Rate My Professor Angela Curl

Associate Professor Angela Curl serves in the Department of Public Health at the University of Otago, Christchurch, within the Faculty of Medicine. She is a social scientist whose work centers on the relationships between urban environments, transport, and health. Curl earned her PhD in Geography from the Centre for Transport Research at the University of Aberdeen. Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked as a transport planner. Following her PhD, she undertook postdoctoral research at the OPENspace research centre at the University of Edinburgh and in Urban Studies at the University of Glasgow. She subsequently lectured in Health Geography at the University of Canterbury before joining the University of Otago. In her current role, she acts as Postgraduate Course Director and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Transport and Health as special issues editor. She holds fellowships from the Higher Education Academy and the Royal Geographical Society.

Her research investigates how public policies in transport, urban planning, and housing address health inequalities and transport disadvantage. She examines perceptions and experiences of accessibility and their interactions with the built environment to influence travel behaviour, transport disadvantage, physical activity, health, and wellbeing, particularly for older adults and lower income groups. Angela employs quantitative and qualitative social research methodologies, including GIS. Current projects include ACTIVATION - Activating Change through InterVentions for Active Travel in our Neighbourhoods; older adults' experiences of the pedestrian environment, particularly in relation to falling and fear of falling; and on-demand access to unhealthy commodities. Key publications include the co-edited book Geographies of Transport and Ageing (Springer International Publishing, 2018); "Does Accessibility Planning address what matters? A review of current practice and practitioner perspectives" (Research in Transportation Business & Management, 2011); "Household car adoption and financial distress in deprived urban communities: A case of forced car ownership?" (Transport Policy, 2018); "The early days of shared micromobility: A social practices approach" (Journal of Transport Geography, 2020); "Physical and mental health outcomes following housing improvements: evidence from the GoWell Study" (Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 2015); and recent papers such as "A participatory virtual audit of the built environment for age-friendliness" (International Journal of Health Geographics, 2025) and "Applying a relational lens to the work travel experiences of diverse women" (Journal of Transport Geography, 2025).