UK Road Transport Research Articles

Vehicle and charging requirements for an electrified road freight system demonstrator in the UK

The UK has set into law a target reduction of greenhouse houses of 78% by 2035 and 100% by 2050. Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) represent 16% of UK road transport emissions are one of the ‘difficult-to-decarbonise’ sectors owing to their large mass and range requirements. An Electric Road System (ERS) with overhead charging wires presents an attractive solution to rapidly decarbonise HGVs at minimal cost and without the need for megawatt-scale batteries. In this work, we investigate some of the technical requirements for a proposed UK ERS demonstrator comprising 25 km of ERS on the M180 motorway in North Lincolnshire, including battery sizes and static charging infrastructure. A range of theoretical journey scenarios were considered, using simulated journeys and a detailed dynamic model of a 44 t ERS electric lorry. The results indicate the need for three vehicle types: a 150 kWh ‘small-battery’ ERS vehicle, a 500 kWh ‘medium-battery’ ERS vehicle, and a 300 kWh battery variant with a range extender for journeys with significant off-ERS driving requirements during the demonstrator.

Potential for Carbon-Neutral Advanced Biofuels in UK Road Transport

AbstractAs a result of anthropocentric climate change, there is an urgent need to decarbonize the supply of energy. Organic biomass, referred to as feedstock, can be converted into biofuels that ha...

Developments in the UK road transport from a smart cities perspective

PurposeA smart city is a city that functions in a sustainable and intelligent way, by integrating all of its infrastructures and services in a cohesive way using intelligent devices for monitoring and control, to ensure efficiency and better quality of life for its citizens. As other countries globally, the UK is keen on economic development and investment in smart-city missions to create interest in monetary environment and inward investment. This paper aims to explore the driving forces of smart road transport transformation and implementation in the UK.Design/methodology/approachThe study involved interviews with 16 professionals from the UK road transport sector. A semi-structured interview technique was used to collect experts' perception, which was then examined using content analysis.FindingsThe results of the study revealed that the technological advancement is a key driver. The main challenges faced during the implementation of smart-city elements in the UK road network are lack of investment, maintenance, state of readiness and the awareness of the smart road transport concept. The study concludes that an understanding of the concept of smart cities from a road transport perspective is very important to create awareness of the benefits and the way it works. A wider collaboration between every sector is crucial to create a successful smart city.Originality/valueThe study contributes to the field of digitalisation of road transport sector. This paper reveals the key driving forces of smart road transport transformation, the current status of smart road transport implementation in the UK and challenges of the smart road transport development in the UK.

Capturing the benefits of industry 4.0: a business network perspective

This study uses a business network perspective to investigate the industry 4.0 context with the internet of things (IoT) as its enabling technology and product-use data as its core network resource. A three-stage qualitative methodology (interviews, focus group, Delphi-based inquiry) was used to examine the case of an emergent IoT-based business network in the UK road transport industry to examine: (i) how aspects of product use data influence the benefit opportunities the data provide to the different network actors; (ii) how capturing of the benefit opportunities in a network context is impacted by key barriers; and (iii) how network capabilities can overcome these barriers to capture benefits from product-use data. The study, thereby, contributes to an understanding of the industry 4.0 context from a resource dependency theory perspective and provides concrete recommendations for management operating in this context.

How can the UK road system be adapted to the impacts posed by climate change? By creating a climate adaptation framework

This paper aims to analyse the impacts of climate change to the current and predicted future situations of road transportation in the UK and evaluate the corresponding adaptation plans to cope with them. A conceptual framework of long-term adaptation planning for climate change in road systems is proposed to ensure the resilience and sustainability of road transport systems under various climate risks such as flooding and increased temperature. To do so, an advanced Fuzzy Bayesian Reasoning (FBR) model is first employed to evaluate the climate risks in the UK road transport networks. This modelling approach can tackle the high uncertainty in risk data and thus facilitate the development of the climate adaptation framework and its application in the UK road sector. To examine the feasibility of this model, a nationwide survey is conducted among the stakeholders to analyse the climate risks, in terms of the timeframe of climate threats, the likelihood of occurrence, the severity of consequences, and infrastructure resilience. From the modelling perspective, this work brings novelty by expanding the risk attribute “the severity of consequence” into three sub-attributes including economic loss, damage to the environment, and injuries and/or loss of life. It advances the-state-of-the-art technique in the current relevant literature from a single to multiple tier climate risk modelling structure. Secondly, an Evidential Reasoning (ER) approach is used to prioritise the best adaptation measure(s) by considering both the risk analysis results from the FBR and the implementation costs simultaneously. The main new contributions of this part lie in the rich raw data collected from the real world to provide useful practical insights for achieving road resilience when facing increasing climate risk challenges. During this process, a qualitative analysis of several national reports regarding the impacts posed by climate change, risk assessment and adaptation measures in the UK road sector is conducted for the relevant decision data (i.e. risk and cost). It is also supplemented by an in-depth interview with a senior planner from Highways England. The findings provide road planners and decision makers with useful insights on identification and prioritisation of climate threats as well as selection of cost-effective climate adaptation measures to rationalise adaptation planning.

