Sustainable transportation experts from the School’s Centre for Supply Chain Research are developing a groundbreaking green solution to optimise the way people and goods move in suburban areas.
Supported by a consortium of international industry leaders and academic institutions, the ‘ERGODIC: Combined passenger and goods transportation in suburb traffic’ project seeks to develop innovative, efficient and sustainable solutions to suburban mobility and the last mile challenge.
As suburban living relies heavily on private vehicles for commuting and getting everyday supplies, conventional public transport and delivery methods cannot provide high levels of service as they do in urban areas.
This is due to a lack of options to complete the last leg of the journey (last mile or last kilometre), in which passengers and goods move from a transportation hub to their final destination.
As finding sustainable solutions to the last mile problem is crucial to turn the 15-minute city concept into a reality, the project’s partners are working on an ambitious multimodal transport system.
This a green alternative with great potential to reduce the use of (or even replace) private vehicles with comparable services, addressing some of the pressing challenges to urban mobility and sustainability.
The new system is compatible with the current public transport infrastructure, and integrates passenger and goods transport into a single and flexible network that combines:
- Electric modular vehicles for last-mile travel/delivery service: these can flexibly change capacity by adjusting the number of connected and segregated cabins that carry either passengers or goods
- Active micromobility: small, lightweight devices driven by users, such as e-bikes and electric scooters
- And cutting-edge digital technologies.
Commenting on the impact expected, leading expert in data-driven logistics and transportation systems, and the project’s Principal Investigator, Professor Dongping Song, said:
"The new multimodal transport system developed in this project would offer a wide range of strategic, economic, environmental and social benefits, including reduced traffic congestion, lower pollution levels and improved accessibility and social inclusivity."
A well as maximising transportation resources and meeting the needs of communities living in the city outskirts, the project contributes to building a more sustainable and efficient future, as it tackles challenges connected to three UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
These are ‘Gender equality’ (SDG 5), ‘Affordable and clean energy’ (SDG 7) and ‘Sustainable cities and communities’ (SDG 11).
The project is funded by national agencies, including VINNOVA in Sweden, the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) and the Economic and Social Research Council in UK, under the Driving Urban Transitions programme with a total amount of £1 million.
Having started in late 2023, the project is expected to culminate in 2026 with a pilot in the city of Linz.
Lead by Chalmers University of Technology, the consortium includes international partners from Sweden (WSP and Einride), Austria (Johannes Kepler University and City of Linz) and Italy (getPlus, NEXT Modular Vehicles).
The UK’s project partners include the University of Liverpool, ESG Consultants Limited and British and Irish Trading Alliance, with the Management School (specifically its Centre for Supply Chain Research) acting as the lead British research partner.
 |
Chair in Supply Chain Management |