This project examines how sustainable transport schemes fail to win, or later lose, public support, and what transport practitioners and policy makers can do to build lasting backing for the schemes that affect them. Bringing together members from private consultancy, the public sector and academia, the study will use case studies, stakeholder insight and survey testing to identify which communication approaches work, for whom, and in what contexts.
The research team was formed through the FTVG-hosted collaboration workshop sessions. Adam Gough (WSP) presented a proposal examining how sustainable transport schemes fail to win and/or maintain public support. Under the same theme, Justine Seager (Steer) proposed a research piece that would build on her existing research into misinformation and rhetoric around sustainable transport.
After the session, Alexander Bell (TfGM) and Chio Fuseya (Imperial College London), and later Marcus Sellars (Tees Valley CA), reached out to express interest. Following several calls, the research team formed and made a formal application for funding for a research topic combining aspects of each team member’s background.
A strength of the team is the range of expertise it draws together, with members spanning private consultancy, the public sector and academia, based from London to the North East.
Sustainable transport schemes are rightly subject to intense public scrutiny, but this also means they rely on winning and then maintaining public support, or risk being delayed, diluted or cancelled.
Schemes may fail to secure public support due to poor communication of benefits, lose it following powerful political opposition, or sometimes be eroded or undermined through misinformation and conspiracy.
In order to successfully deliver sustainable transport schemes and policy, transport practitioners and policy makers must make use of effective communications to build lasting support amongst the public the scheme would impact.
“Our research project will develop an evidence-based understanding of how communication approach and messages influence public support,” the team explains.
Through case studies, stakeholder insight and survey testing, the project will identify which messages and approaches are most effective, for whom, and in what contexts.
The findings will be translated into practical guidance and a framework for a tool enabling scheme promoters to tailor messaging based on the characteristics of their scheme and local population.
The objectives are as follows:
The key deliverables of the project are as follows:
By grounding its recommendations in case studies, stakeholder insight and survey evidence, the project aims to give scheme promoters a practical, evidence-led way to build and maintain the public support that sustainable transport schemes depend on.
As pedal-assist electric cargo vehicles become increasingly common in urban logistics, questions around how these vehicles should communicate their presence to other road users are becoming more important. This project explores the development of appropriate Acoustic Vehicle Alerting Systems (AVAS) for this emerging vehicle typology, with a particular focus on objective safety performance and the needs of vulnerable road users.
The project brings together early-career collaborators from Minimal, a London-based mobility startup, and Aalto University, a multidisciplinary research institution in Finland.
The collaboration originated during a factory tour led by Jessie Ridler, Engineering Project Manager at Minimal, at the company’s West London facility. During the visit, Jamie Robinson, a student in the EIT Urban Mobility Masters Programme, noticed a speaker unit installed in Minimal’s Pedal 4 e-cargo vehicle. The discussion that followed revealed a close connection between Minimal’s work on audio safety technology and research already underway at Aalto University.
The resulting collaboration combines Minimal’s rapid innovation and production capabilities with Aalto’s expertise in technical acoustics research and artistic sound design.
Acoustic Vehicle Alerting Systems (AVAS) have been mandatory on type-approved electric vehicles for close to a decade, responding to the near-silent operation of electric powertrains at low speeds. The synthesised sounds used by these systems are now becoming a familiar feature of electric vehicles in urban environments.
Pedal-assist electric cargo vehicles are increasingly being adopted by leading operators across Europe. With applicable standards permitting gross vehicle weights of up to 650 kg, safety needs to be considered throughout their design. Minimal is the first manufacturer to introduce AVAS technology to a pedal-assist cargo vehicle, with the aim of improving detection by vulnerable road users, particularly people with visual disabilities.
However, an important question remains: what should a pedal-assist logistics vehicle sound like? These vehicles sit between bicycles and conventional motor vehicles, while existing AVAS legislation and design conventions provide limited guidance specific to this emerging category.
The project therefore seeks to establish which acoustic signatures are most appropriate for pedal-assist logistics vehicles and, importantly, which perform best against objective safety criteria.
