Institute for Transport Studies

With ITS-Leeds and InnoZ GmbH, FSR-Transport team contributed to a major new report for the European Parliament Transport and Tourism Committee on future transport trends and policies.
In the section entitled “The role of regulation in preparing transport for the future” FSR-Transport particularly focused on the regulatory implications of the current challenges affecting different transport modes and the mobility system as a whole. The (more and more urban) European population is growing and ageing; mobile information and communication technologies are developing rapidly; global competition and the fight against climate change are pressing. These developments all have an impact on transport as a whole: mobility needs and patterns evolve; new transport services/systems emerge; transportation technologies aim to become more 'environmentally-efficient'.
This transformation challenges the existing transport sector's structure and governance and calls for major changes in the regulatory framework.

The world is currently witnessing its largest surge of urban growth in human history; a trend that draws attention to the need to understand and address health impacts of urban living. Whilst transport is instrumental in this urbanisation wave, it also has significant positive and negative impacts on population health, which are disproportionately distributed. In this paper, we bring together expertise in transport engineering, transport and urban planning, research and strategic management, epidemiology and health impact assessment in an exercise to scope and discuss the health impacts of transport in urban areas. Adopting a cross-disciplinary, co-production approach, we explore the key driving forces behind the current state of urban mobility and outline recommendations for practices that could facilitate positioning health at the core of transport design, planning and policy. Current knowledge on the health-related impacts of urban transport shows that motor vehicle traffic is causing significant premature mortality and morbidity through motor vehicle crashes, physical inactivity and traffic-related environmental exposures including increases in air pollution, noise and temperature levels, as well as reductions in green space. Trends of rapid and car-centred urbanisation, mass motorisation and a tendency of policy to favour car mobility and undervalue health in the transport and development agenda has both led to, and exacerbated the negative health impacts of the transport systems. Simultaneously, we also argue that the benefits of new transport schemes on the economy are emphasised whilst the range and severity of identified health impacts associated with transport are often downplayed. We conclude the paper by outlining stakeholders' recommendations for the adoption of a cross-disciplinary co-production approach that takes a health-aware perspective and has the potential to promote a paradigm shift in transport practices.

To date, virtual ways of working have yet to substantially reduce demand for business travel. Emerging research claims that virtual and physical work compliment rather than substitute for one another. This suggests travel demand stems from business strategies and achieving business outcomes. In building on these ideas, this chapter draws upon Schatzki's conception of timespace to capture changes in how two UK-based global construction and engineering consulting firms organise work and the implications in terms of demand for business travel. Overtime, particular forms of spatially stretched organisation which have developed are found to require the interweaving of timespaces through travel. As such, how each firm has evolved has in turn created the contemporary situation of significant and hard to reduce demand for travel.

To date, virtual ways of working have yet to substantially reduce demand for business travel. Emerging research claims that virtual and physical work compliment rather than substitute for one another. This suggests travel demand stems from business strategies and achieving business outcomes. In building on these ideas, this chapter draws upon Schatzki's conception of timespace to capture changes in how two UK-based global construction and engineering consulting firms organise work and the implications in terms of demand for business travel. Overtime, particular forms of spatially stretched organisation which have developed are found to require the interweaving of timespaces through travel. As such, how each firm has evolved has in turn created the contemporary situation of significant and hard to reduce demand for travel.

ABSTRACT CLEOPATRA was a project in the European Union Fourth Framework Programme. It was concerned with scientific techniques (algorithms, models and strategies) to support driver information and guidance systems. It evaluated techniques in six collaborating cities. In London, the work included evaluation of the variable message sign (VMS) installations operated by the Metropolitan Police from New Scotland Yard. The CLEOPATRA study attempted to identify the impacts of VMS in London through driver surveys, network modelling and traffic monitoring. Driver surveys were conducted to examine attitudes and responses to VMS. Impacts of VMS were then modelled to predict flow patterns and network performance under incident conditions with and without information present. Finally, a field survey was conducted with messages activated on one of the VMS signs and driver responses measured. This paper summarises the results of the study and discusses its implications