Capturing the Benefits of Digitalization and Service Innovation: A Business Network Perspective

A core challenge for broad adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) is to ensure that its benefits are captured by a wide range of stakeholders. Taking a business network perspective, this study: i) examines the benefit potential of widespread IoT-based digitalization and service innovation; ii) identifies key barriers to capturing these benefits; iii) develops recommendations to overcome these barriers. A three-stage qualitative methodology (based on interviews, a focus group and Delphi-based inquiry) examines the case of an emergent IoT-based digital business network in the UK road transport industry. The research reveals the critical importance of managers involved in digitalization initiatives balancing their interests with those of the wider business network, if the potential benefits are to be captured. It provides fresh insights into: i) IoT-based digitalization as a business network phenomenon; ii) the interplay between digitalization and innovation in the sphere of service business models; iii) digitalization’s disruptive impact on ‘traditional’ industries and the implications for future management research.

Exploring low carbon transition pathways for the UK road transport sector

ABSTRACTThis paper uses an analytical framework of multi-level and multi-phase perspectives to explore low carbon transition pathways for the UK road transport system. The work draws on the impact made by the national (UK) and regional (EU) low carbon policy instruments on the UK road sector. The results show that the transformation pathway, which is at the take-off phase on a large scale, is the only fully active pathway. The transformation is mainly characterized by the adoption of biofuel blends and hybrid electric vehicles, as well as niche technologies. For the emergence of an ideal low carbon road system in the UK, it is shown that the transformation pathway is insufficient and the likely pathway sequence to full decarbonization will be transformation-substitution-de-alignment/re-alignment. However, the dynamics that can favour a smooth process of this sequence will demand a range of active niche technologies and strong government intervention.

Network positioning and risk perception in servitization: evidence from the UK road transport industry

For manufacturing firms, the integration of advanced services into their customer offerings has become a crucial decision. Such commercial decisions require weighting the risks and rewards of implementing a business model based on advanced services. While academic experts acknowledge uncertainty of returns on investment despite potential advantages, research generally fails to address the challenge of calculating the actual risks involved in ‘servitization’. This paper seeks better understanding of managers’ risk perception and of servitization implications for strategic partnerships and network positioning, while considering the impact of factors such as entry barriers, technological knowledge and position in the supply chain (SC). Qualitative evidence is drawn from an industrial case study involving firms in the UK’s road transport industry: 14 in-depth interviews with senior executives from seven companies (manufacturers, operators, technology providers). During interviews, a payment card exercise measured risk perception and willingness to take strategic ‘make-or-buy’ decisions. Results suggest that implementing advanced services is perceived as a high-risk strategy, especially when firms lack in-house technological knowledge. However, collaborative strategic partnerships within supply chain networks can mitigate this risk and prove crucial to building entry barriers against external competitors. Based on these findings, implications for network positioning are developed.

Twenty years of continuous high time resolution volatile organic compound monitoring in the United Kingdom from 1993 to 2012

Continuous, high frequency observations of C2 – C8 hydrocarbons began in the United Kingdom in 1993 and have continued through to the present day at a range of kerbside, urban background and rural locations. Most of the monitored hydrocarbons have shown dramatic declines in concentrations over the study period, with present levels close to an order of magnitude below their levels in the 1990s. The concentrations of 23 selected hydrocarbons have been aggregated up to give an estimate of the total VOC concentrations. These annual values have shown an exponential decline of −18% yr−1 at the London Marylebone Road kerbside site, −11% yr−1 at the London Eltham urban background site and −22% yr−1 at the rural Harwell site. Similar declines have been reported in UK road transport VOC emissions, demonstrating how the VOC emission inventories have apparently captured the salient features influencing real-world VOC emissions over the 1994–2012 period.

