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In most countries, including the Netherlands, the understanding of people?s travel behaviour is based on cross-sectional travel surveys where only one day is surveyed for each respondent. This is not enough to gain a proper understanding of the dynamics in travel behaviour and changes in behaviour needed to reverse the worrying long-term trends of growing mobility, congestion, increasing oil consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The Center for Transport studies is therefore setting up a research programme to examine the implications of the long-run dynamics and temporal variation in individual travel behaviour and accessibility for transport policy making. In a joint initiative with the Netherlands Institute for Transport Policy Research and Goudappel Coffeng, a Mobility Panel (2,000 households) for the Netherlands (MPN) will launched in 2013, using three-day self-completion diaries. Self-completion diaries are however associated with well-known data collection problems. Firstly, there are problems with picking up short-distance walk and cycle trips and accuracy of measurements (in particular trip departure and arrival times). Secondly, multiple-day trip diaries are associated with a high respondent burden. In the Dutch Mobile Mobility Panel project we will examine if GPS-enabled mobile phones are an effective and efficient alternative data collection method, and the value added in examining the variability and stability in individual travel behaviour and accessibility over time. Mobile phones are truly ubiquities having computation, sensing and communication capabilities and are carried by people throughout the day. It may become the most important solution to collect accurate and extensive travel behaviour data at low level of respondent burden in the near future. However, here is little experience yet with using mobile phones as data collection tools in the transport field. In this project we will develop an appropriate mobility monitoring tool to automatically record trips in detail (origin and destination locations, travel times) using algorithms to automatically detect (multi-modal) tours, trip purpose and transport mode. A field experiment will be conducted aiming to collect multiple-week and multiple-year travel behaviour data from 600 Dutch panel members. If monitoring using mobile phones has proven to be successful, it is intended to gradually replace trip diary data collection for specific population segments of the Mobility Panel for the Netherlands.

The growth and prosperity of cities and urban areas is propelled by advantages of agglomeration. These advantages however are not equally experienced by all members of the population, moreover the distribution is often not socially justified, as the groups that benefit from the higher density and better connections are not the same who experience the burdens such as congestion and poor air quality. This is a globally recurring issue, despite considerable differences between urban areas worldwide in terms of economic context, spatial planning and infrastructure provision. This research, within the call?s theme of social justice and the policy domain of infrastructure and built environment, will investigate physical and socio-economic processes that underlie the uneven distribution of urban outcomes. An international comparison of metropolitan areas in the UK, Netherlands and Brazil will take place to both identify universal drivers towards unjust outcomes and specific circumstances that can reduce or enhance existing social differences. In particular, the project will investigate the specific urban planning strategy of transit-oriented development (TOD) and its potential for delivering more equitable outcomes. This will be achieved through an international survey into job accessibility, population preferences and affordability in relation to transport and housing options; a dedicated measuring campaign targeting in-vehicle exposure to transport pollutants and advanced statistical and geographical information analysis. There are currently ambitious plans for TOD in São Paulo and the project will engage with stakeholders to target actual issues and allow the research to have a direct impact on social justice in São Paulo.

Non-recurring traffic disruptions can have a significant impact on the effectiveness and efficiency of urban transportation and logistics. This is especially true for time critical deliveries that have to be performed in narrow time windows. The aim of this project is to develop interactive decision support tools to help logistics service providers in adapting their route plans in response to traffic disruptions. This is challenging because of the inherent complexity of route planning and the traffic system. We focus on disruptions that occur during execution of the route which means there is very little time to adopt. To improve the early detection of disruptions and predict their temporal and spatial impact on travel speeds, we use real-time traffic data provided by roadside sensors, floating car devices and social media. We develop methods that support the logistics service provider to adapt their planning in real-time. Adaptations involve four main strategies: intra-route switching of trips, intra-route switching of customers, inter-route helper actions where vehicle loads are transferred between vehicles, and interaction with customers to re-evaluate time window agreements. Since it is not possible to capture all the complexities of a traffic disruption in one computer model, we integrate human experience and insight with formal decision support tools in a so called interactive planning environment.