Professor Brian Caulfield

Title

Assessing the Barriers to Sustainable Transport in Ireland

Summary

The aim of this research is to assess the current barriers to sustainable transport in Ireland across a range of different criteria, including (i) economic and fiscal; (ii) behavioural and attitudes; (iii) institutional/regulatory and (iv) demand management. In particular, it will look at ways in which the transport network can be used more efficiently in order to complement the provision of supply-side infrastructure and ways in which a modal shift to public transport, walking and cycling and the use of more fuel-efficient vehicles and renewable energy can be incentivised. This project will focus upon four areas, including a comparison between the transport networks in Irish and European settlements; an examination of the factors that influence travel behaviour and barriers to behavioural change; transport market regulation and demand management measures to incentivise more sustainable travel options.

Funding Agency

EPA and Department of Transport

Date From

June 2009

Date To

June 2010

Title

Examining the improved efficiency of renewable energy generation in Ireland

Summary

Little research has been conducted on the economic impact of some recently developed techniques for increased generation efficiency of renewable energy production. Recently developed techniques for improving the generation efficiency of solar and wind energy and estimate how these techniques could impact upon the economic efficiency of renewable energy, will be examined. An approach called data-envelopment-analysis (DEA) will be used to demonstrate how a number of macro-economic benefits could be realised as a result of investing in renewable energy technologies. The results of this project will provide insight into the basis for assessing the impact of improved efficiency of renewable.

Funding Agency

TCD

Date From

2009

Date To

2012

Title

Current Status and Potential Role of Eco Labels in Informing Environmentally Friendly Purchases and Behaviours

Summary

Eco labels are a widely used method of communicating environmental information to consumers in the hopes that they will be encouraged to pick the most sustainable option available. Eco labels are used in a wide range of industries, and are even required by legislation in some, however, little research exists regarding their effectiveness in terms of promoting sustainable consumption. This research aims to use a number methods to examine the role of eco labels in the Irish market and provide recommendations for future designs and implementations. Specifically this will comprise of an assessment of current eco labels and an econometric examination of the role that eco labels can play in purchases. The most novel aspect of this research will utilize emerging eyetracker technology to gain an understanding of how eco labels compete with other types of product information for consumers' attention. This will also examine the relative effectiveness of existing methods of communicating environmental information.

Funding Agency

EPA

Date From

2016

Date To

2017

Title

Driving development- the interactions between transport and land use in a sustainable city

Summary

In Ireland, we have a dispersed pattern of development which became established in fast growth regions such as Dublin. In the past, transport infrastructure was only put in place once developments had been completed, leading to high car use and unsustainable travel patterns. In more recent times, in line with international best practice, an effort has been made to put in place transport infrastructure in advance of development to bring about more sustainable travel. This is an innovative policy approach for Ireland that allows sustainable transport policy to encourage sustainable development. In this project, it is proposed to study 2 transport corridors in the Greater Dublin Area, where transport infrastructure has been developed in advance of residential developments. The project will use MOLAND, a dynamic land use model, to investigate the interactions between transport, land use and modal choice along these corridors and will use this information to understand how the development of new transport corridors, such as the Metro North, might affect land use policy and development.

Funding Agency

TCD-UCD Innovation Academy

Date From

2010

Date To

2014

Title

Measuring the potential implications of introducing a cap and share scheme in Ireland to reduce green house gas emissions

Summary

This project examines some of the potential impacts of introducing a cap and share scheme in Ireland. Under such a scheme a cap or limit is placed on national CO2 emissions and individuals are allocated an annual CO2 allowance. The research presented in this paper focuses on travel-to-work trips specifically. CO2 emissions for these annual work trips are calculated and a cap is determined based on these results. Cap levels are set based on average emissions and a 20% reduction in average emissions as per Ireland's reduction targets. A national and Dublin only cap are examined and the results are presented as a means of comparison. Binary logistic models are used to determine the socio-economic characteristics of individuals who fall above and below the cap. The results demonstrate the importance of car ownership, journey distance, mode choice and household composition in determining whether a commuter is above or below the cap.