The project will work with sound artists from the Sound in New Media programme at Aalto University to develop a range of warning sounds specifically for pedal-assist cargo vehicles.
The design brief will draw on expert interviews, consultation with vulnerable road users, and survey data. The resulting sounds will then be evaluated in Aalto’s acoustics laboratory against safety metrics including audibility and localisability.
The project will also be supported by Professor Judy Edworthy of the University of Plymouth, whose work includes AVAS systems for electric buses in Sydney and a digital bike bell developed for a major cycle manufacturer.
The principal output will be a whitepaper setting out best practice for AVAS on pedal-assist logistics vehicles. It is intended to provide guidance for other manufacturers developing comparable audio safety systems.
By focusing on the requirements of vulnerable road users, including people with visual disabilities, the project aims to contribute to the development of safer audio systems for pedal-assist e-cargo vehicles and support their role within wider urban Vision Zero objectives.
In UK transport appraisal, equity impacts are scored qualitatively. However, the impacts of safety perceptions are not explicitly quantified, limiting the ability of current appraisal methods to capture how perceived safety influences travel behaviour, journey choices, and the wider time and cost consequences of trips that individuals choose not to make.
Drawing on complementary expertise in travel demand modelling, travel behaviour, and transport policy from Imperial College London, the University of Birmingham, and Northeastern University London, this project sets out to make such impacts visible within the Department for Transport’s WebTAG appraisal framework. By incorporating the effects of safety perceptions into transport appraisal, the project will enhance the evidence base for more equitable and inclusive transport investment decisions and improve understanding of the relationship between perceived safety, accessibility, and travel demand.
The project is led by Chio Fuseya, an MSc Transport with Data Science candidate at Imperial College researching transport equity, perception-based travel behaviour, and quantitative appraisal methods. She is advised by Dr Dilum Dissanayake, Associate Professor in Transportation Planning at the University of Birmingham, who contributes expertise in behavioural data analysis and discrete choice modelling and supports dissemination through her membership of the Department for Transport’s (DfT’s) Shadow Joint Analysis Development Panel.
Dr Ka Ho Tsoi, Assistant Professor in Transport Planning at Northeastern University London, advises on interview design and perception indicators and supports workshop facilitation through the Transport Planning Society. Academic oversight is also provided by Professor Aruna Sivakumar, Director of the Urban Systems Lab, whose expertise in econometrics and equity-focused modelling informs the appraisal approach, and Dr Jose Escribano, whose expertise in operational modelling and quantitative methods supports its technical development.
Research across several decades and countries has shown that women disproportionately manage the risk of harassment on public transport, adjusting routes, travel times, and modes to feel safer. More than 70% of women in London have changed, avoided, or paid more for a journey because of safety concerns (London Travel Watch, 2022), with implications for access to employment and wellbeing (POST, 2025). Transport institutions influence these risks through decisions on lighting, staffing, service provision, and the location of transport facilities, while appraisal determines how such interventions are assessed against their costs.
Personal security is already considered in transport appraisal as a distributional impact, including for women, older and younger people, people with mobility impairments, and minority ethnic groups. However, it is assessed qualitatively in the Appraisal Summary Table and is not included in the monetised costs and benefits used to calculate the Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR). Consequently, safety benefits cannot be directly compared with benefits such as journey-time and cost savings that are already expressed in monetary terms.
This creates a potential appraisal gap in which interventions that improve perceived safety may be undervalued because their benefits are not captured using the same metrics as other transport benefits.
This project develops the Perception Equity Framework (PEF), a proof-of-concept method that uses existing survey and travel data to estimate how safety perceptions influence travel choices. It will quantify the resulting impacts on travel demand, travel time, and travel cost, providing measures that are currently absent from appraisal. The framework will also demonstrate how these indicators could be incorporated into existing WebTAG guidance using established appraisal methods.
The project will be delivered in four stages.
