Motion Hub, the implementation of an integrated end-to-end journey planner

© AET 2018 and contributorsThe term “eMobility” and been brought into use partly to encourage use of electric vehicles but more especially to focus on the transformation from electric vehicles as products to electrified personal transport as a service. Under the wider umbrella of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) this has accompanied the growth of car clubs in general. The Motion Hub project has taken this concept a step further to include not just the car journey but the end-to-end journey. The booking of multifaceted journeys is well established in the leisure and business travel industries, where flights, car hire and hotels are regularly booked with a single transaction on a website. To complete an end-to-end scenario Motion Hub provides integration of public transport with electric vehicle and electric bike use. Building on a previous InnovateUK funded project that reviewed the feasibility of an integrated journey management system, the Motion Hub project has brought together a Car Club, a University, and EV infrastructure company, a bicycle hire company with electric bicycle capabilities and a municipality to implement a scheme and test it on the ground. At the heart of the project has been the development of a website that integrates the public transport booking with the hire of electric vehicles or bicycles. Taking the implementation to a fully working system accessible to members of the public presents a number of significant challenges. This paper identifies those challenges, details the progress and success of the Motion Hub and sets out the lessons learnt about end-to-end travel. The project was fortunate to have as its municipal partner the Council of a sizeable South East England town, Southend-on-Sea. With a population of 174,800 residents with good road, rail and air links there is considerable traffic in and out of the town. The Council has already shown its commitment to sustainable transport. In the previous six years it had installed a number of electric vehicle charging points for use by the public and latterly had trialled car club activity. An early challenge in the project was the location of physical infrastructure in an already crowded municipal space in order to provide the local ‘spokes’ of the system. In addition to its existing charging points, Southend now has four locations where electric cars can be hired, five where electric bikes are available and the local resources to maintain these assets. Combining a number of web-based services and amalgamating their financial transactions is relatively straightforward. However, introducing the potential for public transport ticketing as well raises additional security, scale and financial constraints. The project has engaged with major players and regulators across the public transport industry.Peer reviewe

ENHANCING RURAL PUBLIC TRANSPORT ACCESSIBILITY THROUGH IMPLEMENTING A SMART SCAN-ON M-TICKETING SOLUTION: : A UNITED KINGDOM CASE STUDY APPROACH WITHIN RURAL DEREGULATED ENVIRONMENTS

