Innovate UK Engaged Smart Transport (EST)

在21世纪，城市面临着许多关键的交通挑战。交通拥堵有一系列有目可睹的负面影响，包括环境污染、经济竞争力差、公众对公共交通的满意度低、对个人健康和福祉的负面影响，以及对渴望成为零售和旅游目的地的城市中心的更广泛的声誉影响。此外，英国对减少碳排放的承诺需要更广泛的长期转变，从私人汽车运输转向低碳和公共交通运输方式。通过这种方式，解决城市拥堵的具体问题涉及到更广泛的社会和经济目标，即城市成为更好的居住地和更容易导航的地方。具体来说，埃克塞特的空气污染和拥堵统计数据在同等规模的城市中是最严重的。然而，这座城市也在见证着郊区前所未有的扩张，给现有的主干道和城市中心道路带来了更大的压力。除了这些背景因素外，该市还希望保持其作为主要零售和旅游中心的地位，并计划在未来几年重新开发市中心的几个地区，用于零售和休闲设施。社会科学家试图解决这一“邪恶”政策问题的方法之一是，通过提供信息和劝诫个人旅行者改变他们的行为，来促进预先形成的行为改变。然而，几十年的社会研究表明，影响行为是非常复杂的，需要在研究影响旅行行为的因素方面进行大量投资。尽管近年来在影响变化的社会营销方法方面有所增长，这些方法采用传统营销方法，但在此类研究和干预中，有一组因素在很大程度上被忽略了，即所谓的“实时”因素在旅行决策中的作用，这些因素不是预先形成的，而是在当下影响实践的。来自交通管理提供商的研究情报表明，天气状况、交通拥堵的直接程度以及对公共交通效率的看法等因素，在理解出行决策以及旅行者（无论是作为司机还是公共交通用户）在旅途中的行为时，都是很重要的考虑因素。事实上，关键是要了解这些条件可以通过何种方式进行沟通，以促进不同的实践，无论是决定使用不同的模式旅行还是以不同的方式驾驶，以及通过利用复杂的交通管理系统来利用新技术管理旅行行为的潜力。因此，本研究旨在通过采用个性化和量身定制的旅行行为方法，了解和促进更好的“实时”旅行决策。这将通过两个阶段的方法进行。在第一阶段，将对埃克塞特居民和每天前往埃克塞特的人进行大规模的综合调查，以探索关键的旅行行为、态度和参与者的特征。使用在线调查方法，调查问卷将使研究人员能够识别关键的细分群体和他们的旅行行为，并在这些分析的基础上，在个人行为和外部因素之间建立高层次的统计联系，包括来自其他数据集的定量信息。在第二阶段，将组建一个由第一阶段确定的部分的代表性参与者组成的小组，以探索行为与具体干预措施之间的关键关系，这些干预措施将通过一系列实验获得，这些实验将测试干预措施及其有效性。

Cities face a number of key transport challenges in the 21st Century. Congestion has a set of well-documented negativeconsequences, including environmental pollution, poor economic competitiveness, low levels of public satisfaction withpublic transport, negative impacts on personal health and wellbeing, and a broader reputational impact on urban centres that aspire to be retail and tourist destinations. Moreover, the UK's commitment to reduce carbon emissions necessitates abroader long-term shift away from private motor transport towards low carbon and mass transit modes of transport. In thisway, tackling the specific issue of urban congestion relates to wider social and economic goals for cities to become betterplaces to live and easier places to navigate.Specifically, Exeter has some of the worst air pollution and congestion statistics for a city of its size. Yet the city is alsowitnessing unprecedented expansion of outlying suburbs, creating greater pressure on existing arterial and city centreroads. Alongside these background factors, the city aspires to maintain its position as a key retail and tourist centre andthere are plans to redevelop several areas of the city centre for retail and leisure facilities in the coming years.One of the ways in which social scientists have attempted to deal with this 'wicked' policy problem is to promote pre-formedbehavioural change through the provision of information and exhortations to individual travellers to change their behaviour.However, decades of social research has illustrated that influencing behaviour is highly complex and requires a significantinvestment in research intelligence about what influences travel behaviours. Although recent years have witnessed agrowth in social marketing approaches for influencing change, which adopt the methods of conventional marketingapproaches, a set of factors that have been largely omitted from such studies and interventions is the role of what can betermed 'real time' factors in travel decision making, which are not pre-formed, but which influence practices in the moment.Research intelligence from traffic management providers suggests that factors such as weather conditions, immediatelevels of traffic congestion and perceptions of the effectiveness of public transport are all important to consider whenunderstanding both decisions to travel and also the resultant behaviour of travellers on their journeys (either as drivers orpublic transport users). Indeed, crucial to understand are the ways in which these conditions can be communicated topromote different practices, either as decisions to travel using different modes or to drive in a different way, and thepotential for harnessing new technologies for managing travel behaviour through both the utilisation of sophisticated trafficmanagement systems.This research therefore aims to understand and promote better 'real time' travel decision making through adopting apersonalised and tailored travel behaviour approach. This will be undertaken through a two stage methodology. In stage 1,a large general survey of Exeter residents and those travelling into Exeter on a daily basis will be undertaken to explore keytravel behaviours, attitudes, participants' characteristics. Using an online survey approach, the questionnaire will enableresearchers to both identify key segment groups and their travel behaviours and, on the basis of these analyses, to makehigh level statistical links between individual behaviours and external factors, including quantitative information from otherdatasets. In stage 2, a panel of representative participants from the segments identified at stage 1 will be formed to explorethe key relationships between behaviours and specific interventions that will be captured through a series of experiments,which will test interventions and their effectiveness.