The first stage will be to review existing travel survey data and WebTAG guidance and to develop a practitioner interview questionnaire. The second will be to carry out structured interviews with 12 to 15 practitioners from the DfT, Transport for London, the Transport Planning Society, regional transport bodies, and major consultancies. These interviews will examine how safety perceptions and suppressed journeys are currently considered in appraisal and identify barriers to incorporating them more systematically.
The findings will inform the third stage, which will develop the Perception Equity Framework (PEF) and demonstrate its application through a worked example, such as the effects of improved lighting on a specific demographic group. The stage will also set out how the framework could be incorporated into existing WebTAG methods.
The final stage will focus on dissemination through a workshop co-facilitated with the Transport Planning Society and a case study presentation to the DfT’s Joint Analysis Development Panel.
The project will produce a proof-of-concept framework and worked example, a report summarising practitioner perspective on current appraisal gaps and the potential for new perception and equity metrics, and a dissemination workshop and case study presentation.
The longer-term aim is to provide a stronger quantitative basis for assessing how perceived safety affects transport equity. The findings could inform future development of WebTAG guidance and support a wider discussion among practitioners and researchers on incorporating perceptions into transport appraisal.
As road surfaces deteriorate, they grow rougher, and that roughness makes a vehicle work harder to keep moving. For electric vehicles, where every unit of energy is drawn from a finite battery charge, a rougher road is in effect a hidden tax on range. But how much energy does an electric vehicle lose simply because the road beneath it is rough?
The FTVG-supported project “The Hidden Energy Tax: Quantifying the Road Surface Roughness Penalty for EV Battery Range on UK Urban Roads” is investigating how pavement surface condition affects the energy consumption of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) under real-world UK driving conditions.
The study is led by Dr Nadia Naqvi, Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University Peterborough, with Dr Izza Anwer, Assistant Professor at the University of Engineering and Technology Lahore, as collaborator. Together they bring road-condition measurement, vehicle telemetry and statistical analysis to bear on an issue that sits at the intersection of highway asset management and the transition to electric mobility.
The pilot study is designed to produce a UK-specific empirical estimate of the relationship between road roughness and BEV energy consumption, evidence that could help highway authorities consider vehicle energy costs alongside more conventional factors when making road maintenance and infrastructure investment decisions.
“The value of this work is that it connects two questions usually kept separate, ‘how we maintain our roads, and how efficiently electric vehicles use energy’ and shows they are really one question,” says Nadia.
As pavements deteriorate, their surfaces become rougher. Poorer surface condition can increase the forces acting between a vehicle and the road, and consequently increase the energy required to travel along it. For internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, previous research has established a relationship between pavement roughness and increased fuel consumption and vehicle operating costs. Evidence relating road roughness specifically to EV energy consumption, however, remains much more limited, particularly under UK road conditions.
That gap is increasingly important as BEVs become a larger part of the vehicle fleet. For an EV, additional energy consumption does not simply represent an operating cost: it can also reduce the distance available from a battery charge. Understanding whether deteriorated roads impose a measurable energy penalty could therefore add another dimension to the economic case for timely road maintenance.
The project asks a practical question, how much does road surface roughness change BEV energy consumption under real-world UK conditions?
Rather than relying solely on simulation or laboratory estimates, the project uses a field-based experimental design on roads in Peterborough. Four pairs of road segments are planned for the study. Within each pair, the roads will be matched as closely as possible for characteristics such as road classification, speed limit, intersections and gradient, while differing in pavement condition.
Road condition will be characterised using the International Roughness Index (IRI), with smartphone accelerometer-based measurements used alongside available SCANNER road-condition data from Peterborough City Council. An electric vehicle will travel across each selected segment under controlled conditions, with energy consumption captured through vehicle telemetry. Environmental conditions including temperature, wind speed and wind direction will also be recorded, while road gradient and vehicle speed will be incorporated into the analysis. Separating the effect of pavement roughness from these competing influences is central to the study, and a multiple linear regression framework will be used to estimate the relationship between IRI and BEV energy consumption while controlling for relevant operational and environmental factors.
“Measurement rigour and real-world validity is treated as core tests from the outset — the method has to be defensible before the results can mean anything,” says Izza.
