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ROBUST: Electric shaRed mOBility hUbS Trial

• Project Team:
  • Prinicpal Investigator: Prof. Brian Caulfield (Trinity College Dublin)
  
  
  • Academic Partners:
  • Prof. Margaret O’Mahony (Trinity College Dublin)
  • Dr Sam Cromie (Trinity College Dublin)
  • Prof. Owen Conlan (Trinity College Dublin)
  • Dr Agnieszka Stefaniec (Trinity College Dublin)
  • Dr Amaya Vega (Atlantic Technological University)
  • Dr Brian McCann (Atlantic Technological University)


• Funding Agency:

  • Sustainable Energy Agency of Ireland

• Funding Period:

  • 2023 - 2027

• Location:

  • Ireland (Dublin, Waterford, Galway, Sligo)

• Themes:

  • Shared mobility, Sustainable transport, Climate change

• Description:

  • The project proposes a long-term electric shared mobility hubs trial in four urban locations in Ireland, namely Dublin, Waterford, Galway and Sligo. The installed hub infrastructure will comprise e-car charge points, electric cars, e-bikes and e-cargo bikes (provided by partners ESB & Enterprise) and further expand or alter the offer of micro-mobility options. The 2-year trial will provide an opportunity to study the persistence of modal shift and through the trial seeks to build national capacity to expand the understanding around mobility hubs and apply it country-wide.

    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 toolkit will provide guidance and support to policymakers and test transport policy scenarios that could facilitate the implementation of this solution.

    The hub aims to 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. This project is the first for Ireland in that it will trial this new mobility option in our largest city, a regional city, a regional hub and in a less populated context. This will provide evidence of how these options operate in different contexts.



Fig 1. Conceptual design for an electric mobility hub





Our presence at the Transport Research Arena (TRA), Dublin, 15-18 April 2024

The prototype of our hub design was showcased at the ESB stand, and new shared e-mobility hubs sparked many discussions on topics such as universal charging, behavioural change, and commercial models.



Fig 2. Minister Eamon Ryan visits the ESB stand at the Transport Research Arena