Smart Mobility Unit
The Smart Mobility Unit was launched in March 2018. The unit builds on projects run at the University such as:
- Evalu8, which delivered the Government’s electric vehicle Plugged-in-Places scheme in the East of England
- smart bus ticketing
- E-Car Club, the UK’s first entirely electric pay-per-use car club.
The unit’s interests and expertise include: travel planning, transport-related behaviour change, intelligent transport systems, biometrics, smart ticketing, automatic number plate recognition applications, big data analysis and spatial mapping.
The unit works with the government, local authorities, private sector organisations and public transport operators to develop transport solutions. It is also a partner in projects such as the Hatfield 2030 plan to redevelop Hatfield Town centre and in developing Mobility as a Service, which aims to make sustainable transport an integral part of community planning and change.
The University has its own bus company, UNO. The Smart Mobility Unit collaborates with UNO and that collaboration, along other resources on the University estate, means that the University can act as a ‘living laboratory’ for research projects.
Integrated mobility
The lack of public transport in rural areas is widely recognised to have big social, economic and environmental impacts. However, councils and other public bodies are paying out for specialist transport services in rural areas, in particular with an increasing demand for Special Educational Needs (SEND) transport. The University of Hertfordshire's Smart Mobility Unit, which has specialised in work on rural transport, has collaborated with the consultancy KPMG and with the sub-national transport body Transport East, to suggest ways forward on this. The resulting paper was launched at a symposium last month hosted by the Royal Geographical Society on "New Solutions for rural transport" and organised by the SMU with Transport East.
The paper suggests that bringing together specialist transport contracts for SEND transport, social services, non emergency patient transport etc with mainstream public transport can improve services for all, increase efficiency and reduce costs too.
The SMU will be working with Transport East to follow up this work as part of the new Rural Mobility Centre of Excellence which the Government is now funding.
Seminars
We hold regular seminars outlining our research and that of the "sister" group Urbanism Unit. They are held at the University and have plenary and discussion sessions, followed by cheese, wine and good conversation.
Find out more about the Urbanism Unit's seminar programme on the Urbanism Unit's seminars page.
Find out more about the Smart Mobility Unit's seminar programme on the Transport planning: courses and seminars page.