The project is not concerned only with producing a single numerical result. A second objective is to develop and test a replicable field methodology combining pavement condition measurement with vehicle telemetry, an approach that could subsequently be applied to other road networks and vehicle types. That matters for moving from a focused feasibility study toward large-scale research capable of examining how the relationship changes across different vehicles, roads and operating environments. The study therefore tests both a hypothesis and a measurement framework.
The project has already moved from concept into active data collection and stakeholder engagement. Road condition data (RCI) for the network has been acquired from Peterborough City Council. Using QGIS, this data has been mapped across the city to highlight the condition of individual road sections, distinguishing good from poor and giving a clear spatial picture of where the network is deteriorating and where recent maintenance has been effective.
Alongside the data work, stakeholder meetings have been arranged to discuss the research and explore opportunities for collaboration. These conversations have been positive and have opened pathways to extend the study, particularly toward rural road sections, which remain among the least funded and least monitored parts of the network and where a low-cost measurement method could add the most value.
Several corridors have now been selected and the survey is under planning. Test runs have already been carried out on some of these to record preliminary data, and these early runs are being used to refine the measurement protocol and confirm the data collection workflow ahead of the main survey campaign. New SCANNER survey data is expected in early autumn, allowing the team to examine roads that have recently received maintenance intervention.
The project is expected to produce three principal outputs. First, a UK-specific empirical estimate linking pavement roughness to BEV energy consumption. Second, a field-based methodology that could be replicated across other UK regions and vehicle types. Third, the findings will be communicated through a comprehensive project report and engagement with highway and professional stakeholders, helping translate the technical results into evidence relevant to infrastructure investment and maintenance decisions.
The wider implication is that the condition of a road may have consequences beyond ride quality and conventional vehicle operating costs. If deteriorating surfaces measurably increase EV electricity consumption, maintaining smoother roads could contribute to transport system efficiency as the vehicle fleet becomes increasingly electrified.
An electric rickshaw operating in Liverpool.This project examines whether electric rickshaws could offer a practical, low-carbon answer to the first- and last-mile connectivity gap in rural Britain. Bringing together academics, a local authority officer and transport consultants, the study sets out to establish how well the mode fits the rural UK context and what would shape public willingness to use it.
The project team consists of three members drawn from across academia and local government. Yasir Ali, a Reader at Loughborough University, and Anna Charly of the University of Liverpool provide the academic perspective, working alongside Bernard Evans of Leicestershire County Council. The team is supported by FTVG mentors Oliver Stone-Houghton and Deni Krevesic, who bring real-world experience in transport and future mobility and offer practitioner insight throughout the study.
The team came together through a shared interest in supporting mobility in rural areas, which are often left behind in conventional transport planning. Each member contributes a distinct area of expertise, ensuring a comprehensive analysis of both the challenges and the opportunities facing rural mobility.
Around 10 million people in England live in rural areas. With public transport often limited and active travel infrastructure almost non-existent, many rural residents have little alternative but to rely on private cars. The consequences extend well beyond transport: for vulnerable residents in particular, restricted mobility translates directly into difficulty reaching essential services such as GP surgeries, hospitals, shops and employment.
Solving rural mobility is the issue that knits the team together, an important topic that has been overlooked for many years. Rather than assuming that conventional solutions can simply be scaled down to fit rural geographies, the project evaluates the suitability of a new mode: the electric rickshaw. The study will assess where the mode fits in the rural market and identify the factors that would influence whether residents actually choose to use it, producing recommendations grounded in that evidence.
The project adopts a two-stage framework of data collection and analysis. The first stage is a review of literature concerning new modes, with particular attention to studies of e-rickshaws in South Asia, where the mode is already prominent. This international evidence base offers a valuable starting point for understanding how the vehicles perform in practice and which conditions support their uptake.
Findings from the review will then inform the design of a survey to be circulated across a range of rural areas within the UK. The survey will target diverse demographics to ensure the sample is representative of rural communities rather than of any single group. The resulting data will undergo in-depth statistical analysis to establish the factors affecting intention to use e-rickshaws, forming the evidence base from which the team will devise its policy recommendations.
