Impact case study database

Intelligent mobility has the potential to transform the ways we move people and goods. Research at the University of Aberdeen has shed new light on the development and provision of new transport services, particularly in relation to rural communities and passenger experience. This research has informed digital infrastructure requirements in the UK, raised awareness of innovation in transport services, secured investment from the Scottish government to pilot new services, and enabled operators and industries to rationalise the transition to IM.

Creating an evidence base for national digital policy decisions

Through research on Internet access and use in rural and urban areas in the UK [3], CTR has raised awareness of the impact of low-speed broadband connection on people’s use of the internet, highlighting the implications for availability of IM to both policymakers and industry in collaboration with the University of Oxford Internet Institute (OxIS), which releases a biannual survey of internet use. The portion of the OxIS 2011 sample that falls within areas defined by UK, Scottish and Welsh administrations as being in some degree ‘rural’ or ‘remote rural’ is about 200 individuals - insufficient to provide a sound basis for large-scale generalisations about rural Internet use and the effect on the potential for Digital Economy in rural Britain.

CTR collaborated with OxIS to release the 2013 Oxford Internet Survey, which directly engaged with users by conducting interviews with a representative sample of 800 rural residents across Britain, ensuring robust analysis of the data generated in order to gain better understanding of barriers to Internet use related to, for example, age, income, education, and location-specific technology limitations [3]. The survey was launched following a workshop in October 2013, where findings were discussed with speakers from Ofcom and the Scottish Government. In 2019, Oxford Internet Survey released a follow-up survey supported by the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Google Inc. and BT, stating that ‘ the oversample (from the 2013 survey) was critical since there are a relatively small proportion of deep rural households in Britain’ [S1].

In 2013, CTR was invited to submit written evidence to a small-scale enquiry led by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) titled ‘Rural Broadband and digital-only services’, the outcome of which was to ensure the ‘hardest to reach’ would be given priority access to broadband [S2]. The inquiry was updated and broadened (2017-2019), concluding that current Government policy had failed to reduce the digital divide between urban and rural areas. The report drew on Aberdeen research to highlight digital public services such as farm governance activities as being one of the areas being affected by lack of digital infrastructure [S3; 60, p15] to underpin recommendation 7 [S3; ‘ future digital services policies should reflect “needs not numbers” to ensure that the rural minority had the same digital opportunities as the urban majority‘. [S3; 73, p16] In March 2020, the UK Government issued an official response to the committee’s findings agreeing that ‘Government must actively monitor, encourage, and where appropriate, intervene to ensure that rural areas are not left behind and that any ‘digital’ divide between rural and urban areas can be closed’, confirming that in response to recommendation 7, that the development team ‘is already undertaking user research with farmers with no internet connection and poor mobile phone connectivity’ [S4].

CTR (Cottrill) was a key contributor to the underpinning evidence-based study that underpins the Transport Systems Catapult 2016 report, ‘Intelligent Mobility Skills Strategy’ (https://ts.catapult.org.uk/imskills/\), which was cited in Parliament in 2017, with Dr Yolande Herbath, the Catapult’s strategic lead, informing debate and the government round table on future skills. The University of Aberdeen’s Centre for Transport Research (CTR) was involved with the Transport Systems Catapult (TSC) under the University Partner Programme (UPP) from 2014 to 2017 [P3]. During this time, CTR undertook a significant range of activities with the Catapult and external partners, including organising and leading knowledge exchange activities and facilitating connections with partners in Scotland. These activities drew upon findings from research conducted by CTR with core relevance to intelligent mobility and contributed to activities undertaken by TSC.

As a direct impact of the IM Skills Strategy, the Department for Transport commissioned the Connected Places Catapult (the TSC’s successor organisation) to undertake a study on foresighting the Future of Transport Skills, the outcomes of which will be published in Spring, 2021 (https://bit.ly/3eozqyr\). The Automotive Council’s Skills Working Group revisited its governance arrangements (2020) reflecting shifting their focus from short-term solutions to plug gaps and address immediate stressors to the longer term horizon [S5].

In 2018, Cottrill was commissioned by the UK government’s Foresight Future of Mobility Project to prepare a report titled, ‘Data and Digital Systems for UK Transport: Change and its Implications’ [S6], which is cited as commissioned work, underpinning the report titled, ‘A time of unprecedented change in the transport system: The Future of Mobility’ (2019) prepared by the office of Sir Patrick Vallance (Government Chief Scientific Advisor since 2018) [S7] to ‘inform the UK’s response to a range of challenges and opportunities’.

Securing government investment to pilot Mobility as a Service (MaaS)

Aberdeen CTR has adopted an interdisciplinary approach in line with MaaS Scotland (Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Alliance Scotland), which is a network of 75 public and private organisations operating across the MaaS supply chain in Scotland. MaaS Scotland is a partnership between Technology Scotland and ScotlandIS and brings together businesses in the transport sector to share knowledge and develop joint projects to demonstrate the commercial, environmental and social advantages of MaaS. MaaS Scotland therefore plays a major role in the evolving development of IM, based on research findings that incorporate improved information systems and better integration of transport supply and demand.

In 2018, MaaS Scotland submitted a paper to the Scottish Government calling for investment to support MaaS pilot projects throughout Scotland. As a result of the research, the Scottish Government made an investment of GBP2,000,000 in 2019, administered through Transport Scotland, to support the development of these pilot projects. Alongside the fund, a Scottish Government working group was established to develop and scope how the investment should be spent, which included identifying thematic areas, refining evaluation criteria, and ensuring maximum engagement from industry partners. CTR, through one of its PhD students, provided an important voice to this group, helping to create a programme that looks set to significantly advance MaaS development and deployment in Scotland. According to the Chief Executive Officer for Technology Scotland:

‘*CTR has been central to the creation of a separate working group on rural MaaS. This is a hugely important subject, particularly in Scotland where the rural economy plays such an important role.*’ [S8]

Enabling operators and industry to rationalise the transition to IM

Central to the IM concept is journey planning, which includes the need to integrate existing data sources and formats. Nelson, Cottrill and colleagues worked with FirstGroup plc, the leading provider of transport services in the UK and North America, to develop a social media strategy to provide journey disruption alerts. FirstGroup have confirmed that CTR’s research has influenced both their engagement with research and helped to provide a roadmap for market readiness, stating that CTR ‘ have assisted First in its understanding of the scope for, and application, of innovative public transport solutions in real world scenarios. These form part of our wider objective, to achieve growth in use of and modal shift to public transport’ [S9].