European Companies Search Engine
UK funding (£167,895): Changing Commutes? Exploring the uptake of cycling to work through an agent-based model focusing on social interactions and social norms Ukri1 Feb 2013 UK Research and Innovation, United Kingdom
Overview
Text
Changing Commutes? Exploring the uptake of cycling to work through an agent-based model focusing on social interactions and social norms
| Abstract | This project stands to deliver high impact policy and practitioner relevant research on how to achieve a step-change in cycle commuting in the UK, through a novel use of existing data. Climate change necessitates a move towards a sustainable transport system, with around a quarter of transport's carbon dioxide emissions coming from the commute. Cycling could make a significant contribution to reducing these emissions, while simultaneously increasing the population's physical activity, thereby improving physical and mental health and well-being. Other benefits could include reduced congestion, air pollution, and noise pollution. Government seeks to increase cycling with current initiatives including the Local Sustainable Transport Fund and the previous government's Cycling City and Towns programme. There are big variations in cycle commuting between cities in the UK, with evidence of an increase in cycling in some areas. However, there is limited evidence for the effectiveness of interventions and, where that exists, the population impact is small. Improving our understanding of how behaviours change is an ESRC strategic priority area. Social science insights can direct attention to how locally specific cultures, social identities, and changing social processes, shape transport behaviours. Instead of focusing on discrete interventions in isolation, social science can help us look at transport systems and their dynamics. Agent based modelling (ABM) is increasingly used in social science, but is underused in this area. ABMs have been used to show how complex and recognisable social systems can be generated from small scale interactions. In ABM agents, usually individual people, behave according to specified rules but can also learn and change how they respond to events. Agents interact with other agents in geographical space and/or in social networks. They act based on the information available to them about their environment and what other agents are doing. ABMs are mathematical models but their rules can be constructed using qualitative data. Currently most ABMs used in transport look at route choice, rather than social relations. However, commuting behaviour is strongly driven by habits, social norms, and social interactions. People may be influenced by seeing different kinds of people cycling or not cycling, and learn from talking with neighbours, friends and colleagues. In the workplace, organisations (e.g. Bicycle User Groups) might affect behaviour. We will examine policy measures from the Visions 2030 Walking and Cycling Project to see how these might influence, and by influenced by, social interactions. We will use qualitative studies to develop rules around how people make commuting choices. We have chosen to develop the model focusing on cycling and commuting in 3 English urban areas (Chester, Bristol and Cambridge). The first two have seen an increase in cycling but still have considerable untapped potential. The third, Cambridge, has the highest level of cycling in the UK. The choice of areas will allow us to consider how behaviours might change as cycling becomes more normal. We will use workshops and a Delphi approach with academics and practitioners to investigate how the rules might be generalised to other areas. Our populations will be diverse with differences in age, gender, workplace, socio-economic position, and environmental attitudes (using DEFRA's sustainable lifestyles framework). We will use data from quantitative studies to represent these populations and test the model's predictions. This project will build knowledge about how and why commuting behaviours change. We will develop outputs for practitioners, policy-makers, and academics, including academic articles, a project blog, and a final report. An online model will allow users to explore likely potential changes in cycling levels in relation to policy or other changes, using the three cities as examples. |
| Category | Research Grant |
| Reference | ES/K004549/1 |
| Status | Closed |
| Funded period start | 01/02/2013 |
| Funded period end | 31/10/2014 |
| Funded value | £167,895.00 |
| Source | https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FK004549%2F1 |
Participating Organisations
| University of Cambridge | |
| Queen's University Belfast |
The filing refers to a past date, and does not necessarily reflect the current state. The current state is available on the following page: University of Cambridge, Cambridge.
The visualizations for "University of Cambridge - UK funding (£167,895): Changing Commutes? Exploring the uptake of cycling to work through an agent-based model focusing on social interactions and social norms"
are provided by
North Data
and may be reused under the terms of the
Creative Commons CC-BY license.