The project addresses the long-standing challenge of poor first- and last-mile connectivity in rural areas by uncovering the real behavioural and practical barriers that prevent residents from choosing greener travel modes. In doing so, it aims to provide the transport industry with robust evidence for designing affordable, low-carbon services suited to rural conditions.
For operators and policymakers alike, the actionable insights generated by the study are intended to support the delivery of more equitable rural mobility, helping to ensure that the communities most often overlooked in conventional planning are not left without viable, sustainable alternatives to the private car.
The BUS-MOD UK project investigates whether a small share of suitable, low-volume freight movements could be carried on scheduled bus services using a sealed, detachable module attached to the rear of the vehicle. Led by Dr Ehsan Amirnazmiafshar, Associate Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, the study brings together three early-career transport researchers to test the operational, governance and safety feasibility of the concept in a UK context.
“The value of the collaboration is that we can test the same concept from several practical angles rather than treating freight operations, public transport and safety as separate questions,” says Ehsan.
BUS-MOD UK is delivered by a small team with deliberately complementary expertise. Ehsan leads the project and contributes expertise in freight-passenger transport integration, modular transport concepts and UK-focused feasibility assessment. He is joined by Dr Mohammad Azmoodeh, an independent transport researcher based in London, who brings expertise in urban accessibility, safety, transport policy and spatial-data analysis, and Dr Anna Charly, Lecturer in Transport at the University of Liverpool, who provides expertise in safe and sustainable transport, road-safety evaluation and practical operational feasibility.
The collaboration was formed around the BUS-MOD concept originally presented to FTVG, which the team has since developed into a focused UK feasibility study. Working as a compact multidisciplinary group allows operational, spatial, governance and safety perspectives to be brought to bear on the same set of questions, rather than examined in isolation.
Urban freight is placing increasing pressure on streets, kerbsides and public transport corridors, yet passenger and freight systems continue to be planned largely separately. The scale of that pressure is reflected in national data: in Great Britain, van traffic reached 58.5 billion vehicle-miles in 2024, 9.5% above 2019 levels. Department for Transport road-safety open data also recorded 10,606 reported injury collisions involving vans and goods vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes in 2024.
BUS-MOD UK asks whether a small share of suitable, low-volume freight movements could instead be carried by scheduled buses using a sealed, detachable module attached to the rear of the vehicle. Under the concept, freight would be loaded at a depot, the module coupled to a scheduled bus, transported to a designated terminal, then decoupled for unloading and temporary storage before the empty module returns to the depot on a suitable service. Critically, there would be no freight handling at ordinary passenger stops, and the passenger cabin would remain unchanged.
The concept is deliberately passenger-priority. Bus routes, stopping patterns and timetables would not be redesigned around freight, and any future pilot would only be considered where reliability and safety can be protected.
“Our aim is not to assume the concept is feasible, but to identify where it could work, what conditions would be required and where the barriers are,” says Mohammad.
The project is structured as a 12-week desk-based feasibility study, drawing on public information, policy and industry material, secondary data, and simple GIS or spreadsheet-based screening.
The first stage will define the BUS-MOD operating architecture in detail, covering depot loading, coupling and decoupling, terminal equipment-bay requirements, unloading responsibilities, module storage and the return of empty modules. The team will then review UK bus-governance pathways, the respective roles of local transport authorities and operators, freight-consolidation arrangements and relevant safety considerations.
These strands will be brought together in a structured feasibility matrix covering approval routes, operational responsibilities, infrastructure and space requirements, vehicle and module dimensions, coupling, braking, manoeuvrability, passenger safety, liability, insurance and environmental rationale. Public data will also be used to develop a small number of illustrative corridor and terminal archetypes, focusing on the kinds of settings where the concept appears more plausible rather than selecting a final pilot site.
“Safety and operational practicality will be treated as core feasibility tests from the outset, not as issues to be considered after the concept has been developed,” says Anna.
