Institute for Transport Studies (ITS)

New Year Honour

Tom Worsley, ITS Visiting Research Fellow, has been awarded the CBE in the New Year Honours list, for his services to the UK Department for Transport (DfT). Tom retired from DfT in May 2011, having held a number of senior economist posts during an impressive career. He was responsible for setting up NATA (the New Approach To Appraisal) in 1997 and for the development of the Department’s National Transport Model in 2001. He led the team responsible for Network Modelling Framework, a forecasting model used to provide the evidence to inform the 2007 Rail White Paper and High Level Output Specification. Since joining ITS his research interests have included an OECD discussion paper on the Crossrail scheme.

New Director of ITS

From January 2012, Dr Greg Marsden will take over as the Director of ITS.  Greg steps up from his role as Director of International Activities to take on the top job, succeeding Professor Mark Wardman, whose term of office ends.  In other recent changes to the senior management team, Dr Richard Batley is the Director of Research & Innovation, whilst Dr Samantha Jamson is the new Director of International Activities.

TECHNO mobility

ITS is a partner in a European Commission funded project, which will encourage students and researchers from South East Asia to Europe.  The TECHNO consortium involves 19 partner organisations across 11 countries, and promotes mobility in applied science and engineering.   As part of this Erasmus Mundus scheme, ITS is inviting postgraduate students and researchers to apply for funding to come to Leeds. For details of the funding and the application process, please visit www.techno-em.org

Class of 2011 - graduation celebration

The Masters class of 2011 were welcomed back to ITS for their graduation ceremony. Following the ceremony in the University's Great Hall, the graduates braved the weather of the short walk to ITS where a warm reception was laid on.  As well as catching up on what they are all now doing, it was also the time to confer the annual student prizes.   We now look forward to staying in touch with the class of 2011 throughout their lives and careers, via the alumni network. A video of the graduation ceremony in the Great Hall can be viewed here.

Crossrail Appraisal

Tom Worsley, ITS Visiting Fellow, gave a presentation to the OECD's International Transport Forum in December.  At the Round Table meeting on Major Infrastructure Projects and Regional Development, Tom presented the key issues from his paper ‘The Evolution of London's Crossrail Scheme and the Development of the Department for Transport's Economic Appraisal Methods’. The paper is available here.

Sustainable Transport Guidebook

Dr Greg Marsden has contributed to a new Guidebook on Sustainability Performance Measurement, for use across the transport sector.  Published by the US Transportation Research Board (TRB), the guidebook has been prepared for the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP - Report 708). Led by the Texas Transportation Institute, the report draws on the expertise of a diverse team and provides a widely-applicable framework, which transport agencies can adapt and use, either in existing performance measurement or within new sustainability initiatives. View the guidebook here. 

International reach

Recent weeks have seen significant developments in ITS’ international presence, reflecting the Institute’s long-standing commitment to global capacity building.
* Delivering MSc programmes at the Kigali Institute of Science of Technology in Rwanda, funded by the World Bank.
* A Memorandum of Understanding with the School of Planning and Architecture in Delhi and presentations to the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and the Centre of Excellence in Urban Transport at CEPT Ahmedabad.
* The Inaugural meeting of the Erasmus Mundus exchange network, held in Siam Riep, Cambodia, which will see postgraduates and postdocs come to ITS from nine SE Asian countries.
* An address to the Association of Mayors and visits to the Catholic University and ESPE in Ecuador.
* Visits and presentations at the following at Chinese universities -  Dalian Maritime, Dalian University of Technology, Tshinghua and BeiHang. 
* A keynote presentation on urban freight at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Porto Alegre, Brazil) and the final results of the TURBLOG case study on Cariciaca, Brazil.
* The further development of collaborations with leading Taiwanese institutions - National Chiao Tung University and National Cheng Kung University.
Read more about these initiatives here.

