UCL-Energy invites applicants for a fully-funded four-year PhD studentship in transport modelling.

In recent years, new business models, inspired by the sharing economy, and disruptive technologies are ushering in an exciting new age in transportation: the era of Intelligent Mobility. The arrival of ridehailing services, ridesharing, car clubs, community car clubs, and Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) are all changing how people get around. Automakers, in turn, increasingly see themselves as both product manufacturers and mobility services providers; in addition to developing next-generation connected and autonomous vehicles, automakers are investing in a wide swath of new mobility services- from car clubs and rental services to multimodal journey planning apps. There is no doubt that consumers have been the primary beneficiaries of new mobility services. However, the impacts of these new mobility schemes and technologies on travel behaviour, traffic congestion, energy use, and emissions are still unclear. Policy makers and urban planners have limited quantified evidence regarding how today’s expanded mobility ecosystem can help advance public policy goals such as reducing GHG emissions and traffic congestion, while providing related benefits such as better air quality.

The proposed PhD topic includes the development of an advanced transport and energy activity-based model that will quantify the multiple impacts of new mobility services on travel behaviour, traffic congestion, energy consumption and air quality.

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