Information Technology and Transport: What Research Needs to be Started Now?.

The ten week period from 9th October to 19th December 1982 was spent as Visiting Fellow at Leeds University at the Institute for Transport Studies; to examine the opportunities for research into the effects of information technology on transport and the interactions between them. This Fellowship was sponsored by the Science and Engineering Research Council (UK) and the Australian Road Research Board with additional support from Oxford Sytematics (Australia). This report reviews the scope for research in this area; with particular emphasis on identifying workable project directions in the Institute for Transport Studies (ITS). Appropriate contacts and related work are given. Topics covered include data acquisition systems (including the potential for hand-held data capture devices; and the use of aural, visual and micro-wave wavelengths in capturing data): data processing and comunications policy appropriate to the Institute' s requirements; the role of knowledge-based systems; and the analysis of the relation between communications and transport activities in respect of time-use and expenditure patterns. A number of the research proposals raised and put to ITS staff during the period are summarised in an Annex to this report (ITS technical Note TN 126). The summaries and texts of a series of seminars given during November-December 1982 at ITS are covered in a companion document (ITS Working Paper WP169)

Information Technology and Transport: Seminar Papers and Supporting Documents.

For three months of the academic year of 1982-3; the author held an SERC Visiting Fellowship at the Institute for Transport Studies at Leeds University; UK. This was supported by the UK Science and Engineering Research Council; Oxford Systematics (Australia); and the Australian Road Research Board. The objectives of this fellowship were to identify effective researchable projects in the overlapping fields of Information Technology; Transpork and Communications. This document comprises background notes or drafts of conference papers; based on seminars given at the Institute in the early stages of the fellowship. Each of the papers is also separately available as an ITS Technical Note. The chapters cover the following themes: the future impact of computer based technology in engineering: communication devices and information technology; access to electronic conferencing and mail systems: information systems and their role in transport research; from the point of view of research productivity; both for individual researchers; and for research organisations: the application of time use and activity analysis to information technology issues: and the role of information technology in regional development. A number of research proposals were generated and discussed with members of the ITS staff and others during the period. Detailed discussion of the areas covered is given in the companion ITS document (WP172). More details of some of the research ideas are given in an Annex to that report; as ITS Technical Note 126