Road Safety Framework

In evidence submitted to  the Parliamentary Select Committee enquiry, ITS and other leading organisations concerned with road safety have urged the UK government to revise the framework to adopt international best practice. 
Concerned that the UK government is failing to take a leadership role in road safety, the submission by a coalition of road safety organisations, research institutes and universities, makes a number of key recommendations. Read the submission here.

President of CIHT visits ITS

David Gillham, President of the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (CIHT) visited ITS on 9th November. During his visit David experienced the world-leading Leeds Advanced Driving Simulator and discussed the challenges facing the transport profession during the current economic turmoil. David also gave a seminar to ITS Masters students, where he discussed the challenges of funding major transport infrastructure and maintaining the infrastructure we have. Key themes of the talk were the appropriate use of private sector finance and how both the public sector and the private sector can do more to achieve more cost effective use of private sector finance.

United Nations Intern returns

ITS Masters student Nalini Murkutla has recently returned from an internship at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP). Based in Bangkok, Nalini spent 3 months gaining invaluable experience working alongside UNESCAP Officers, including on the 'Low Carbon Green Growth Roadmap for Asia-Pacific' project. Nalini has now returned to ITS to apply her news skills and insights to her dissertation, before continuing her transport career. Read more about Nalini and her time at UNESCAP here.

Disruption on the horizon

ITS is leading a major new 3 year research council UK project as part of the Energy programme. The ‘Disruption’ project is trying to uncover whether travel behavior is as habitual and as difficult to change as is typically assumed. The project is studying how people adapt when faced with disruptions to their daily routines. These might be personal disruptions such as a broken leg or taking on caring duties, through to more widespread disruptions such as strikes or the major snow and ice of the past two years. The aim of the project is to understand how we can unlock our inherent adaptability to change in ways which will lead to lower energy consumption. Of course, there is a chance that this will herald the mildest winters on record. For further details please contact Dr Greg Marsden or visit the project website www.disruptionproject.net

Visions of 2030

City centres could become virtually car-free over the next 20 years under new visions proposed by an ITS-led research project. 
The year is 2030, traffic jams and smog have been banished from city centres and replaced with tree-lined boulevards where commuters walk or cycle to a much greater extent than now; electric bicycles and airport style travelators have become common modes of travel.  It might sound like the setting for a science fiction film, but this is just one scenario outlined by a research project aiming to create urban environments which are safer, more sociable and less environmentally damaging.  The 'Visions 2030' team have produced three scenarios of future UK cities where up to 80% of all journeys are made by bike or on foot and where cars and lorries are virtually obsolete. Their proposals, published in the Journal of Transport Geography, are illustrated by animations and images of how these cities may look. Read the full story here.

EcoDriver project

ITS is leading a €14.5m European project which aims to turn even the most committed of petrol heads into a green driver.  Over a four-year period the project will develop innovative new technologies for both in-vehicle and remote devices, such as downloadable smart-phone apps, that will help motorists to significantly reduce their fuel consumption by driving in a more energy-efficient way. ITS researchers led by Professor Oliver Carsten will work with transport research centres across Europe, as well as leading vehicle manufacturers such as Fiat and BMW, to design and test the devices, which could be on the market within 5 years. Read the full story here.

Understanding Walking & Cycling

A desire to ‘fit in’ could be hampering Britain’s chances of shifting to more sustainable forms of travel. Research conducted by ITS, Lancaster University and Oxford Brookes University has found that as well as the usual concerns of squeezing walking or cycling into complex household routines, negotiating traffic and the British weather, a significant proportion of people are put off from ditching the car because it is not seen as ‘normal’. The findings, collected from a cross section of households in Leeds, Leicester, Worcester and Lancaster, found that whilst attitudes to walking and cycling are mostly positive or neutral, many people who would like to engage in more active travel fail to do so due to a combination of factors.  The three most common obstacles to walking and cycling over a short journey were: safety when walking or cycling; the difficulty of fitting walking and cycling into complex household routines (especially with young children); the perception that walking and cycling are in some ways abnormal things to do. Read more.

