Periodic Reporting for period 2 - uCARe (You can also reduce emissions)
Reporting period: 2020-11-01 to 2022-10-31
uCARe is a project funded by the European Union (H2020 LC-MG-1-1-2018) with the aim to reduce the impact of transport on air quality. The project has a 36 months duration and started on the 1st of May 2019. The budget is 3 million Euro, spent on 288 person months by 14 partners.
The ambition of uCARe is to reduce the overall pollutant emissions of the existing vehicle fleet to improve air quality with impact on, among others, the environment and people’s health.
To achieve this, uCARe has:
• provided vehicle users with simple, insightful and effective tools to decrease their individual emissions;
• supported stakeholders with an interest in local air quality in selecting feasible intervention strategies that lead to the desired user behaviour.
Standardised data
There is a great deal of data on pollutant emissions available in the uCARe consortium. The uCARe project has made these data publicly available in so-called Augmented Engine Maps (AEMs). An AEM provides the pollutant emissions for a specific car model and make. The AEM shows how, for instance, the NOx emissions depend on speed and CO2 for a hot engine, but also for a cold engine. Other emission maps include non-tailpipe emissions such as wear emissions from tires and brakes. This data was used for developing tools that give drivers advice on how to reduce their pollutant emissions.
Driver awareness of behaviour influence
To make drivers aware of the effect of their driving behaviour, uCARe published a set of tools, including:
• Video clips for a do-it-yourself evaluation of the driver’s car. These videos show how to use low costs household materials to evaluate the pollutant emissions produced by the car, and how the driver’s behaviour influences these emissions.
• Simple tests with lab-grade equipment to assess the pollutant emissions of individual cars. For instance, at a car fair, or a fleet of cars at specific locations ( e.g. near a school playground.
• Sensor-readings based tools to provide feedback to the driver. Simple feedback is given during the trip; more complex feedback was provided after a trip. The uCARe team believes that specific feedback is more effective than more general recommendations.
Pilots
Organisations such as cities, ‘green’ NGOs and drivers’ associations that want to use the above mentioned tools to set up campaigns to change the drivers’ behaviour, could receive support from the uCARe project, but because of COVID this was hardly accomplished. The support consisted of providing all materials to perform a pilot for the campaign. uCARe also assessed the impact of the planned campaign based on the results of the pilot. As much as possible uCARe has made results, including lessons learned from the pilots, publicly available to allow for its use during and beyond the project duration.
The ambition of uCARe is to reduce the overall pollutant emissions of the existing vehicle fleet to improve air quality with impact on, among others, the environment and people’s health.
To achieve this, uCARe has:
• provided vehicle users with simple, insightful and effective tools to decrease their individual emissions;
• supported stakeholders with an interest in local air quality in selecting feasible intervention strategies that lead to the desired user behaviour.
Standardised data
There is a great deal of data on pollutant emissions available in the uCARe consortium. The uCARe project has made these data publicly available in so-called Augmented Engine Maps (AEMs). An AEM provides the pollutant emissions for a specific car model and make. The AEM shows how, for instance, the NOx emissions depend on speed and CO2 for a hot engine, but also for a cold engine. Other emission maps include non-tailpipe emissions such as wear emissions from tires and brakes. This data was used for developing tools that give drivers advice on how to reduce their pollutant emissions.
Driver awareness of behaviour influence
To make drivers aware of the effect of their driving behaviour, uCARe published a set of tools, including:
• Video clips for a do-it-yourself evaluation of the driver’s car. These videos show how to use low costs household materials to evaluate the pollutant emissions produced by the car, and how the driver’s behaviour influences these emissions.
• Simple tests with lab-grade equipment to assess the pollutant emissions of individual cars. For instance, at a car fair, or a fleet of cars at specific locations ( e.g. near a school playground.
• Sensor-readings based tools to provide feedback to the driver. Simple feedback is given during the trip; more complex feedback was provided after a trip. The uCARe team believes that specific feedback is more effective than more general recommendations.
Pilots
Organisations such as cities, ‘green’ NGOs and drivers’ associations that want to use the above mentioned tools to set up campaigns to change the drivers’ behaviour, could receive support from the uCARe project, but because of COVID this was hardly accomplished. The support consisted of providing all materials to perform a pilot for the campaign. uCARe also assessed the impact of the planned campaign based on the results of the pilot. As much as possible uCARe has made results, including lessons learned from the pilots, publicly available to allow for its use during and beyond the project duration.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic good progress was made in the uCARe project. New and consolidated knowledge has been made available to the wider community via Zenodo and the uCARe website. Information has been presented specifically (as much as possible) for the vehicle, the use, and the pollutant, to ensure that emission reduction is presented correctly. This core knowledge is combined with tools and instructions to appeal to the wider audience to gain factual experience with vehicle emissions.
