go to top scroll for more

Projects


Projects: Projects for Investigator
Reference Number ES/S001743/1
Title Accelerating innovation in new mobility services: matching sustainable new business models to local potential.
Status Completed
Energy Categories Energy Efficiency(Transport) 50%;
Other Cross-Cutting Technologies or Research(Other Supporting Data) 25%;
Other Cross-Cutting Technologies or Research(Environmental, social and economic impacts) 25%;
Research Types Basic and strategic applied research 100%
Science and Technology Fields ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES (Geography and Environmental Studies) 25%;
SOCIAL SCIENCES (Town and Country Planning) 25%;
SOCIAL SCIENCES (Sociology) 25%;
PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Statistics and Operational Research) 25%;
UKERC Cross Cutting Characterisation Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Policy and regulation) 25%;
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Consumer attitudes and behaviour) 25%;
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Technology acceptance) 25%;
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Other sociological economical and environmental impact of energy) 25%;
Principal Investigator Dr I Philips
No email address given
Institute for Transport Studies
University of Leeds
Award Type Standard
Funding Source ESRC
Start Date 02 January 2018
End Date 01 January 2021
Duration 36 months
Total Grant Value £331,898
Industrial Sectors
Region Yorkshire & Humberside
Programme ESRC - Innovation Fellowships
 
Investigators Principal Investigator Dr I Philips , Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds (100.000%)
  Industrial Collaborator Project Contact , Transport for Greater Manchester (0.000%)
Project Contact , Consumer Data Research Centre (CDRC) (0.000%)
Project Contact , The Floow Ltd (0.000%)
Web Site
Objectives Project Aims: to provide small area insights, using the intelligent fusion of datasets to generate innovative new mobility data. This can be used to evaluate the extent to which the population are capable of benefiting from either New Mobility Services or from other interventions whilst simultaneously reducing total car usage and reducing transport energy demand.Objectives: This three year fellowship will develop a robust evidence base upon which business innovation can feed and upon which policy can be designed to ensure societal objectives are met by:1. Fusing commercial and public local travel and energy consumption data acquired in part through placements with national government transport statistics providers, commercial telematics company, a large metropolitan transport authority and conventional and new mobility service providers.2. Applying novel and rapidly evolving techniques in geographical information science (spatial statistics and microsimulation modelling) to assess the market opportunity for travel and mobility services that are tailored to fit local behavioural, socio-economic and environmental characteristics and which result in absolute reductions in household energy use.3. Working with project partners to develop a practical methodology/tool for enabling access to the data for undertaking these market assessments as well as monitoring, evaluation and benchmarking functions.4. Using the full length of the Fellowship to foster novel joint working between the partner organisations by working through the practical (e.g. computational), applied (e.g. new policy insight), organisational (e.g. data management, commercial interests, IP) and ethical (e.g. anonymity & data linkage issues) of using new and emerging forms of data for this purpose.
Abstract This is an exciting yet somewhat uncertain point of transition for the transport sector. The media frequently carries news stories on innovations in cleaner transport technologies (particularly electric vehicles) and visions for how people will travel in the future. These visions are dominated by new mobility services (NMS). They include sharing schemes for cars, bikes and taxis. All are based on Information and Communications Technology such as joining smartphones and apps, with vehicles and devices that are 'smart'. The other common feature is that NMS all have a connection to data and usually 'big data'. Smart cards and apps harvest data as do insurance telematics boxes in cars. Bikes from sharing schemes can be tracked with GPS, companies are basing their business models, pricing and marketing on harvested big data. Meanwhile government collects millions of MOT test certificates each year, and carries out travel surveys, CCTV cameras with number plate recognition are a common feature of many cities.This rapid digitisation and connectivity might help make better use of existing infrastructure, create new business opportunities change the way people own vehicles and pay for travel. There is some evidence that the way people choose to travel 'their mobility preferences' at least among the younger generation is changing. NMS might make travel easier and better for some groups of people in some places.These emerging changes could dramatically reduce energy demand from personal transport if certain issues are dealt with together. There has to be a reasonable potential market for a NMS to be viable but the local transport planners also have to understand how the NMS would affect the transport system and the workings of the city. To provide this understanding we need to know the relationships between local travel patterns such as where people live and where they need to get to, transport infrastructure (like the state of roads, railways and bike lanes), the social and demographic factors that affect whether a person can afford or physically get access to a NMS, the state of labour and job markets and where new vehicle technologies and services are available.If city planners or NMS providers do not examine the range of information about different issues, the new technologies and services could lead to lead to greater demand for mobility for example people might make more journeys and go further resulting in more transport energy use. NMS might only be offered in some areas where large numbers of customers could pay high prices, making it relatively harder for poor or rural areas to get access to services, jobs and other activities. There is also a potential problem that if governments and local authorities do not have appropriate policies and regulations in place to govern the gathering ownership and use of big mobility data, then there might be a loss of public control over data and the ability to steer developments to meet societal objectives. In other words, the risks are that the rapid arrival of such businesses could simply add to the familiar story that people are told that new products are energy efficient and thus sustainable but in actual fact they are not really sustainable because they have negative social and environmental impactsThis project will take an 'interdisciplinary perspective' which means it will link and analyse data from government and private organisations but also work with transport policy makers to understand the local social and environmental issues that need to be considered to make changes in mobility in particular places work socially, economically and environmentally.
Publications (none)
Final Report (none)
Added to Database 09/04/18