The peak and trough mobility demand profiles remain a critical challenge for city transport, and lead to negative consequences for welfare, productivity, energy use, and environment. This results from the largely fixed transport infrastructure with finite capacity that cannot respond dynamically to demand variations. Previous attempts to influence demand by altering travel behaviours through top-down policies failed to achieve meaningful improvements. CitySPIRE will address this challenge by creating a demand aggregation service presenting groups of passengers to transport operators. This will be achieved by combining location-based data from two communications (Bluetooth Low Energy and Wi-Fi) network operators. These data will create context-aware knowledge enabling demand-responsive transport services. The project output will be a new demand-responsive transport service curated by Simply Connect, enabled by a networked approach to demand aggregation and end user engagement. Underpinning this, a new commercial model for private data exchange and analytics will be tested. The consortium expects tools and insights from the project to increase the value of the existing Proxama, Purple, Cisco, and Movement Strategies propositions.

Based on our earlier work in developing the 'Small Vehicle Transport System' (SVTS), 'Simply Connect'™ will develop and (at the'In-field trials' stage) deliver a fully integrated transport system that is based on ensuring individual journeys are managed to their satisfactory completion, across all journey types, purposes and distances, focused from the user's perspective. Simply Connect will offer Intelligent Mobility in a form that closely reflects the way we typically travel, and which offers a practical, realistic alternative to the private car for many journeys, whilst extending to freight movements. This approach, enabled by ICT, achieves substantial macro-economic, social and envrionmental benefits, as well as being a comercially valid business approach. The project will extend across business structure planning and development, transport modelling and business apprasial, vehicle design, impact assessments, and ICT development which covers the full range of requirements.

Title: Small Vehicle Transport System (SVTS). Challenge 3: "On-demand mobility solution" is being applied for. There is a need for a form of local public transport that is able to serve daily travel on those journeys, in suburbs and towns, for which we tend to mostly use our cars, and which can operate on a commercially sustainable basis without public sector subsidy. Sustainable Environment’s ‘Small Vehicle Transport System’ (SVTS) is a radical re-imagination of the sector: with its ‘systems-based’ approach, it is increasingly being seen by key national players as having scope to transform the way we each travel, and so unlock multiple policy benefits. SVTS operates wholly in response to demand at minimal notice, with neither routes nor timetables, for a cost similar to bus fares, and using high quality 8 passeneger seat vehicles with professional drivers. It is specifically designed to be attractive to car users for the routine, functional, local journeys we each make, offering a car-like experience with equivalent flexibility, control and reliability of travel, at compatible levels of door-to-door travel time, marginal cost and comfort. By managing and tracking each personal journey, and separating this management from the operation of transport services, it enables the public sector to adopt efficient outcome-based 'payments-by-results' procurement whilst the private sector can commission journeys for their staff or customers. SVTS’s innovation extends from ICT technology and system architecture to the associated business model. With a framework in line with Government strategy and EU competition requirements, it is designed to attract both existing industry 'players' and entrepreneurial start-ups. Launching in Milton Keynes (to be operated by our sister 'delivery' company, Simply Connect Ltd), SVTS is adopted policy at Milton Keynes Council, with strong interest from other forward-thinking Local Authorities. We have key industry players as development partners. It forms the ‘transport on-demand’ element of the Lutz programme being promoted by DfT and the Automotive Council. Independently verified modelling indicates that, operating in Milton Keynes with a fleet of about 400 vehicles, SVTS will capture 15% of the total motorised local transport market, with a 10+% modal shift from the private car, and a projected turnover of c£80M p.a. With potential to operate in c70% of the UK, SVTS is a highly and rapidly scalable transport-on-demand system, suitable for use by all residents, employees and visitors. The range of benefits extends from secure yet flexible job creation (c500 FTE in Milton Keynes); c7% traffic reduction with 5-20% carbon reduction across all local transport and commensurate reduction in need for expanded highway infrastructure; ensuring access at any time to all businesses, irrespective of parking limitations or the need for staff or customers to have a car.