Funding Agency

SIF

Date From

October 2008

Date To

October 2011

Title

DiSTRaCT: moDal ShifT Reduce Carbon in Transport

Summary

Much attention has been focused on the transport sector and how to reduce emissions and energy consumption in this field. Traditionally much of the focus has been on building new infrastructure and investment in public transport, walking and cycling. Little attention has been paid to changing underlying transport behaviours and trying to understand why we travel in the ways we do. The DiSTRaCT project aims to examine this under researched are in Ireland and cast a wide net to look for low cost behavioural change projects that have been successful internationally and determine if they could be successful in Ireland. A key element of the DiSTRaCT project will be to produce new methods to evaluate the potential success of behavioural change projects and supplement the work being conducted on the economic evaluation of transport projects. The final deliverable of the project will be a list of potential pilot projects that could be launched in Ireland and how to leverage the greatest return on any potential pilot projects.

Funding Agency

SEAI - Department of Transport, Tourism & Sport

Date From

Jan 2019

Date To

Jan 2020

Title

Peacox - persuasive advisor for CO2-redcing cross-modal trip planning

Summary

Ecological issues in urban traffic become more and more pressing as personal transportation is one of the greatest contributors of CO2 emissions. Means to help people reducing their ecological impact are needed urgently. To answer this need Ecological Aware Navigation provides urban travellers with personalized navigation tools that allow, help and persuade them to travel and drive more eco-friendly. To convince users in making more sustainable travel choices Ecological Aware Navigation will enrich navigation systems with innovative approaches and features. The system will be developed in two iterations following user-centred and agile design approaches, and extensive field trials in Vienna and Dublin will ensure high quality and impact of the developed system. The consortium unites expertise from navigation systems, transportation sciences, environmental modelling, artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction to software development. Project partners include: CURE - Center for Usability Research and Engineering, Fluidtime Design Software Service, Telematix Software, a.s., ETH Zurich Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich Institute for Transport Planning and Systems, National Technical University of Athens - Institute of Information and Computer and Communication Systems, Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region VORG mbH/ ITS, Vienna Region and TomTom International BV.

Funding Agency

EU

Date From

2011

Date To

2014

Title

An evaluation into the safety of cycling in Dublin city and measures to reduce risk to cyclist

Summary

The research proposes to evaluate the safety of cycling in Dublin city, and is based upon findings from research previously undertaken using RSA historical cyclist collision data for years 2006 to 2012. Cyclist collisions hot spot areas in Dublin city were identified using kernel density estimation, a spatial statistical tool available in ArcGIS 10.3 that enabled the spatial pattern of collision points to be visualised as clustered hot spots areas. The resultant maps revealed cyclist collisions occurred more frequently at cross roads and T junctions where there were discontinuations in the road network requiring cyclist to stop or reduce speed. Areas with a high concentration of collisions were located in the centre of the city along the quays of the river Liffey, Temple bar area and Dame Street. This was followed by the Grand Canal to the south side of the city, in particular, Rathmines Bridge, Ranelagh Bridge and also Harold's Cross Bridge. Another key finding showed that circa 58% of collisions occurred on roads with on street cycle lanes and that circa 80% of cyclist collisions were with a small motorised vehicle (i.e. car, taxi or van). Focus was therefore further placed on collisions between small motorised vehicle and pedal cyclist in relation to the safety of roads with on street cycle lanes as preliminary results had identified these to be major contributors for all cycle collisions during the study period. The overall aim of this research is to develop a new methodology to reduce numbers of cyclist collisions in cities and improve safety for cyclist by identifying and evaluating areas with a high incidence of cyclist collisions from which preventative measures as adopted internationally will be recommended in order to reduce the risk of collisions for cyclists and consequently improve road safety for cyclist. For the purpose of this research Dublin City will be used to develop this methodology. Secondary to this is to examine how and why cyclist collisions are reported and examine alternative ways of reporting in a way that they can be easily integrated into a GIS and used for subsequent analysis.

