Our lives are governed by 'fixed' time schedules with activities aligned to school and work start/end times, public transport schedules, facility opening hours and deadlines. The rise of the 'anytime' 24 hour society has led to increased consumption of goods and services, the take-up of non-standard work schedules (e.g., rotating shifts), and a more dynamic approach to activity planning, leading to the constant 'hectic' pace of life many of us feel. Coupled to this is how laptops, smart phones and PDAs, linked to 'social networking' have revolutionized when, where and how people communicate in work and at home, softening 'time' and 'space', allowing social relationships to revolve around the appreciation of the relativity of friends and colleagues in personal time.

Under these circumstances, trip making behaviour to engage in these activities can be very complex, favouring single occupancy car use over more carbon efficient alternatives and resulting in mean travel distances increasing despite the time allocated to travel remaining relatively consistent. The car is highly compatible with society's current scheduling patterns and alternative modes are often not considered as their use requires additional cognitive effort which often removes them from the decision making set.

Our research vision is to understand the extent to which behavioural change in transport habits and practices can be facilitated through the creation of a new form of 'transport network', based on extending social networking principles to transport users and their individual vehicles. Through the development of an innovative, open, extensible technical platform called 6th Sense Transport (6ST), we will provide users with new ways of understanding the relationships between their own future transport plans and those of others.

This approach could revolutionise the process of decision making in travel behaviour (whether it be for the movement of people or things) by using social networking principles to create 'visibility' of potential transport options in time and space. If we are better able to visualise the activity of people and things (cars, buses, lorries, even items within a lorry) relative to their immediate and future time schedules, and crucially, the conditions under which people and other 'things' might be willing to liaise and adapt, we might be able to realise more opportunistic and collaborative uses for transport resources, leading to a reduction in overall transport related carbon emissions.

6ST will provide a deep understanding of how the increasingly multiple forms of temporality and spatiality influence travel mode choices and the ways in which people and 'things' might be willing to share certain personal travel information. This will be achieved through the novel use of smart phone and tagging technology to provide data feeds on activity and availability, monitored through a Platform that will anticipate opportunities for connections that are then made visible to users in the social network.

Experiments in how potential users of a 6ST system might adapt, alter and collaborate in their travel behaviour, with the visibility of potential transport options afforded by the Platform, will be undertaken in three specific domains: Tourism (in relation to visitor communities on campsites), Primary Education (in relation to child drop-off and collection) and Urban Logistics (space availability and utilisation on delivery/collection vehicles).

Potential Impact:
Who will benefit from 6ST?

Those who will immediately benefit from this research include user-groups associated with the three experimental domains. In urban logistics this primarily involves transport managers of freight and service companies (carriers, freight forwarders, shippers and amenity companies), scheduling daily rounds for their vehicle fleets. In primary education, users are also collaborators with potential to bring about 'behavioural change' and include, parents transporting pupils to and from school, pupils, head teachers, school eco-councils, governor committees, site managers, local authority 'routes for schools' and schools transport officers, local education authorities and community police. In tourism the main beneficiaries are tourists (the end users), but also local transport providers, visitor attractions, local tourism associations and ultimately local residents.

How will users benefit from 6ST?

Of key benefit to users will be the ability to positively alter their transport behaviours (reducing CO2, enhancing quality of life and reducing travel costs) through the visibility of more sustainable and timely transport options afforded by the creation of a 'transport network', based on extending social networking principles to transport users and their individual vehicles. 6ST enables users to visualise the relationships between their own future transport plans and those of others as well as the ability to create their own applications to engage with current, and anticipate new travel connections in the network through the 6ST Platform. Beyond the timescale of the project, as a growing mass of users participate, there is potential to expand the scale of the impact into other domains (e.g. work, retail travel). Specific benefits to the users in the three experimental domains are:

Urban Logistics:

i) reduced fleet mileage and fuel costs for logistics companies enabled by visualisation of future 'back-loading' opportunities ii) improved optimisation of out-bound and in-bound vehicle rounds resulting from a greater understanding of time constraints and vehicle capacity across fleet schedules of iii) visualisation of inventory on vehicles to enable smarter load sharing and parts distribution for companies iv) the ability to demonstrate 'green' travelling planning to local authorities in terms of both fleet and employee transport v) logistics companies able to customise their own applications by embedding 6SL into their business management tools to reduce operating costs.

Primary Education:

i) Reduced congestion around schools during peak hours through parents/guardians engaging in more collaborative travel choices through the improved schedule visibility provided by 6ST ii) improved child safety (both in terms of reduced accident probability but also travel opportunity awareness for the school, parents, guardians, children) iii) enhanced quality-of-life (e.g. for parents with unpredictable work patterns) through the knowledge on future travel options provided by 6SL iv) enhanced community adhesion through the linkages and transport connections provided by the 6ST network.

Tourism:

i) Reduced tourist vehicle activity between camping sites and local visitor attractions through enhanced visibility of shared transport options ii) more efficient supply chain activity serving tourists at campsites through collective visibility of needs (potential for shared purchasing) iii) greater security, health and well being from the knowledge of potential transport linkages available in the community iv) contribution to green travelling planning policies for camp sites and visitor attractions.

One key research and professional skill being acquired by the project team includes enhancing capabilities to link research with policy, effectively strengthening the project's impact.