Scott Copsey, Sue Walsh, Liam Fassam, Richard Southern, ‘Enhancing Rural Public Transport Accessibility Through Implementing a Smart Scan-on M Ticketing Solution: A United Kingdom Case Study Approach Within Rural Deregulated Environments’, paper presented at the European Transport Conference, Barcelona, Spain, 5-7 October, 2016.The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how two UK Local Authorities (Hertfordshire and Northamptonshire), the two Universities of Hertfordshire and Northampton and public transport providers have worked in partnership to develop a smart scan-on m-ticketing solution, that integrates into a wider ‘smart city’ solution delivering social good through connected value propositions. Based on the initial success of a Hertfordshire pilot, a specific objective of this work is to establish smart integrated multi-operator/modal solutions. This pilot is subsequently being collaboratively expanded upon, through the UK Department for Transport funded ‘Network Northamptonshire Total Transport’ initiative, a transformative project to improve connectivity, integration and accessibility for rural transport networks. This forms part of the recently signed ‘Heart of England’ economic tri-county alliance agreement, which aims to work collaboratively across three local authority regions (Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire), consolidating £3bn of spending. This provides a further future platform for innovative transport solutions being rolled out across wider geographical areas. The initial Hertfordshire demonstrator pilot project explored how a ‘smart’ m-ticketing platform could provide a sustainable financial business model for implementing ticketing solutions for small and medium bus operators within rural Shires, outside of large urban settings. This unique project was the first scan-on bus mobile ticket product used in the UK (outside of London). It offers a partnership model and governance structure for local authorities, commercial operators and other stakeholders with an interest in integrated sustainable transport to take forward, and leads to the possibility of new, socially innovative models for procuring and delivering transport solutions. Initial user reactions have been positive, generating large digital data sets, analysis of which indicates rapid user uptake in comparison to other schemes. This data enables detailed analysis such as precise user geo-spatial distribution, supporting targeted marketing and route-specific promotions to encourage further service uptake. A critical success factor of the project was to target a reduction of on-bus cash handling by five per cent within the first 12 months. This would aid in reducing bus loading times, improve reliability and operator efficiencies. After an initial 16 month operational use, uptake growth in excess of 7 per cent of total revenue has been achieved, on specific routes the transfer to m-ticket has exceeded 12 per cent, with targets of 10 per cent of total cash to mobile conversion predicted by the middle of 2017, likely to be realised. The effectiveness of marketing campaigns, technical development aspects and implementation issues will be reported. These projects have a wider context. Public transport services in rural areas in England are deregulated, and have at present no effective statutory backing or ring-fenced funding. As a result, with reductions in funding to local authorities, funding for non-commercial bus services is being sharply reduced and many authorities are proposing to cease all funding for local bus services (Campaign for Better Transport, 2016). These projects may offer alternative cost-effective ways of providing local transport services in non-metropolitan areas, and thus provide the potential for unique future research opportunities. These include understanding the uptake of smart multi-modal solutions in rural areas to improve accessibility and connectivity through enhanced services for new users and for those with restricted or reduced mobility networks, whilst also offering efficiencies for operators. This research has added importance, because the UK Government is proposing legislation on bus services in England, which would confer significant extra powers on local authorities to intervene in the bus market in various ways. These projects may act as pathfinders for the use of these powers in non-metropolitan areas. Structures supporting a partnership approach involving all those with an interest in public transport are a critical part of improving rural connectivity and accessibility. Through the experience of establishing quality partnership models in Hertfordshire, this paper will go on to detail the subsequent work now underway developing a Social Enterprise model involving local government, universities, operators, health and education services in Northamptonshire, which will form the basis of the transformation of rural integrated sustainable transport delivery.Non peer reviewedSubmitted Versio

The case of Mobility as a Service: how the challenges of shared mobility shape its adoption by women

© 2023 RGS-IBG All rights reserved.This paper explores issues of inclusiveness and safety that women encounter when using Mobility as a Service (MaaS), a transport offering which enables users to book, manage and pay diverse modes of transport through smartphone apps. Personal mobility modes may include public transport, car, bicycle sharing, automated vehicles and more. The adoption of MaaS by women may contribute to decarbonisation of personal mobility and yet it suffers from implementation gap. The study draws on Practice Theory (PT), a theory which focused on social practices and Consumer Culture Theory (CCT), which focused on the interaction between consumers’ identities and their behaviour. Despite benefits, participants associate using MaaS with meanings of unsafety and apps with intrusiveness. Women seem disadvantaged compared to men when using MaaS. Suggested solutions include rigorous vetting of service personnel and whenever possible, recruit female personnel such as drivers. On board cameras, recording devices and safety features of apps may help women feel safe. MaaS providers could encourage the formation of communities around MaaS brands. Geography affects MaaS use as coverage of rural areas is poor, whilst women are more likely to use MaaS when on holiday. Changes are needed to the socio-technical landscape, including to social practices and infrastructure and this requires changes in policy, investment and governance

State of the Nations : Transport Planning for a sustainable future

The State of the Nations 2020 report report reviews travel trends and behaviours, current government policy, regional transport planning, spending and investment and transport taxes and charges to enable the Transport Planning Society to make clear recommendations to government and the sector. The report concludes that the way transport is planned and integrated into society will be key to the UK’s ability to address the major challenges of today, particularly the decarbonisation of transport. Transport spending and taxation needs to support decarbonisation, with objectives set out in transport strategies and spending priorities to address these important national aims. Governments should give transport planners, especially in local and sub-national authorities, the policies, tools, funding, data and freedoms to improve the transport system for all users to provide a better quality of life for people and communities across the nations. Transport for London should serve as a model for well-resourced local and regional authorities, combining spatial and transport planning and with their own revenue raising powers, but with requirements for setting pathways to cut CO2 emissions

