EMPOWERING a reduction in use of conventionally fueled vehicles using Positive Policy Measures.

Project Information

EMPOWER

Grant agreement ID: 636249

DOI

10.3030/636249

Project closed

EC signature date 17 April 2015

Start date 1 May 2015

End date 30 April 2018

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 4 898 621,00

EU contribution

€ 4 898 621,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EMPOWER (EMPOWERING a reduction in use of conventionally fueled vehicles using Positive Policy Measures.)

Reporting period: 2016-11-01 to 2018-04-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

In many European cities liveability has become a major issue. As almost 80% of the European population live in urban areas, transport routes and residential areas are often closely located. According to the World Health Organization air pollution is a major environmental risk to health (WHO, Factsheet 313). The use of conventionally fuelled vehicles (CFV) also decreases liveability in cities by causing congestion, parking problems and accidents. The main objective of EMPOWER was to investigate how to substantially reduce the use of CFV in cities by influencing the mobility behaviour of CFV drivers and users towards fundamental change. The EMPOWER approach is to reduce the use of CFV by: shifting trips to other modes/other vehicle types and promoting sharing and self-organisation to reduce demand overall. Undesirable impacts from CFV use will be reduced by: shifting CFV use to outside peak times and diversions to avoid particular areas/routes.

To achieve this objective EMPOWER has created a set of tools for industry, policy makers and employers. These are empowering to a range stakeholders by increasing understanding of how to choose and successfully implement ‘positive’ evidence-based and cost-effective policy interventions based on innovative mobility services, and in the context of already existing infrastructure, policy and measures.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

New mobility services to provide innovative positive policy measures (positive incentives)
1. Development of new mobility services and technical implementations of 6 months+ duration in 4 living labs (LL) and 7 Take-Up cities (TUCs).
2. Stimulated the development of mobility tracking functionality in Betta Points app and desktop analytics functionality in Love to Ride app.
3. Development and implementation of the Zwitch app as a ‘step-in’ mobility service, thus increasing usability of mobility incentive services to support travel behaviour schemes
5. Advisory services for ICT provision in 7 TUC’s. Published guidance note produced for ICT tool users in delivering positive incentives schemes.
EMPOWER Toolkit to support a range of stakeholders
6. Development of architecture and interface for the Toolkit, with input from end-users.
7. Toolkit populated with significant content, including: guidance notes, an e-book on ethics, templates, deliverables, workshop slides and information on business models and scheme evaluation.
9. Development of a rich evidence data base, including external resources and evidence concerning positive incentives
10. Development of a data ‘sandpit’ including (anonymised) example App data, example analytics, synthetic dataset and links to an EMPOWER services (Commute Greener) API
11. Analysis demonstrated the international research of the Toolkit
Evidence of the impact of positive incentives on behaviours related to CFV use
12. Body of evidence collated and published on positive incentives impacts and to inform incentives design
13. Understanding and quantification of the effect of different incentives on travel behaviour, including cycling, walking and public transport use.
14. TUCs and LLs completed experimental work and real life implementations of positive incentive schemes. A Guidance note and papers were published.
New and improved organisational models for successful implementation of positive policy measures (Business models)
15. Development of new business models and generic business model templates for implementation of incentives in collaboration with TUCs/LL. These were developed into populated examples for TUC/LL cases.
17. Resources, training and bespoke advice for individual cities. A guidance note, templates and other materials published on the Toolkit.
Innovation in the evaluation method for new mobility services
18. Development of the agent-based FOUNTAIN model to allow a broader assessment of incentive scheme impacts in the LLs. Assessment demonstrations for 2 cities produced and model parameters for use with further cities produced and published.
19. Guidance on the definition and measurement of vulnerability produced, including a new index of vulnerability.
20. 2 workshops on evaluation: establishing an evaluation baseline and implementation of evaluation principles
21. Guidance notes on: 'Establishing a baseline' and 'Evaluation methodology' produced and published.
22. Advisory services to the 7 TUC’s for a practical approach to evaluation
Exploitation of outputs included:
• Stakeholders from 7 cities/regions were strongly embedded in the project following the EMPOWER TUC competition
• A series of 7 capacity building workshops, 2 webinars and numerous bespoke advice (written and in-person) openly offered to city stakeholders, 70+ Follower organisations, CIVITAS network and other EU projects to support uptake of the outputs into policy.
• The EMPOWER Toolkit https://empowertoolkit.eu/ was developed with a wide range of resource, example data and other supporting material.
• 10 accessible guidance notes were produced to encourage policy uptake, including an e-book containing ethical guidance
• A ‘brownfield’ approach to ICT services was taken, offering amends to existing Apps and adoption of locally established branding. This supported continued use and development of the EMPOWER concept/services beyond the project lifetime. EMPOWER ICT tools remain available for further uptake at subsidised cost.
Dissemination outputs exceeded those initially planned, briefly: Workshops & networking activities: 67, Journal articles: 13, Conference papers: 32, General public presentation: 12, Videos: 10, Professional magazines / Guidance Notes: 22

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Examples of EMPOWER impact:
• 4 city authorities will include EMPOWER concepts in new/revised SUMPs or the equivalent.
• 6 service providers have amended their service provision/plans as a result of EMPOWER
• At least 6 TUC’s/LL will continue the positive incentives schemes launched during EMPOWER
• EMPOWER has impacted on national policy in Finland, having been highlighted in the renewal of Act of Transport Services and renewal of Road Traffic Act
• EMPOWER has impacted on capacity through the development, enhancement and upgrading of 7 significant software (Apps/interfaces/modelling tools), including third party software.
• The EMPOWER toolkit was visited over 1100 times in a 12 month period, by a range of users with global reach

EMPOWER actions have resulted in the award of six prizes:
1) Best scientific paper award 12th ITS European Congress 2017. Huang et al: ‘Cycle2work: an empirical study on potential personalised rewarding schemes delivered via smartphone technologies’
2) Distinguished Scientific Papers - Europe award. Grant-Muller et al won the award for their work at the ITS World Congress 2016, ‘Evaluating the social network concept within new ICT-enabled mobility schemes’.
3) CIVITAS 2017 "Bold Measure Award" Bologna, Italy. Bella Mossa received funding for the implementation of positive incentives as an EMPOWER Take-Up City.
4) Ecosistema Urbano 2017: the EMPOWER TUC ‘Bella Mossa’ was awarded Italy’s "Ecosistema Urbano 2017" prize.
5) Healthy Streets Award for modal shift: BetterPoints won the 2017 award for their role in the BikeSmart programme in Reading, as part of the EMPOWER project.
6) Business Environment Award: Betterpoints were awarded the 2017 award for their work with Reading Borough Council and the BikeSmart programme, (supported by the EMPOWER project).

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