Higher NO_X emissions from diesel vehicles

ITS research has discovered that NOx emissions from modern diesel vehicles are higher than previously thought. In urban driving conditions the NOx performance of diesel passenger cars have been shown to have changed little in the past 20 years, even though ever more stringent EU vehicle emission standards have been introduced. Worryingly from a local air quality perspective diesel cars are more popular than ever. Road transport NOx emissions are important as the UK is failing to meet EU air quality standards for nitrogen dioxide (NO2). The UK is also predicted to fail the NOx emissions ceiling target imposed by the European National Emissions Ceiling Directive (Environmental Audit Committee – Air Quality Report).  The work is part of a project led by collaborating researchers at Kings College London investigating why concentrations of NOx and NO2 in the UK have not fallen as anticipated. The findings are published in a new report for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. For further details please contact Dr James Tate.

New project puts rail freight back on track

ITS is developing the economic analysis for a major new project which will help EU railways regain market share of freight services, and thus re-build a sustainable alternative to road freight.   Freight transport across the EU is expected to grow by 50% by 2020 (in tonne-kilometres).  But in many areas, rail has been displaced from a dominant position, as road freight has grown and developed a capability and sophistication not matched in the rail sector.  SUSTRAIL is a major new  research project which aims to increase the performance of the entire rail freight system, and so drive profitability for stakeholders and EU tax payers.  Funded by the European Commission, it brings together university and rail industry partners from 13 countries.  Taking an holistic approach, the project will explore  innovations in rolling stock (to increase speeds and loads) and in track components (for higher reliability and reduced maintenance). ITS will lead the specialist work on infrastructure capacity benefits – as faster rail freight can free up track for both more freight and rail passenger services.    SUSTRAIL runs from 2011-2015 with the first interim findings in 2012 - for further details please contact either Phill Wheat (Project Director) or John Nellthorp (Project Manager).

European Investment Bank Project

A new ITS research project will extend the meta-analysis of values of time, to include evidence from across mainland Europe. ITS has pioneered work in meta-analyses of values of time, conducting the largest studies of their type [value of travel time savings is one of the most widely used parameters in transport planning forecasting & appraisal].  Funded by the European Investment Bank and to complete early in 2012, this new project will be led by Prof. Mark Wardman, together with Prof. Gerard de Jong and Dr  Phani  Chintakayala. It will build upon and update pan-European work previously undertaken by Prof. de Jong, explaining how values of time vary across different contexts and over time. The research outputs will update the European Investment Bank's database for EU countries. For further details please contact Mark Wardman.

Green Impact Award

ITS has been accredited by the Green Impact Scheme, a campaign run by the National Union of Students to encourage University staff and students across the country to take an active role in reducing their environmental impact. The University of Leeds had twenty six teams participating, addressing a range of scheme criteria including; energy usage, recycling, transport and communications. The ITS team was headed up by Jo Moran, Environmental Co-ordinator, and as a result of new measures put in place, plus existing good practice, ITS was awarded bronze accreditation. Read more about the scheme at www.leeds.ac.uk/greenimpact/.

Forging Ahead

The Forge is a new network of social science researchers interested in novel ways of conceptualising and analysing transport and travel. The network provides a means for research students, researchers and early career policy makers to meet, collaborate, publish and exchange ideas. Members of the network can share their profile and find colleagues with common interests. They can also apply for small quantities of funding to set up and support meetings and workshops on specific topics of interest to other network members. The annual Summer School is a focal point for the network and its activities. These events, to be run in 2011, 2012 and 2013, are open to research students from all areas of social science. Each year there will be 40 subsidised places available. To find out more or register as a member of the network, please visit the Forge website.

Alumni Event - Peter Hendy on 'Transporting London

Members of the ITS alumni community attended the Annual Alumni Lecture on 7th June in London. The lecture was given by fellow Leeds alumnus Peter Hendy, Commissioner of Transport for London. In his talk, Peter related the diverse challenges of keeping London moving in the wake of a terrorist attack, the Olympic level scrutiny of 2012 transport links, and working with the two very different mayoral characters of Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson.