The emission reduction potentials available to owners and users have been identified, and tools are available to help and illustrate this to participants in pilots. Some limitations of the underlying modelling have been identified. It has been established that these are the result of the inherent spread in measurement data that were used as input to compile the augmented emissions maps for different vehicles. The project aims to retain a clear link from measurements to results, therefore additional reporting of such limitations is in progress.
The execution of pilots within the uCARe project was severely hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic and reduced our ability to reach out to vehicle users with the help of stakeholders. From the spring of 2019, when the contacts should have been sought with the initial material that was available, it has become almost impossible to do so. Conferences and stakeholder meetings, where ideas for pilots could have been pitched were all cancelled. Besides this shortcoming though, the consortium moved fast and modified the design of pilots in the second half of the project. Focus group meetings were replaced by remote personal interviews performed with the assistance of several partners following detailed interview scenarios. Tools to be used in pilots were redesigned to require minimum physical interaction with participants and pilots were also executed by local champions in seven instead of three member states. Data and experiences collected during the setup and execution of the pilots allowed the optimization of tools, execution procedures and data collection and processing methods and revealed the potential of the uCARe tools and methodologies in real world applications.
The full chain of driving to air quality was completed in this project by performing the evaluation of emission reduction due to pilots and by translating this into air quality effects in WP4. The results in WP4 show that a significant reduction in emissions and subsequent improvement in air can be achieved. In simulations in Gothenburg, Zurich and Amsterdam the improvements in air quality were determined.
The emission reduction potentials available to owners and users have been identified, and tools are available to help and illustrate this to participants in pilots. Some limitations of the underlying modelling have been identified. It has been established that these are the result of the inherent spread in measurement data that were used as input to compile the augmented emissions maps for different vehicles. The project aims to retain a clear link from measurements to results, therefore additional reporting of such limitations is in progress.
The execution of pilots within the uCARe project was severely hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic and reduced our ability to reach out to vehicle users with the help of stakeholders. From the spring of 2019, when the contacts should have been sought with the initial material that was available, it has become almost impossible to do so. Conferences and stakeholder meetings, where ideas for pilots could have been pitched were all cancelled. Besides this shortcoming though, the consortium moved fast and modified the design of pilots in the second half of the project. Focus group meetings were replaced by remote personal interviews performed with the assistance of several partners following detailed interview scenarios. Tools to be used in pilots were redesigned to require minimum physical interaction with participants and pilots were also executed by local champions in seven instead of three member states. Data and experiences collected during the setup and execution of the pilots allowed the optimization of tools, execution procedures and data collection and processing methods and revealed the potential of the uCARe tools and methodologies in real world applications.
The full chain of driving to air quality was completed in this project by performing the evaluation of emission reduction due to pilots and by translating this into air quality effects in WP4. The results in WP4 show that a significant reduction in emissions and subsequent improvement in air can be achieved. In simulations in Gothenburg, Zurich and Amsterdam the improvements in air quality were determined.
The Augmented Emission Map (AEM) format has been defined to allow sharing of emission data for specific vehicles in a standardized way. A substantial number of AEMs have been compiled and shared as open data.
A tool has been built (Beta version) to provide feedback to a driver as much as possible specific for the vehicle, the use, and the pollutant, to ensure that emission reduction is presented correctly. Being this specific is foreseen to have more impact on behaviour change of the driver.
Uptake of the vehicle specific data by commercial tool builders is expected in the second project period, where new opportunities for dissemination are available after the lockdowns in 2020.
Deployment of the tools in a series of pilots in the second project period is will show how big the behaviour change is. Based on these demonstrations of the impact, stakeholders are encouraged and supported to execute large scale campaigns. This is where the real impact of the project will be realized.
A tool has been built (Beta version) to provide feedback to a driver as much as possible specific for the vehicle, the use, and the pollutant, to ensure that emission reduction is presented correctly. Being this specific is foreseen to have more impact on behaviour change of the driver.
Uptake of the vehicle specific data by commercial tool builders is expected in the second project period, where new opportunities for dissemination are available after the lockdowns in 2020.
Deployment of the tools in a series of pilots in the second project period is will show how big the behaviour change is. Based on these demonstrations of the impact, stakeholders are encouraged and supported to execute large scale campaigns. This is where the real impact of the project will be realized.