The study will produce a concise feasibility report, an operating concept note, an implementation matrix and a prototype screening and scoring template, alongside a policy briefing or infographic and dissemination slides.
The project will also set out a clear pathway for a larger technical feasibility study or pilot design, identifying what would need to be resolved before the concept could be tested in practice. By treating governance, operations and safety as central feasibility questions from the outset, BUS-MOD UK aims to provide a clear assessment of where the concept could work, what conditions would be required and where the barriers are.
The Future Transport Visions Group (FTVG) is delighted to announce the latest cohort of projects selected to receive research funding through the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund (RJRF).
Following a successful series of Collaboration Workshops, which brought together participants from across the transport sector to develop and refine innovative research ideas, the FTVG Steering Group has awarded over £34,500 in seed funding to six project teams. Over the coming months, the successful teams will work collaboratively to explore their research topics and develop practical solutions that will help shape the future of transport.
The six successful projects are:
Together, these projects explore some of the most pressing issues facing the transport sector today. Their research spans behavioural change, public perceptions of transport policy, safety and equity, sustainable freight, electric mobility, and the impact of infrastructure on transport performance. Collectively, they reflect FTVG’s commitment to supporting innovative, evidence-based research that can inform future transport policy and practice.
Throughout the programme, FTVG will feature each project in a dedicated spotlight article, sharing updates on their progress, research findings and the teams behind the work.
The programme will conclude with the FTVG Project Showcase, where all six teams will present their final findings to members and invited guests. The event will celebrate the achievements of the programme, with one project being recognised for its outstanding contribution to future transport research.
Further details of the showcase event will be announced in due course.
The FTVG Collaboration Workshop Series took place from from 13 to 17 April 2026, bringing together a diverse group of professionals, researchers, and innovators. The series provided a dynamic platform for exchanging ideas, showcasing emerging concepts, and fostering collaboration around a wide range of transport-focused research initiatives.
Each workshop explored a distinct research theme, encouraging participants not only to engage deeply within their specific areas of interest but also to collaborate across disciplines. This cross-cutting approach enabled the development of innovative, multidisciplinary project ideas with real-world impact.
Below is a summary of the key project ideas discussed throughout the workshops, along with links to session recordings. If you were unable to attend but are interested in collaborating with any of the project groups, please contact info@ftvg.co.uk to be connected with the relevant teams.
Access the full recordings of each session below:
The Future Transport Visions Group (FTVG) is launching the second stage of its 2026/27 initiative on April 14th, marked by a week-long series of collaboration workshops.
These interactive sessions will provide a platform for participants to present and discuss research ideas aligned with seven key thematic areas. Following the presentations, attendees will have the opportunity to connect, exchange insights, and form collaborative project teams. These teams will subsequently be invited to develop proposals and apply for funding.
Interest in this year’s programme has been strong, with over 40 project ideas submitted by contributors from 24 countries. The workshop series has been designed to bring these ideas together, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and enabling new partnerships to emerge.
The workshops are open to anyone interested in exploring the latest thinking in future transport and innovation. Participants are welcome to join individual sessions or attend the full series.
Use the links below to register and add individual sessions to your calendar:
The Future Transport Visions Group (FTVG) has relaunched with an expanded programme for 2026/2027 and is now inviting Expressions of Interest for a new round of research and development projects starting in 2026.
FTVG supports early-career professionals in the transport sector by providing a collaborative platform to develop innovative research ideas, build cross-sector networks, and access funding opportunities.
This initiative is aimed at individuals within the first ten years of their transport career. Applications are welcome from:
FTVG is built around collaboration. All applicants who submit an Expression of Interest will be invited to a series of collaboration workshops, designed to bring together participants with shared interests across organisations and geographies.
After the workshops, teams will be formed and invited to submit a formal funding application.
Previous funding rounds have helped participants build professional connections and led to further presentations, research activity, and additional funding opportunities.
Applicants are free to propose their own ideas, but FTVG has particular interest in projects aligned with:
Submit your Expression of Interest via the “Expressions of Interest” button at the top right of the FTVG website: FTVG.co.uk.
Deadline: 13 March 2026