The event took place at City Hall, on the south bank of the Thames, with has stunning panoramic views over the London skyline. The was significant interest in this prestigious event and a sizeable contingent of ITS alumni attended - further details, photos and a video of the lecture are available here.

Freight Route Choice

A new ITS research project will use GPS data to examine the movement of around 600 road freight vehicles. Sponsored by the UK Department for Transport, the project will first process the data into individual trips and identifying the actual route chosen by a specific lorry driver for a specific journey. Next, it will construct a database of alternative routes that the driver could have used. The resulting dataset will then be used in the estimation of choice models that explain the chosen route on the basis of attributes of the various routes. This will allow the project team to understand the relative sensitivities to travel time, cost, type of road, and various other factors which influence the choice of route. Please contact Dr Stephane Hess for further project details.

Tom Worsley joins ITS

Tom Worsley is joining ITS following his retirement from the Department for Transport. He joins ITS on a part-time basis as a Visiting Fellow in Transport Policy and comments: 

"Having worked closely with ITS over many years, it is a natural progression and I am looking forward to collaborating with my new academic colleagues, in applied research in policy, economics and appraisal".

Tom retires from DfT at the end of May, having held a number of senior economist posts during an impressive career. He was responsible for setting up NATA (the New Approach To Appraisal) in 1997 and for the development of the Department's National Transport Model in 2000/1. He led the team responsible for Network Modelling Framework, a forecasting model used to provide the evidence to inform the 2007 Rail White Paper and High Level Output Specification. More recently he has overseen the provision of economic advice on aviation and shipping, and on transport and the environment.

Transportcarbon.org

ITS is leading a 3-year project to examine the way in which carbon reduction policies are managed and delivered within transport.
The Climate Change Act 2008 has set targets for an 80% reduction in CO2 emissions and this implies large scale decarbonisation of road transport. This ESRC funded project seeks to identify blockages and opportunities to improve the governance processes to enable the transport sector to decarbonise in an efficient, effective and accountable manner. This includes understand how decisions are currently made and whether the public believes that such decision-making bodies are open to influence and scrutiny. The project brings together transport experts at ITS with political scientists from the University of Sheffield, plus experts at the University of Glasgow and Edinburgh Napier University. For further information please contact Dr Greg Marsden, Project Manager, or visit www.transportcarbon.org.

Aviation Workshop

Aviation experts were welcomed to ITS this month for a special workshop on environmental policy.

The focus of the workshop was on how market mechanisms could be used to increase technological innovation in the aviation sector - to achieve environmental benfits. Speakers were drawn from aviation operators and academics, including representatives from Virgin Atlantic, NATS, the Cambridge Centre for Climate Change Mitigation Research and Cranfield University, which facilitated a stimulating discussion of current knowledge and future research needs. Dr Astrid Guehnemann, co-ordinator of the workshop said "it was a very interesting opportunity to exchange knowledge between academics and experts from the aviation industry. It showed that we need more research into the design of policy instruments that can support the sector's efforts to reduce their environmental burden and staying competitive". For further details of ITS' environmental policy work, please see here.

Intelligent Driver Support Systems (IDSSs)

A new book co-edited by Dr Yvonne Barnard brings together current research on IDSSs, including design evaluation and social perspectives. The book is closely aligned with the interests of the ITS Safety & New Technologies Research Group and will appeal not only to researchers across engineering and social science disciplines, but also to designers involved in systems development. For further details and to order please see here.

