Environmental assessment of new vehicle technologies
The recent King Review outlined the transition to a low-carbon future for road transport. In the short term, low carbon means new technologies in internal combustion engine vehicles and behavioural changes, all the way through to longer term plans for the introduction of fuel cell or electric vehicles.
The King Review also highlighted the fact that technologies beneficial to local air quality issues, especially for oxides of nitrogen (NOx), may not be ideal for carbon dioxide and fuel consumption.
FUTURES consortium researchers from the University of Leeds and Newcastle University have joined forces with industry experts to examine some of the issues arising out of the King Review.
Key findings from the research include the following:
- The influence of traffic conditions on tailpipe emissions are much lower in newer compared to older vehicles due to better control of air/fuel ratios;
- Tailpipe emissions reduction of greater than 30% can be achieved by adopting eco-driving styles in urban areas.
- Modelled road-side concentrations of NOx were sensitive to emission rates, and small changes in wind direction, indicating the need for accurate meteorological reference measurements to improve air quality estimates in urban areas;
- Modelled concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) were dominated by the primary fraction of NO2, more than overall NOx emissions or background ozone. This presents new challenges for vehicle manufacturers and future government policy.
- Small electric vehicles gave a 4-7dBA reduction in noise levels at low speeds, but the benefit decreases at higher speeds due to tyre noise. Larger electric vehicles showed greater reductions, potentially >10dBA over their diesel counterparts.
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flexible working practices
National figures suggest that in the last 10 years the number of people working at least one day per week from home has increased by around a third. So how do flexible working conditions affect how this new workforce commutes throughout the working week?
The FUTURES consortium, comprised of seven research groups at four universities spanning the fields of engineering, technology, environmental science and social science, has undertaken a comparative study to find out. The research centred upon full-time paid employees, and reveals that part-day homeworking is more commonplace than whole-day occasional homeworking. This suggests a much greater degree of flexible working than previously thought with implications for how commute trips are distributed throughout the day.
Key findings from the research include the following:
- The number of employees who part-day homework and the frequency of this practice is more than double that for whole-day homeworking: 14% compared to 6%.
- Blue-collar workers practice more part-day homeworking than whole-day homeworking.
- The most common form of part-day homeworking involves leaving the ‘workplace’ earlier and working from home.
- Part-day homeworking can be more ad-hoc (i.e. flexible) compared to whole-day homeworking that is more planned.
- Part-day homeworking has particular appeal in managing work and non-work commitments such as childcare.
- Concerns exist that fellow employees will interpret part-day homeworking as ‘disappearing early’
- There is evidence of temporal displacement of some commute trips.
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IMPACTS OF NEW TECHNOLOGY ON URBAN TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT
In-vehicle satellite navigation systems are the new must-have adult car accessory. From 2003 to 2006 there was a 5-fold increase in UK sales and last year there were 6 million systems were in use.
The current and potential future implications of such prolific sat-nav use for urban traffic management may be profound and wide-ranging but as yet are not well understood. The FUTURES consortium, comprised of seven research groups at four universities spanning the fields of engineering, technology, environmental science and social science, has undertaken research to consider what these may be.
Key findings from the research include the following:
- Sat-nav systems may increasingly be used for familiar journeys to avoid incident-related congestion as reliable, real time information enables dynamic routing decisions.
- Universal market penetration resulting in mass dynamic routing decisions could significantly impact on traffic management.
- Dialogue between traffic managers and sat-nav system providers is critically important and there is a clear role for DfT to catalyse/facilitate this dialogue.
- A viable business model based on data exchange between traffic managers and sat-nav system providers is needed.
- Traffic managers suggest parking information and Origin & Destination data represent key opportunities for data exchange and integration with sat-nav system providers.
- Technological advances make planning very difficult.
- Travel information is of critical importance to both traffic managers and road users because the physical infrastructure of many of our urban transport networks is reaching its operational limits.
NAVIGATING THE CITY
In an age of personal Global Positioning Technology beamed directly to our mobile phones, it seems that getting lost may turn out to be a thing of the past. Yet research conducted by the FUTURES consortium has discovered that travellers tend to resort to a variety of wayfinding methods when discovering a new city.
The FUTURES consortium, comprised of seven research groups at four universities spanning the fields of engineering, technology, environmental science and social science, aimed to better understand the different forms of wayfinding (e.g. maps, signage, mobile technology and verbal directions) and examine their usefulness and role in encouraging pedestrian travel.
FUTURES identified a specific research and development opportunity in situations where people want to retain and use locally-provided verbal directions. The viability was explored of developing a simple to use ‘Direct Me’ pedestrian wayfinding system which enables travellers to more effectively capture and use this information.