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

The Development and Implementation Processes of a Travel Plan Within the Context of a Large Organisation: Using an Embedded Case Study Approach

Transport Policy in the United Kingdom from the 1950s to the early 1990s has been focused on increasing car use at the expense of investment in public transport services and infrastructure. This has culminated in a poorly integrated public transport network that has seen continued decline in use outside of London. The Competition Act (1998) has exacerbated this, as public operators risked prosecution if they were seen to collaborate. A policy shift in 1998 introduced the concept of Local Transport Plans, Organisational Travel Plans and Quality Partnerships as local policy tools for developing and implementing travel solutions using the planning process. Travel Plans today are viewed by the UK Government as a local delivery tool for transport policy, inspired by the successes in Europe and the United States in changing individual travel behaviour, where the Smart Growth Agenda has emerged as a mass transit based planning response to urban sprawl. In the UK, success in delivering significant modal shift away from private car use has seen limited success, hence the rationale for this research. Using this wider policy context, this research uses the University of Hertfordshire as a case study with the objective to research the development and implementation processes of a Travel Plan. The research conducts a review of travel behaviour within the case study, providing recommendations for implementing alternative interventions to car-based travel. Making use of national policy tools, using insights from both Smarter Travel / Smarter Choice agenda, the research includes the development process of a complex city wide Quality Partnership – a delivery mechanism for travel behaviour change incorporating multiple stakeholders. This thesis uses an embedded and reflective critical realist approach to researching Travel Plans from the perspective of a Travel Plan Coordinator. Through applying a multi-method dimension to empirical data collection, the use of structured quantitative commuter surveys, semi structured qualitative interviews and supporting secondary data sources are all utilised. Using such an approach provides the research with the flexibility for reporting complex social and empirical data, including the researcher’s embedded reflective insights throughout the process. An evaluative matrix ‘lens’ has been developed for reporting back the multitude of factors, including identifying Critical Success Factors and Key Performance Indicators that underpin the success or failure of such travel planning approaches. The research culminates in the development of a Travel Plan for the University of Hertfordshire and a voluntary Quality Partnership for the City and District of St Albans. A conclusion is drawn based on the unique perspective of an embedded reflective researcher as an active practitioner in the field of travel planning. In order to be successful a Travel Plan should feed into the wider quality partnership structures for mutual benefit where multiple stakeholders are able to influence the development of interventions at the local level, which could lead to significant travel behaviour changes. It is argued that this will ultimately help Travel Plans and quality partnerships achieve their key performance objectives and help meet government policy agenda

Travelling to work: will people move out of their cars?

S. Kingham, J. Dickinson, and Sc. Copsey, 'Travelling to work: will people move out of their cairs?', Transport Policy, Vol 8(2): 151-150, April 2001. The version of record is available online at doi: HTTP://DOI.ORG/10.1016/s0967-070x(01)00005-1. Copyright © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd.Recent years have seen a huge rise in the levels of car ownership. The numbers of journeys made and kilometers traveled by car are increasing. Increased road transport affects health in a number of ways, including road traffic accidents, air and noise pollution, psychological well being and health related accessibility issues. A further consequence of the growth in the number of cars is traffic congestion. This paper examines employee's perceptions of their modal choice during the journey to work, and addresses what factors influence modal choice, and whether people can be moved out of their cars to other more sustainable forms of transport. The results of surveys of the commuting habits of employees at two United Kingdom companies are presented and compared with other relevant studies. Ninety-seven and 88% of staff at the respective companies travel to work by car. While only 2 and 7% of respondents cycled to work, real potential for cycling was identified, given improvements in the cycling infrastructure. Similarly, while only 0 and 3% currently use public transport for the journey to work, improved services could see a significant modal shift. Overall, there seemed to be genuine willingness to move out of the car for the journey to work, with one of the main barriers being a perception that the alternatives are not viable. Additionally, it appears that many people live too far from the workplace to cycle or use public transport.Peer reviewe

