maintain physical distance.
3 Jun 2020
Past events
Equity and accessibility: lessons from the housing, health and transport nexus
4 Sep 2019, 6–8pm
Caulfield campus
Banner artwork: Ilya Fridman, Battery-Electric Route Bus: A Platform for Vehicle Design, 2016