The Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies leads a team of experts to support the transition to green energy.
The Neil Smith Chair of Sustainable Transport Futures, Professor John Rose leads a team of ITLS researchers and educators who are generating knowledge that underpins a transition to a green future for Australia’s transport industry. Traditionally, Australia has lagged behind almost every other nation when it comes to reducing transport emissions and improving transport energy efficiency.
For years, even decades, other countries have provided incentives to promote sustainable transportation initiatives designed to reduce the massive footprint that transport related activities create. Many of the initiatives seek to promote individual households adopting more sustainable transport modes, including replacing more polluting vehicle technology for electric vehicles (EVs).
The pace of electrification for public transit bus fleets is accelerating internationally. Clear targets have been established by transport policymakers to achieve a zero-emission bus target as early as 2030 in some jurisdictions. Two prominent choices are battery-driven electric buses and fuel-cell electric buses.
The key challenges include the choice amongst the set of green energy sources, who will bear the risks associated with the transition away from diesel and what will all of this mean for future procurement contracts between bus operators and government. We contribute to the debate on these matters.
Automated vehicles are predicted to be transformative, but their ultimate success and expected societal benefits will depend on drivers’ trust in them as well as how people choose to use and interact with them.
We are exploring three human-factor issues critical to the successful deployment of automated vehicles:
Insights from this research should prepare our society for more automated vehicles on roadways.
This ARC Discovery project involving Professor Michael Bell aims to design methods and market algorithms for vehicle control to tackle traffic congestion with interactive micro-auctions, micro-tolling and cooperative games. Specifically, this project develops and designs incentives, auctions and behavioural and pricing rules to manipulate micro traffic dynamics such as lane-changing, merging, energy-efficient driving, and driving at intersections, in roads without defined lanes and shared spaces to achieve collective macro benefits. The project targets mixed traffic where AVs and conventional human-driven vehicles interact and share the road. The project expects to generate new knowledge of transport science to lessen social, economic and environmental impacts of private cars.
This ARC Discovery project involving Professor Michiel Bliemer aims to solve the paradox of trading off liveability for mobility by simultaneously reducing traffic congestion, vehicle energy consumption, and emission. This project is expected to generate fundamental knowledge and powerful tools on utilising connected and automated vehicles to help individuals become green drivers. Expected outcomes include ground-breaking models capable of holistically optimising traffic efficiency, energy consumption and emission, and innovative control strategies and policies that focus on energy efficiency and environment protection. This research will bring a wide range of substantial national benefits related to mobility, public health, environmental protection, and energy security.
PhD student Arkar Than Win’s thesis aims to understand the potential changes in transport disadvantaged individuals’ travel behaviour in the AV era as well as how those changes influence accessibility as a whole. To achieve this aim, this thesis is divided into three interconnected objectives: (i) to investigate the potential change in the travel and activity frequency of transport-disadvantaged individuals, (ii) to analysis the mode choice preferences of transport-disadvantaged individuals, and (iii) to evaluate accessibility changes for transport-disadvantaged and the general population. To achieve the first objective, a propensity score matching analysis of Sydney Household Travel Survey will be complemented with insights from focus group discussions with transport-disadvantaged individuals. The second objective will be achieved by discrete choice modelling informed by the initial focus group findings. Lastly, integrated land use and transport models will be employed to explore the third objective under different AV deployment and policy scenarios. The holistic analysis of the whole thesis is expected to inform strategies and policies to promote social inclusion in the AV era.
Connections between mobility, wellbeing and social exclusion have interested transport planners and policy makers in recent decades.
Our transport related social exclusion research examines how individuals may be prevented from travelling and accessing opportunities due to barriers other than choice.
The physical absence of tertiary students during COVID had a significantly large impact on public transport (as well as on local suppliers of student accommodation, and other support industries and services). With the easing of restrictions, many students are showing a keen interest in hybrid modes of teaching and learning.
The iMOVE project partnering with Transport for NSW looked to learn more about the emerging and intended commuting patterns of university staff and students post-pandemic and provide recommendations for suggested initiatives to influence sustainable travel behaviours and demand in a University environment.
This report presents the findings from the 2024 EV Ownership Survey, a collaborative effort by the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies and the Electric Vehicle Council (EVC).
Drawing on responses from over 1,500 EV owners across Australia, the survey offers insights into purchase considerations, charging behaviours, and travel patterns, aimed at fostering consumer awareness, driving industry growth, and informing policies for the future of sustainable transport in Australia.
This iMOVE project partnering with the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts, will uncover attitudes and actions that are best likely to deliver actual change to a more sustainable transport system and include recommendations for policy makers and operators to expedite those changes with evidence-based policies and interventions. It will also investigate the economic impacts and potential cost benefit analysis of transition to more sustainable transport initiatives.