One way coupling of CMAQ and a road source dispersion model for fine scale air pollution predictions

In this paper we have coupled the CMAQ and ADMS air quality models to predict hourly concentrations of NOX, NO2 and O3 for London at a spatial scale of 20 m × 20 m. Model evaluation has demonstrated reasonable agreement with measurements from 80 monitoring sites in London. For NO2 the model evaluation statistics gave 73% of the hourly concentrations within a factor of two of observations, a mean bias of −4.7 ppb and normalised mean bias of −0.17, a RMSE value of 17.7 and an r value of 0.58. The equivalent results for O3 were 61% (FAC2), 2.8 ppb (MB), 0.15 (NMB), 12.1 (RMSE) and 0.64 (r). Analysis of the errors in the model predictions by hour of the week showed the need for improvements in predicting the magnitude of road transport related NOX emissions as well as the hourly emissions scaling in the model. These findings are consistent with recent evidence of UK road transport NOX emissions, reported elsewhere. The predictions of wind speed using the WRF model also influenced the model results and contributed to the daytime over prediction of NOX concentrations at the central London background site at Kensington and Chelsea. An investigation of the use of a simple NO–NO2–O3 chemistry scheme showed good performance close to road sources, and this is also consistent with previous studies. The coupling of the two models raises an issue of emissions double counting. Here, we have put forward a pragmatic solution to this problem with the result that a median double counting error of 0.42% exists across 39 roadside sites in London. Finally, whilst the model can be improved, the current results show promise and demonstrate that the use of a combination of regional scale and local scale models can provide a practical modelling tool for policy development at intergovernmental, national and local authority level, as well as for use in epidemiological studies.

Reducing carbon dioxide emissions from UK road transport

Several cases of extreme local weather conditions since the storms of October 1987 have served as reminders of some of the possible consequences of global warming, recently more usually, although less precisely, referred to as ‘climate change’. Carbon dioxide emissions have been identified as the principal likely culprit and road traffic is the only major source from the UK which is increasing in amount. Local authorities may feel impotent to make a significant contribution to a solution, but example is a worthwhile motive. A local authority can contribute in several ways: implementation of improved vehicle technologies; adopting road speed limits and upholding them; promotion of driving styles which are more sensitive to their environmental effects and of improved vehicle maintenance; policies to change mode of travel and transport and to reduce the amount of travel by several means, including fuller use of vehicles. Many of the ways of reducing carbon dioxide discharges locally will have other environmental benefits. The implementation of cleaner travel lags behind the science to allow it; local authorities have an important role to play in reducing the gap. Average vehicle loadings are low, especially for personal travel; there is much scope for improved environmental performance, and for public transport there are issues relating to value for public spending. Reductions in the amount of travel can also contribute to several government policies relating to social exclusion, promotion of sustainable communities and supporting town centre activities.

Biofuels for Transport in the Uk: What is Feasible?: Review/Commentary Article

Recent claims about the potential of UK land to support significant biofuels production for transport are bold, if not surprising. British renewable energy policy appears to be focussed on electricity production, at the expense of the heat and transport sectors. However there are environmental and strategic reasons for reducing the carbon intensity of UK road transport. This paper reviews past and recent studies of the feasibility of liquid biofuels production in Britain. Many earlier studies may have underestimated this potential, and the policy context has shifted significantly, but it would still be difficult to meet current UK gasoline needs from arable and set-aside land. In conclusion, a realistic short-term goal may be 2–3% of UK transport fuel needs from domestic resources by 2010.

The effect of fuel price increases on road transport CO 2 emissions

In his March 1993 Budget, the Chancellor announced a commitment to increase the real value of road fuel duty in subsequent Budgets as part of a strategy to return UK CO 2 emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000. This paper examines the effect of higher fuel prices on UK road transport CO 2 emission using an econometric model of road transport fuel consumption. If the minimum commitments announced in the Budget were adhered up to the year 2000, about 1.5 m tonnes of carbon would be saved, which represents about one-seventh of the overall saving required to meet the Rio commitment.