Funding Agency

Road Safety Authority

Date From

2017

Date To

2021

Title

Smart Mobility Initiative for Lower Emissions (SMILE)

Summary

The vision of this project is that achieving the change required is possible if we stop working in the isolation of our disciplines and combine our expertise around a rich understanding of the transport ecosystem. The epicentre of this ecosystem is the individual trip decision - we need to understand this decision process from all angles. SMILE brings together multidisciplinary expertise from Computer Science, Engineering and Social Sciences to design an evidence-based mobility ecosystem centred on a trip decision-making app. The app will: - Inform, educate and motivate users towards low- or no-emissions modes with a user-friendly interface making accessing eco-modes seamless - Personalisation will enable trip guidance to be optimised to the user, sensors will harvest actual mobility behaviour and machine learning will optimise the nature and presentation of choices to maximise eco-mode choices. - These data can be used to inform transport services and infrastructure planning and policy

Funding Agency

SFI

Title

DLR Active Travel Testbed

Summary

In order to promote active travel, safe infrastructure must first be provided to support commuters and shoppers in choosing alternative transport modes . With the recent success of cycle to work schemes and the increase in e-bike sales cyclists need safe and secure bicycle infrastructure to ensure these sales translate into increased cycling across the County, this will require an improve experience of cycling . A current lack of facilities may be preventing citizens from cycling or using public transport. Recent projects in Dublin have looked to deal with this issue in the region http://dccbeta.ie/project/article/residential-bike-hangars the results of which highlighted issues of security and that user confidence in services are critical. This project sets out a programme of research to analyse existing challenges in DLR and to suggest and test potential solutions using a trial approach. This is a co-funded project between DLR and Enable who are both partners on the Smart Sandyford research programme.

Funding Agency

DLR - SFI/ENABLE

Date From

2021

Date To

2022

Title

POWERDRIVE

Summary

POWERDRIVE is submitted in framework of the Horizon Europe's Cluster 5 "Climate, Energy and Mobility" whose main focus is to "accelerate the twin green and digital transitions and associated transformation of our economy, industry and society with a view to achieving climate neutrality in Europe by 2050". To comply with the described policy framework and meet the work programme requirements and EU policy goals, POWERDRIVE aims at developing a next generation, highly efficient, cost-effective, and compact power electronics solution that integrate a portfolio of technologies for multi objective optimisation of electric powertrains of battery electric vehicles (BEV). These integrated solutions can be applied to both low-performance and high-performance vehicles, and they will be suitable for diverse types of electric vehicles (EV). The concept of POWERDRIVE is that all the experience and expertise of the project partners in the development of electric drivetrain components will be leveraged and lead into the integration of advanced power electronics solutions for an optimised powertrain. This concept brings additional opportunities to strengthen Europe's supply chain in electromobility for road transportation and to achieve zero-emission road mobility.

Funding Agency

HORIZON Europe

Date From

2022

Date To

2025

Title

Measuring the acceptance of wind farms in Ireland

Summary

It is envisioned that wind energy will play a key role in realising our national government targets of 40 % renewable electricity by 2020. In order to achieve this it is important that we better understand individuals perceptions, concerns and reservations on the construction of wind farms. Like the construction of any new infrastructure such as; roads, new housing/ industrial developments, or waste disposal facilities, it is important to have positive public participation from the beginning of the project. This project will seek to determine the most appropriate methodologies to measure social acceptance of wind energy projects updating the previous studies undertaken in 2003. In previous studies mainly positive attitudes were found towards the development of wind farms both among the general Irish population and particularly among those who live in a community where a wind farm is already situated. This gave a very positive background against which future development grew. Now however it is important to reassess the level of current social acceptance, following nine years in which wind farm developments in Ireland have increased substantially and will do so more rapidly in future in order to fulfill our national 2020 targets.

Funding Agency

Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland

Date From

2012

Title

Terrain-AI

Summary

Population growth, demographic shifts, climate change and the need for increased food production are placing new and increased pressures and demands on our natural resources, highlighting the need for adopting more sustainable life-styles. Now, more than ever, we need high-quality, timely information about our farms, forests, natural wetlands and cities in order to better understand the interdependencies and interactions between the human activities and natural processes that create these complex environments. Terrain-AI will tackle this challenge through the innovative fusion of multi-thematic data-sources captured from spaceborne satellites, aerial/drone platforms, in-field instruments, in-situ sensor networks and mobile devices with existing databases, on land use and population, using highly automated Machine Learning workflows to extract terrestrial features, patterns and processes - essential to understanding and managing these environments. Integrated land-surface models, capable of handling uncertainty, will utilise these AI outputs together with land-cover type, biomass and environmental variables to produce improved estimates of Carbon Stocks and Exchanges. The big research opportunity here is building a state-of-the-art digital terrestrial monitoring and modelling platform based on Terrain-AI's 14 instrumented real-world test-sites together with the latest Earth Observation, Robotics and Sensing technologies that will enable the collaborative research and development of scalable ML and integrated modelling workflows with a team of over 45 dedicated research specialists. There are big commercial and societal opportunities including, developing next generation digital Agri-tech products and services through to making real changes in how we manage Carbon on our farms, forests, peatlands and urban spaces, in support of sustainable land use.