Transport Select Committee - Report

The House of Commons Select Committee on Transport report, published today, has identified a number of recommendations from its recent inquiry into Transport and the Economy. Professor Peter Mackie and Dr Greg Marsden submitted written evidence to the Select Committee and followed this with oral evidence in November 2010. Key messages which come through in the Committee's recommendations are:

• Lower GDP growth and shortage of public funds raises the threshold of Benefit: Cost ratios for the schemes that should go forward.
• That there should be an increased threshold for funding decisions for local schemes.
• That the new governance arrangements for Local Economic Partnerships are not well defined and so pose some risks to the development and delivery of priority schemes.

Read the full report here.

Social networking and sustainable travel

ITS is one of the key partners in a new 3M euro research project that will develop and evaluate social network services and incentives to encourage individuals to travel more sustainably.

The SUNSET consortium is seeking to increase personal mobility in the EU and at the same time reduce congestion, increase safety, and protect the environment. Project partners are drawn from Norway, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden the UK, and include both research institutes and hi-tech companies, such as an internet app developer and a mobile phone operator. Read more about the project, including the use of the latest web 2.0 technologies and a 'living lab', on the SUNSET website. For details of ITS' contribution, please contact Dr Susan Grant-Muller.

Chinese delegation

ITS hosted a visit from the Xi'an Municipal Development and Reform Commission. The delegation was led by the deputy director general of the Commission and comprised 17 directors and senior managers working in Chinese local government. ITS staff led discussions on integrated traffic planning and management for the large cities in the UK and Europe and on transport pollution management strategies. Key issues under discussion included the role of clean vehicle technology and the conflicts between vehicle efficiency improvements and cheap motorisation, the use of intelligent transport systems to reduce environmental impacts, and retaining an efficient public transport service. Xi'an city is the capital of the Shaanxi province with a population of over 7 million.

Vice-Chancellor: ITS is "world-class"

The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds, Professor Michael Arthur, re-stated ITS' status as a world class department, in an article on The Guardian website. Commenting on the rapidly changing landscape of higher education, including higher fees from 2012 and specialisation within the sector, the VC said:

"Universities have developed themselves with a focus on excellence ... For example, at Leeds we happen to have a world-class Institute for Transport Studies; not a lot of our competitors have anything like that."

Read the full article here.

Bill Lythgoe 1943-2011

It is with great sadness that we learned that Dr William Lythgoe passed away on Sunday 6th February.

Bill was a Research Fellow, working mainly on rail related research in the area of behavioural modelling. Bill was a popular member of ITS, and with many friends in the railway industry where he worked until arriving at ITS in 1998 to take the MSc in Transport Planning, which he was awarded with distinction. He subsequently completed a PhD in spatial analysis of rail demand and then contributed to a wide range of research projects. Bill will be greatly missed.

A tribute to Bill's lifelong commitment to equality can be read here.

ITS @ TRB

ITS will be making its presence felt at the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Meeting this month.

TRB is held annually in Washington D.C and is one of the elite global transport conferences - so it is fitting that ITS will be contributing more than 20 authored and co-authored papers. The ITS papers are adding breadth and depth to the proceedings; several of the papers have arisen from collaborations and exchanges between ITS and other leading academics and practitioners internationally. For details of the ITS papers, please see here.

High Speed Rail seminars

Professor Chris Nash recently returned to ITS after giving a series of international seminars on high speed rail. First stop was the University of California in Berkeley, followed by the UIC symposium in Beijing. Also in Beijing, Prof. Nash spoke on 'Cost-benefit Analysis of High Speed Rail'. He is pictured here with Professor Ou and two former academic visitors to ITS - Fu Ying and Jian Hong Wu, at Beijing Jiaotong University.

Would you let your car drive itself?

That's the question that Dr Natasha Merat of ITS is helping to answer on Antenna, part of the Science Museum's website which discusses the latest scientific developments. Dr Merat is one of four experts asked for their opinions on whether driverless cars are likely to be on our roads in the near future. She comments: "We need more research to understand the consequences of highly automated cars for the driver." Read more here.

In a related news story, Dr Merat also provided the expert opinion for an article in the Yorkshire Evening post, on the impact of Sat Nav on driver behaviour. Article to follow.