Sir Peter Hall is Bartlett Professor of Planning, University College London. He was awarded the RTPI Gold Medal in 2003 and the International Balzan Foundation Prize for the Social and Cultural History of Cities since the beginning of the 16th century in 2005. He is author or editor of nearly forty books on urban and regional planning including Cities of Tomorrow, Cities in Civilization and (with Colin Ward) Sociable Cities. His most recent book London Voices, London Lives: tales from a working capital was published in July 2007.

David Banister is Professor of Transport Studies at the Oxford University Centre for the Environment. Until 2006 he was Professor of Transport Planning at University College London. He has also been Research Fellow at the Warren Centre in the University of Sydney (2001–2002) on the Sustainable Transport for a Sustainable City project, and was Visiting VSB Professor at the Tinbergen Institute in Amsterdam (1994–1997), and is Visiting Professor at University Bodenkultur in Vienna (2007). He is a Trustee of the Civic Trust and Chair of their Policy Committee (2005–2009). His latest book, Land Use and Transport: European Research Towards Integrated Policies, edited with Stephen Marshall, was published in August 2007.