Funding Agency

SFI & Microsoft

Date From

2021

Date To

2023

Title

Base lining Road Works Safety on European Roads (BRoWSER)

Summary

The central concept for the BRoWSER project is that provision of accurate, timely and consistent road worker accident data will enable national road authorities to drive down road worker risks and monitor the associated improvements in safety achieved. These hypotheses will provide evidence to either support or refute the need for a European Road Worker Casualty (EuRoWCAS) data source and for change towards a position of consistency for road works signing across the EU. This will deliver a structure for delivery of consistent information (and a road worker data collection toolkit) for use by national road authorities that can be used within the trans-national community to identify common and country-specific risks. This will enable better management of road worker risk across Europe, allowing for co-ordinated and structured action to be taken by national road authorities to solve common problems associated with road worker risk. It will also ensure that road users experience a common approach, reducing their risk during journeys within the EU.

Funding Agency

CEDR Transnational Road Research Programme

Date From

2013

Date To

2015

Title

SUstainable MobIlity Models for a Just Transition

Summary

While mobility is the lifeblood of human connectedness and economic progress, there is an urgent need to fundamentally rethink models of mobility with a view to achieving just access to a sustainable transportation system that makes optimal use of resources and infrastructure while offering the efficiency, comfort, convenience, and access. SUMMIT will balance consideration of the possibilities afforded by emerging technologies with the social, regulatory, economic and personal needs of stakeholders, whilst respecting planetary boundaries, to bring forward concrete proposals on how a transition to just and sustainable mobility can be achieved.

Funding Agency

Kinsella Challenge Based E3 Multidisciplinary Project Awards

Date From

2021

Date To

2025

Title

ROBUST (Electric shaRed mOBility hUbS Trials)

Summary

The project proposes a long-term mobility hubs trial in four urban locations in Ireland, Galway, Sligo, Donegal, and Dublin. The installed hub infrastructure will comprise e-car charge points, electric vehicles and e-bikes (provided by partners ESB & Enterprise) and further expand the offer of micro-mobility options. The mobility hubs show evidence of being an effective intervention to change travel behaviours and the ROBUST project will seek to develop an evidence-informed toolkit for mobility hub deployment. The 2-year trial will provide an opportunity to study the persistence of modal shift. The hub will serve as an incubator, accelerating the uptake of electric mobility options by allowing interacting with future mobility technologies and removing barriers through participatory research. Various stakeholders will be engaged in the process of hub evolution through stakeholder workshops and co-creation workshops. The project will use an experimental design comparing prior-to-trial travel behaviour, engagement with the hub modal options and after-trial persistence of the modal shift.

Funding Agency

SEAI

Date From

2023

Date To

2027

Title

STATION-AIR

Summary

The overall concept behind the STATION-AIR project is the development of a holistic assessment of diesel train and road traffic emissions that contribute to transport-related air pollution (TRAP) in the environs of large urban railway hubs, and the subsequent delivery of informed policy and design mitigation measures to address the identified impacts. An initial systematic best-practice review will identify appropriate methods for air quality assessment of railway hubs and outline a range of mitigation measures that support improving air quality management in urban railway settings in Ireland. This will shape a preliminary framework for scoping the potential impact of policy and design measures for mitigating exhaust and non-exhaust emissions from diesel trains and road traffic in the environs of urban railway hubs. Through this decision-making process, appropriate sites will be identified, and novel measurement and modelling approaches will be undertaken to generate baseline evidence for each location. This will include participatory air quality monitoring and recruitment through educational citizen science 'meet-ups', with the use of drone technology to capture environmental data in and around railway stations. The defined air quality mitigation measures will be paired with the appropriate microenvironments considered in the project, accounting for different population groups who are exposed to air pollution in both indoor and outdoor settings in the environs of urban railway stations. The results from the STATION-AIR project will help produce recommendations for improving air quality in the environs of urban railways hubs.