Smart city multi-modal transportation: theoretical procurement framework for delivering societal benefit

Culture, governance and procurement remain misunderstood within both academic and business research, particularly within a smart city transportation perspective. However, persuasive arguments are beginning to permeate through local governments with procurement being at the forefront of change to effect sustainable business models. This paper firstly undertakes a systematic literature review (SLR) of current academic thinking within the sphere of procurement models to effect sustainable transport change within public authorities, identifying existent gaps allied to best in class thinking in the field of smart cities. It [methodology] then undertakes an empirical review of data from the UK Government (Department for Transport (DfT)) ‘Network Northamptonshire’ project of innovative commissioning of multi-modal public/private transportation. The outputs of the SLR and empirical study are compared and contrasted to deliver a theoretical model of ‘social enterprise transport procurement’, a horizontally aligned and sustainable public-private solution permitting creation of holistic transportation procurement that not only meet the needs of ‘users’, but further conveying societal benefit in creating a paradigm of ‘Mobility as a Societal Service’ (MaaSS). Finally, the paper highlights the disconnect between the constructs of a smart city and conurbation requirements, with the authors supporting the need for further research in the area of smart cities allied culture, governance and procurement through the framework in order to convey the wider smart city concept and continue the sharing of best practice to bring about economic and socially connected conurbations

Arbor Day Foundation Children’s Book Recommendation Report

The Arbor Day Foundation (ADF) has a mission to “inspire people to plant, nurture, and celebrate trees.” This mission requires a critical underlying factor to ensure its success: education. In brainstorming ideas for a new project that ADF could undertake, our group discovered that there were a lot of gaps in our knowledge and understanding of trees, the impact that they have on the environment, and the work of ADF. Our lack of experience in these areas led us to believe that perhaps, there is an education gap that can be filled. In pursuing the filling of this gap, we sought to think about ways that the Arbor Day Foundation could educate others about its work and the importance of trees, while still making money. Individuals need to understand how trees help solve global issues such as air quality, water quality, changing climate, deforestation, poverty, and hunger. Educating individuals on why trees are essential to our world will help inspire people to plant, nurture, and celebrate trees to fulfill the rest of the ADF’s mission. Our team recommends the Arbor Day Foundation pursue a business venture creating children’s picture books to inspire both kids and the parents reading the books to plant, nurture, and celebrate trees

Enhancing transport accessibility using mobility as a service through partnerships

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how two top tier UK Local Authorities (Hertfordshire and Northamptonshire), their two respective Universities and transport providers have worked in partnership to improve coordination and efficiencies of local transport, which aims to deliver social good through connected value propositions. Supported by the UK Government Department for Transport, a specific objective of this work was to establish smart integrated multi-operator/modal solutions and network efficiencies. Using empirical data provided by these smart technologies, a further objective is to develop new transport business models with wider replicability, initially across the Central England Economic Alliance, consolidating £3bn transport spend. These demonstrators explore how 'smart' m-ticketing platforms could provide sustainable financial business models for transport operators within rural Shires, outside of large urban settings. This project is unique, being the first in the UK to use scan-on bus mobile ticket data (outside of London). The project offers both a Quality Partnership and Social Enterprise governance structure approach bringing together local authorities, commercial operators and other stakeholders with an interest in integrated transport to address uneven modalities and reduce CO2, leading to opportunities for new, socially innovative models for procuring and delivering transport solutions. These projects have a wider context as pathfinders through a Social Enterprise model involving local government, universities, transport operators, health and education services, forming the basis for the transformation of integrated sustainable transport delivery and shared on-demand transport through developing the concept of 'Mobility as a Service' (MaaS) to provide end to end journeys