We have teamed up with UK Unplugged to deliver a hands-on transport project like no other! The Transport Box is a creative, practical project that brings engineers, transport professionals, young people, families and community partners together to explore how transport works in everyday life
The original box was part funded by the CIHT Foundation. Further funding by the Royal Academy of Engineering through its Ingenious programme, has allowed the project will be delivered in Stockport and Leeds. It will support neurodivergent young people, young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, and young people who may be engaged with Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.
We are looking for engineers and transport professionals who want to get involved.
You will receive training, help co-design activities, and take part in in person events that make transport engineering more visible, accessible and relevant to young people and their families. This may require taking time out of work, so please consider this before signing up.
Help us inspire the next generation of transport practitioners!
The Transport Box is a ready-to-use activity pack filled with creative, hands-on materials that help young people explore streets, journeys, movement and public space.
It builds on UK Unplugged’s proven approach to activity boxes, which are designed to help families take a break from screens, explore new ideas, and spend meaningful creative time together. For this project, the box will focus on transport and engineering.
Each box will help young people investigate the places they move through every day. Activities may include mapping, model-making, role play, visual prompts, street observation, design challenges and simple games that make engineering ideas easier to understand.
The aim is not to deliver a technical lesson. The aim is to create something playful, welcoming and accessible. Young people will be invited to notice how streets work, ask questions, think about different people’s needs, and imagine how transport could be safer, fairer and easier to use.
Topics may include accessibility, safety, traffic flow, public transport, walking, cycling, street design, signs, crossings, kerbs, junctions and the trade-offs engineers make when shaping places.
The boxes will be co-designed locally, so the Stockport and Leeds versions can reflect real streets, familiar places and the lived experiences of young people and their families.
Engineers will be central to the project.
We are recruiting a group of engineers and transport professionals to help shape the Transport Box and support young people to explore engineering through creativity, play and conversation.
You will take part in training focused on inclusive public engagement. This will help you build confidence in working with neurodivergent young people and young people with additional needs. You will then join design and co-creation sessions in Stockport or Leeds, working alongside community partners and engagement specialists.
Your role will be to bring real engineering insight into the project while making it accessible. That might mean helping young people understand why a crossing is placed where it is, how traffic signals work, why pavements are designed in particular ways, or how engineers balance the needs of pedestrians, cyclists, buses, cars, emergency vehicles and disabled people.
This is an opportunity to do something practical with your professional knowledge. You will develop skills in public engagement, inclusive communication, co-design and community-led transport thinking. You will also help create resources that can support future outreach beyond this project.
We welcome transport planners, civil engineers, highways engineers, rail engineers, intelligent transport systems specialists, human factors specialists, safety and systems engineers, and people working in related disciplines.
If you want to help young people see engineering as creative, useful and open to them, we would love you to take part.