Funding Agency

EPA

Date From

2022

Date To

2025

Title

Greening Transport

Summary

The main vision of the Greening Transport project is to merge the technical evaluation of the emissions from transport, and the improvements in their calculation, with the behavioural changes needed to realise these reductions in emissions. Past attempts to measure the "low hanging fruit" in terms of emissions reductions from transport have failed to fully merge these two disciplines. The project team believe that in order for the EPA to have a holistic picture of the potential emission reductions that are possible in Ireland by 2030 (and beyond), it is vital not to ignore the behavioural constraints in which transport analysis is framed. While it is possible to predict targets for take up using assumptions, to ignore human behaviour is to not fully grasp the problem at hand. With this in mind the work packages for this project have been designed to tackle the technical emissions and transportation modelling, as well as the application of behavioural constraints to these models to provide the EPA with details of what emission reductions are possible based upon the current research.

Funding Agency

EPA

Date From

2014

Date To

2018

Title

Irish Car Stock Model (RATE)

Summary

In transport emissions modelling is a process that uses a lot of data. The accuracy of this modelling process is very much dependant on the quality of the base data used in this process. In 2019, it was estimated that 74% of trips in Ireland were made by private car. This demonstrates the importance of having an accurate car stock model. The RATE project will develop a sophisticated national car stock model that will incorporate purchasing preferences with historical data to provide a state-of-the-art national car stock model. The 2023 Climate Action plan places aims to decrease transport emissions in Ireland by 50% compared to 2018 levels. The policy uses the Avoid-Shift-Improve paradigm and under the improve section it is planned to sell 845,000 private electric cars. The improve section of the plan is responsible for removing 4.74 MtCO2eq and is the largest policy tool in the transport sector accounting for 43% of all emissions in the sector. Given the importance and the amount of emissions required to be reduced by this policy, it is vital to have the most up-to-date tools to monitor the success and project future trends. That is what is planned in the RATE project. The RATE project will: - Provide realistic estimated of the potential growth of EVs in the Irish Market - Estimate the associated emissions reductions from EV growth - Model the changes in air quality indicators such as particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide - Build upon existing SEAI funded research projects

Funding Agency

SEAI

Title

RAIN - Risk Analysis of Infrastructure Networks in response to extreme weather

Summary

In recent years, a variety of extreme weather events, including droughts, rain induced landslides, river floods, winter storms, wildfire, and hurricanes, have threatened and damaged many different regions across Europe and worldwide. These events can have a devastating impact on critical infrastructure systems. The RAIN vision is to develop a systematic risk management framework that explicitly considers the impacts of extreme weather events on critical infrastructure and develops a series of mitigation tools to enhance the security of the pan-European infrastructure network. This project will quantify the complex interactions between weather events and land based infrastructure systems. The output of RAIN will aid decision making in the long term, securing new robust infrastructure development and protection of existing infrastructure against changing climates and increasingly more unpredictable weather patterns. Transport, energy and telecommunications infrastructure will all be considered and risk mitigation strategies will be developed. This will be achieved through developing an operational analysis framework that considers the impact of individual hazards on specific infrastructure systems and the coupled interdependencies of critical infrastructure through robust risk and uncertainty modelling. The framework will consider cascading hazards, cascading effects and time dependent vulnerability with the ultimate objective to develop practical software tools and guidelines that provide support to European infrastructure managers in the event of an extreme weather event occurring and to minimise the impact of extreme events by developing mitigation and response strategies. RAIN will facilitate a cross-European collaborative platform, supported by the necessary tools and methodologies, where relevant stakeholders can share data, results of model simulations, and operational strategies in a seamless, efficient, and effective way. Technical and Logistic solutions will be developed to minimise the impact of these extreme events, which will include novel early warning systems, decision support tools and engineering solutions to ensure rapid reinstatement of the infrastructure network. These tools will be implemented within a novel Europe-wide operational and response strategy that will emerge from this research. The ability of this response plan to cut across borders will be guaranteed by the pan - European multi-disciplinary consortium. This project is being led by Trinity College Dublin. The project partners include: European Sever Storms Laboratory, Zilinska Univerzita V Ziline, Technische Universiteit Delft, Gavin and Doherty Geosolutions Ltd., Dragados SA, Freie Universitaet Berlin, Roughan & O' Donovan Ltd., Hellenberg International OY, Istituto di Sociologia Internazionale di Gorizia I.S.I.G, PSJ, Ilmatieteen Laitos, Youris.com, Union Fenosa Distribucion SA and Aplicaciones En Informatica Avanzada SL. http://rain-project.eu/