Key findings from the research include the following:
- Despite the rapid growth of navigation technologies, asking someone for directions remains the most highly-rated form of pedestrian wayfinding assistance.
- Landmarks are the most useful element in successful wayfinding.
- Different wayfinding tools are used for different types of journey.
- Exchanging verbal directions is a much-valued form of social interaction, although concerns over personal safety and the abuse of imparted information via the internet are increasing.
- The attractiveness of systems that create an interface between human-generated spatial information and technology varies significantly between age groups and gender.
- Although regarded as an innovative and useful mobile application, the commercial value and potential development of a ‘Direct Me’ system is limited.
- Feeling ‘lost’ can have negative social and economic consequences.
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ROADSPACE ALLOCATION
Achieving a sustainable urban transport system is all about equilibrium. It requires the right balance between demand and supply with the correct allocation of road space and priorities to support sustainable modes.
The FUTURES consortium, comprised of seven research groups at four universities spanning the fields of engineering, technology, environmental science and social science, has joined forces with Southampton City Council to carry out technology-led research of a congested area of motorway in the North East.
The congested A3024 Eastern corridor, which already includes the well known ‘Bitterne’ bus priority scheme provided an ideal spot for the case study. The initial proposal for a new Bus and Toll (BAT) lane did not pass a detailed feasibility analysis. Instead, the research team devised and analysed an innovative new system to manage traffic on this corridor, by designing and integrating:
- Park and ride at the start of the corridor
- Access control at the Park and ride site for non-priority traffic, with priority for buses and ‘clean’ vehicles
- Other new bus priority measures on the route.
- Complementary demand management measures on other routes.
Real-time traffic data would be used to control access to the corridor to maintain traffic demand below supply (capacity). Buses should then be able to travel relatively freely even where there is no room for a bus lane. This concept effectively provides a virtual bus corridor. Modelling of the network using CONTRAM predicted a potential 28% saving in bus journey times on the corridor, and a 3% saving in total network journey time for all traffic, due to improved efficiency and modal change.
The concept is currently being discussed with the City Council and FUTURES are also analysing the scope for its application nationwide.
TO SHARE OR NOT TO SHARE
With more cars on UK roads than ever before and average car occupancy dropping by 15% to 1.7 people per journey in the last 50 years, the case for lift sharing to reduce car use has never been stronger.
Lift sharing enables more efficient travel behaviour by reducing single occupant car trips, yet public knowledge of the benefits and impacts of lift sharing is very limited.
Up until now, knowledge of lift-sharing practice has been based on small-scale and largely anecdotal research, representing the views of individual scheme operators or members.
Therefore the FUTURES consortium, comprised of seven research groups at four universities spanning the fields of engineering, technology, environmental science and social science, has undertaken the first national level assessment of UK lift sharing practice to discover how this practice could contribute to a more sustainable environment.
Key findings from the research include the following:
- Lift sharers are most commonly young adults and they share for regular journeys.
- Commuting is the main journey purpose for lift sharers and their journeys are further than the average commute.
- Younger people are more likely lift share for long distance, one-off or occasional travel for leisure purpose or to attend events than other lift sharers.
- Females (and particularly those aged 20-25) are lift sharing to a greater extent than might be expected.
- Males are likely to lift share over greater distances than females, who are more likely to lift share for regular journeys.
- Lift sharing is primarily undertaken for individual or reciprocal benefits rather than as an altruistic action.
- There are significant social interaction benefits from lift sharing which have been given limited attention.
- People often start lift sharing because of a trigger event (moving home or job) that leads them to reconsider their travel behaviour.
TRAVELLER INFORMATION SERVICES
Despite recent investments in and growing availability of various public transport (PT) information services, levels of apparent non-use (of particular services) across the population remain high.
Policymakers and information service providers could benefit from a better understanding of factors affecting pre-trip PT information use. The purpose of this FUTURES research is to provide such insights.
Key findings from the research include the following:
- PT information is consulted whenever it is likely one is going to travel by public transport, unless the trip is local, services run frequently, or if there are no time constraints.
- People are habitual in their preferred sources of information.
- Internet dominates as the common default PT information source.
- The effect of public transport use on PT information use is stronger than vice versa.
- Word-of-mouth (i.e., having received a recommendation to use a certain PT information source by people one knows) positively affects the use of PT information.
- The most important factors affecting PT information use are the frequency of car use and public transport use, together with attitudes towards travel modes and information use.
- Respondents decide to travel by car more often (48%) after comparing travel modes using PT information than by public transport (15%).
Even though the car would be their preferred travel option, 20% of respondents still indicated they would consult PT information when making an uncertain
