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# System prepended metadata

title: 'Exploring the impacts of COVID-19 on travel: opportunities to reallocate road space and reduce emissions'

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# Exploring the impacts of COVID-19 on travel: opportunities to reallocate road space and reduce emissions


# Project Title/Theme (required)

Provide a research theme that is wide and can cover several projects.

The precise project title may change following discussions with the individual students.

Exploring the impacts of COVID-19 on travel: opportunities to reallocate road space and reduce emissions

# Principal Supervisor (required)

# Suggested Second Marker (required)

# Project Outline (required)

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The coronavirus pandemic has led to dramatic changes in transport patterns in the short term, with motor traffic levels down compared with pre-pandemic levels, especially during peak hours when capacity on the network is most important, cycling levels up during the spring/summer of 2020, and an ~8 fold increase in working from home.

These trends are highlighted in the 3rd report from the SaferActive project: https://saferactive.github.io/trafficalmr/articles/report3.html

In this context, the project aims to explore the potential long terms impacts of the pandemic on transport systems from an active travel and/or emissions perspective.
The project could go in many directions but one potential pathway would be:

- Quantify the reduction of need for peak capacity for motor traffic assuming long term shifts in 'telecommuting' of (for example) 20%, up from a pre-pandemic working from home level of 5%.
- Identify places on the road network where this reduced peak-hour motor traffic volume could translate to 'spare space' that could be reallocated to walking and cycling
- Demonstrate a method for identifying road segments that could be well suited to road reallocation measures that could scale internationally, building on published research [@lovelace_methods_2020]

An alternative approach could be to explore the potential for long-term reductions in emissions following a shift to tele-commuting, building on prior research on the topic such as @helminen_relationships_2007 and @lovelace_energy_2014 (Chapter 8 contains a section on 'Go Finnish' representing uptake of 'telecommuting' which can be found here http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/5027/1/Thesis.pdf#page=283 ).

# Number of Projects (required)

2

# Related web sites

https://saferactive.github.io/trafficalmr/articles/report3.html

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/coronaviruscovid19roundup/2020-03-26

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/transport-use-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic

https://theconversation.com/cities-must-act-to-secure-the-future-of-urban-cycling-our-research-shows-how-138156


# Related modules

TRAN5115M Sustainable Spatial Planning and Analysis

# Background reading


Helminen, Ville, and Mika Ristimäki. 2007. “Relationships Between Commuting Distance, Frequency and Telework in Finland.” Journal of Transport Geography 15 (5): 331–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2006.12.004. 

Lovelace, Robin. 2014. “The Energy Costs of Commuting: A Spatial Microsimulation Approach.” Thesis, University of Sheffield. 

Lovelace, Robin, Joseph Talbot, Malcolm Morgan, and Martin Lucas-Smith. 2020. “Methods to Prioritise Pop-up Active Transport Infrastructure.” Transport Findings, July, 13421. https://doi.org/10.32866/001c.13421.

# Skills necessary

Data analysis and/or policy knowledge


# Software requirements

R if this is taken in a data analysis/methods direction

# Software support required

-

# Lab work description

-

# Workshop requirements

-

# Further information 

This relates to ideas around major changes to cities needed to inform transport decarbonisation pathways.