Funding Agency

EU

Date From

May 2014

Date To

April 2017

Title

National Cycle Network - Route Feasibility and Delivery Study

Summary

In 2009, the first National Cycling Policy Framework was adopted. This set clear and ambitious targets for the country. One component of this framework is an interurban cycle network that will be attractive to commuters, tourists and leisure cyclists. The NRA is currently engaged with several state agencies to coordinate the implementation of Objective 3 outlined in the National Cycle Policy Framework, which is to "Provide designated rural cycle networks especially for visitors and recreational cycling". The NRA is currently concentrating on one element of this objective, which is the route selection and feasibility study for the corridor between Dublin and Galway. This corridor is split into three distinct sections. The research conducted in this project will include a route selection analysis and the second section of the research will involve producing design standards for interurban cycle lanes in Ireland.

Funding Agency

NRA

Date From

2010

Date To

2013

Title

TRACT: TRAnsport Behaviour Change Trials

Summary

TRACT has two distinctive trials, one which will focus on the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) and the second using the mobility hub concept to encourage modal shift. The e-mobility trial will consist of a TRACT smartphone app that will be developed to inform users about their driving behaviour and the impact of switching to an electric vehicle. Several specific use cases will be examined (those without driveways, taxi drivers, rural groups) to determine what would encourage them to switch. The mobility-hub trial will combine the use of shared bikes, cars, active modes and public transport. A suburban location will be selected, and shared cars and bikes (provided by partners Yuko & BleeperBike) will be located there, advertised and promoted to the community. This model has been shown to reduce car ownership and emissions internationally. The 18-month trial will enable the TRACT researchers to measure the impacts of these interventions. The results from the trials will be extrapolated to the wider population to demonstrate what the potential emissions reduction could be in similar areas and user groups. A cost-effectiveness analysis, looking at wider economic benefits, will also be conducted at several stages of the project to feed into policymakers and inform local and national policy.

Funding Agency

SEAI & Department of Transport

Date From

2022

Date To

2025

Title

CONUNDRUM - Co-Creating sustainable and shared community mobility

Summary

Tackling transport and mobility challenges is critical to addressing the climate crisis, given that transport emissions accounted for more than 20% of sectoral emissions in Ireland in 2020. A recent OECD (2022) report noted that current policies that aim to decarbonise the system via private vehicle improvements are `unlikely to lead to substantially different patterns of behaviour, rapid emissions reductions, and large well-being improvements'. A key challenge is how to move beyond a focus on private, electric mobility to engage with more radical low-carbon alternatives. Our team proposes to accelerate progress towards carbon emission reductions but also to actively enhance and sustain community wellbeing. The key objective here is to empower communities to adopt more sustainable modes of mobility by demonstrating how shared low-carbon transport can plug the gap when high frequency public transport might not be available. As well as addressing carbon reduction targets, shared mobility could support community wealth building through the development of novel initiatives that address a community need and reconnect people to their place and each other, contributing to addressing the challenge of isolation that many more vulnerable communities feel post-Covid (Government of Ireland, 2021). Balancing climate action with social justice requires recognition that not all places are equal, with some smaller towns and rural areas facing much more challenging sustainability transitions. We will complete an initial mapping of key relevant stakeholders in each location, building on the existing work of TASC (our societal impact champion,) who have initiated some community engagement already around just transitions in Enniscorthy. We will then develop the SCOOT App using deep learning methods, behavioural tools and tailored information to enable the community to optimise modes of transport that reduce emissions and decrease travel costs and travel time. The third solution will see the amalgamation of the previous two solutions into one research activity, modelling how the potential change of transport modes impacts the south-eastern regional transport model developed by the National Transport Authority. The changes in mode preferences and the use of shared modes of transport will be modelled for the Enniscorthy area to determine how it affects travel times and emissions in the community.

Funding Agency

SFI