Written by Dr. Mary Darking
This July, Dr. Mary Darking, Assoc. Prof Dr Frauke Behrendt, Dr. Nick Marks and Dr. Ian Philips presented project findings at this year’s European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST) in Amsterdam. Their presentation, “Engaged micro-mobility research as pragmatist mobility innovation strategy: experimenting with household e-cargo bike use in 3 UK cities” was part of a panel on Experimentation on future mobility and society .
Overall, our panel convenors (from Technical University of Munich) focused our presentations on how research design and in particular ‘test beds’ could act as spaces where “future mobility strategies” are made. Test beds are ‘live’ settings such as cities, neighbourhoods or racetracks where an innovation is taken ‘out of the lab’ and ‘into the wild’ to understand its effects in day-to-day life.
How is this relevant to ELEVATE? Well, in the ELEVATE project our mixed methods research design gave households in 3 cities the chance to try out what it would be like to own an e-cargo bike by loaning them one for 4 weeks. We used a place-based approach to survey data collection whereby we used local social medial groups to invite people from our local study neighbourhoods to share their opinions on e-micromobility (e.g. e-bikes, e-scooters, e-cargo bikes) and take part in a trial. We found that this resident-engaged, place-based recruitment approach elicited responses that exhibited 2 to 3 times more interest and involvement in micromobility than the same survey targeted toward a representative sample of people from anywhere in the city (despite our best efforts to avoid bias!). This shows that engaged, place-based research methods have potential to identify, build on and extend existing place-based momentum for transitioning towards alternative personal and household travel strategies. Potentially useful for policy makers to know?!
Alongside ELEVATE’s e-micromobility research were papers on Mobility Test Beds in Munich: Formula E and Electric Car Racing Leagues and others related to Autonomous Vehicles. Bringing e-micromobility into people’s homes or signalling change through electric car racing leagues and industry climate action programmes (as co-panellist Eva Gray explained) both put transition to electric vehicles and de-carbonisation squarely on the agenda. Co-panelists Chris Tennant and Jack Stilgoe took the transition question in a different direction asking how can we accommodate autonomous vehicles and vehicle test beds… What infrastructure can support road sharing among driving and self-driving vehicles and how we test these infrastructural conditions safely is a not-so future mobility strategy challenge.
Colleagues from TUM showed how low-tech street experiments (e.g. rededicating a parking space for leisure activity) and high-tech experimentation in AVs occur side-by-side in the city of Munich. However, stabilising experimentation into long term change eventually becomes a question of governance rather than research design, though our work leaves a legacy.
Thanks to Manuel Jung, Michael Mogele and Alexander Wentland for organising such a phenomenal panel!
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