To maximise the benefits for Australia, there needs to be a well-planned and collaborative approach. To that end we will design and implement an Australia-wide online survey of demographically representative citizens to better understand their appreciation of, and willingness to support sustainable transport transitions.
Outcomes will be analysed to offer insight into preparing a pathway forward for sustainable transport services in Australia and enable emissions reductions to meet more ambitious decarbonisation targets.
The Queensland Government has introduced the Queensland Cost of Living Action, a six-month trial aimed at easing road congestion and reducing the cost of living by introducing a 50-cent flat rate pubic transport fares, despite rising living costs.
This iMOVE project partnering with the Department of Transport and Main Roads Queensland will gather insights on how the 50-cent Public Transport initiative will influence:
Fare-free and very low priced public transport schemes aim to improve accessibility and affordability for all residents, particularly those with lower incomes or financial difficulties. The Queensland 50 cent initiative is unique globally due to its implementation in a post COVID world, a 'new normal' around work-from-home (WFH), and the rising costs of living. Few studies have examined the potential expenditure patterns introduced by reduced public transport fares.
This project offers a unique opportunity to study effective low fare public transport on a large-scale, understanding travel patterns and budgetary pressures. It will position Queensland as a leader in low flat fare public transport experience.
Nelson, J., Balbontin, C., Hensher, D., Beck, M. (2023). A comparative analysis of University Sustainable Travel Plans - Experience from Australia. Transport Policy, 141, 197-208. [More Information]
Li, D., Merkert, R. (2023). "Door-to-door" carbon emission calculation for airlines - Its decarbonization potential and impact. Transportation Research Part D, 121, 103849. [More Information]
Tanrverdi, G., Merkert, R., Karamasa, C., Asker, V. (2023). Using multi-criteria performance measurement models to evaluate the financial, operational and environmental sustainability of airlines. Journal of Air Transport Management, 112, 102456. [More Information]
Logan, K., Nelson, J., Chapman, J., Milne, J., Hastings, A. (2023). Decarbonising UK transport: Implications for electricity generation, land use and policy. Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 17, 100736-1-100736-16. [More Information]
Pellegrini, A., Borriello, A., Rose, J. (2023). Assessing the willingness of Australian households for adopting home charging stations for electric vehicles. Transportation Research Part C, 148, 104034.
Tocock, M., Tinch, D., Hatton MacDonald, D., Rose, J. (2023). Managing the energy trilemma of reliability, affordability and renewables: Assessing consumer demands with discrete choice experiments. Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 67(2), 155-175.
Logan, K., Nelson, J., Hastings, A. (2022). Low emission vehicle integration: Will National Grid electricity generation mix meet UK net zero? Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part A: Journal of Power and Energy, 236(1), 159-175. [More Information]
Hensher, D., Nelson, J., Mulley, C. (2022). Electric car sharing as a service (ECSaaS) - Acknowledging the role of the car in the public mobility ecosystem and what it might mean for MaaS as eMaaS? Transport Policy, 116, 212-216. [More Information]
Borriello, A., Massey, G., Rose, J. (2022). Extending the theory of planned behaviour to investigate the issue of microplastics in the marine environment. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 179, 113689. [More Information]
Borriello, A., Rose, J. (2022). The issue of microplastic in the oceans: Preferences and willingness to pay to tackle the issue in Australia. Marine Policy, 135, 104875. [More Information]
Stanley, J., Hensher, D., Wei, E., Liu, W. (2022). Major urban transport expenditure initiatives: Where are the returns likely to be strongest and how significant is social exclusion in making the case. Research in Transportation Business & Management, 43, 100731. [More Information]
Stanley, J., Hensher, D., Stanley, J. (2022). Place-based disadvantage, social exclusion and the value of mobility. Transportation Research Part A, 160, 101-113. [More Information]
Zhang, Q., Ma, S., Tian, J., Rose, J., Jia, N. (2022). Mode choice between autonomous vehicles and manually-driven vehicles: An experimental study of information and reward. Transportation Research Part A, 157, 24-39. [More Information]
Borriello, A., Burke, P., Rose, J. (2021). If one goes up, another must come down: A latent class hybrid choice modelling approach for understanding electricity mix preferences among renewables and non-renewables. Energy Policy, 159, 112611. [More Information]
Fettermann, D., Borriello, A., Pellegrini, A., Cavalcante, C., Rose, J., Burke, P. (2021). Getting smarter about household energy: the who and what of demand for smart meters. Building Research and Information, 49(1), 100-112. [More Information]
Stanley, J., Stanley, J. (2021). Public transport and social inclusion. In C. Mulley, J Nelson and S. Ison (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Public Transport, (pp. 367-380). Abingdon: Routledge.
