Inspiring Futures for Zero Carbon Mobility (INFUZE)

Transportation is the largest contributor of carbon emissions in the UK (23%). Tackling transport emissions is one of the defining challenges of the UK Government's Net Zero Strategy. The Climate Change Committee consistently finds that lower travel demand futures are necessary to meet our carbon budgets but, as yet, there is a lack of credible solutions in the UK or internationally which can deliver change at scale.

Sharing mobility assets, 'right-sizing' of vehicles, and powered light electric mobility could counter the focus on heavier vehicles and accelerate electric vehicle uptake by lowering costs and widening access. New service design options such as demand-responsive transport, service integration across products, radical road space reallocation, and virtual technologies could also improve the attractiveness of non-car-based options. However transport science, has focused only on measuring, predicting, and acting under assumptions of increasing car use. It lacks the data, the models, the methods, and the mandate to inform more radical transformation to new forms of mobility access not predicated on individual ownership. The INFUZE project seeks to address this major gap with a vision:

To transform the process of understanding, designing, and implementing transport system interventions to enable and ensure the rapid transition to zero carbon mobility through accessing mobility on demand.

INFUZE will develop a ground breaking approach to participatory mobility science to build a unique suite of data-enabled decision tools to identify and galvanise the opportunities for emerging mobility service systems which capture the impact of place, social learning, and tipping points. We will test, evaluate, and learn through a series of ambitious real-world trials how to stimulate a transition from individual ownership to mobility access. The question is not 'can you live without your car?' but 'what would a world where people did not need to own their own cars look like?'

INFUZE will answer this question by achieving seven key objectives:

Co-design with communities and stakeholders a set of vision-led approaches to building mobility systems which provide a positive alternative to car-ownership
Develop new tools and conceptual models to understand the propensity to shift mobility ownership to mobility access taking account of new mobility service characteristics
Build a world leading Agent Based Modelling platform which enables the joint modelling of mobility ownership, access and mobility choices
Create and deploy new forms of data visualisation to enable stakeholders to engage with, scrutinise and impact our models to build enhanced scientific legitimacy
Test, learn, iterate and validate our tools through a transdisciplinary, experimental approach that integrates participatory design science, data science and behavioural science
Identify the governance and policy changes which will enable new mobility packages to be scaled up and transferred nationally and beyond
Change how mobility transitions are researched, developing a new approach to participatory mobility science for change
INFUZE will open up opportunities for researchers to develop new projects and businesses to develop and test algorithms and services. The grant will act as a springboard to a new National Centre of Excellence in Low Carbon Mobility Transitions as a major 'place-based' investment that will enable partners from across the UK, and globally, to design and evaluate interventions building on our unique data assets, models, and whole life carbon assessment tools. Our participatory mobility science will change the way consultancies and governments approach the mobility transition challenge.