MANTA Summary Report – External Stuart Rowell Principal Technologist – Systems (Automation & Safety)
Outline Connected Places Urban cities face growing mobility challenges through increased density of land use and higher levels of traffic flow. This can lead to increased journey times, higher levels of pollution, and less effective use of available space for residential and commercial purposes. Improving mobility through enabling new travel solutions and supporting innovative solutions is at the heart of what the Connected Places Catapult do.
Outline Connected Places Coastal cities such as Southampton face significant mobility challenges due to the geography of the land, which naturally funnels traffic down a limited number of arterial routes and highways, together with periodically high traffic densities as a result of port activities. In addition to the direct impact on road transport, secondary impacts to the area can be felt through under utilisation, under development and under investment of areas which may be geographically close, but not well connected to the commercial center.
Outline Connected Places The Connected Places Catapult identified the possibility to improve transport through innovative water-based solutions. While modelled on the use case of the City of Southampton, the technology could equally be applied to other cities facing transport challenges as a result of large bodies of water creating a natural barrier. Innovative Autonomous Water Taxis (AWTs) could provide an on-demand environmentally friendly service connecting travellers to a number of key destinations. The service could operate all day, throughout the year, alleviating some of the road- based travel and making existing under-developed areas more attractive for both residential and commercial use.
Current study and purpose of this document Connected Places The Connected Places Catapult (CPC) have conducted Ocean a feasibility study into a new passenger service in Village Town Quay the Southampton area. This would be a passenger- carrying autonomous ferry taxi service, possibly incorporating an on-demand, app-based user interface. Marchwood Woolston The concept of this service is based on the city of Southampton and the Solent area of water. The city centre Hamble of Southampton is a central business district, and the Port Point of Southampton (west of the city center) a busy commercial Warsash Hythe port. Road-based transport from surrounding areas to both areas is a significant problem arising from the geography of land and water. The port of Southampton is also a busy port for commercial and cargo vessels travelling up and down the Solent between the port and the English Channel, which raises a particular challenge for operating such a service. Fawley
Current study and purpose of this document Connected Places The city of Southampton and the Solent area of water was chosen as a model example of where this transport solution could bring real benefits, and equally because of the challenges that marine autonomy would face if operating in this busy area. However, the project would look generically at the challenges and opportunities of the concept as a more widely exploitable technology. The study looked at the concept in three distinct areas: • Demand Modelling : Conducting • Business Modelling : • Safety : Passenger safety is paramount, interviews and focus groups to Understanding the commercial and a wealth of regulations and understand the willingness of viability of the service, including processes are in place to ensure this. The potential users of such a service, the trade-offs between size of current barriers need to be understood, and draw out some key user boat, frequency of operation together with new safety hazards that requirements and likely ticketing costs would need to be addressed
Connected Places Outline Within the feasibility project, sea trials were conducted to gather data in support of the project assumptions.
Demand Modelling Connected Places
Identifying user needs: Focus groups To help identify the broad needs of travellers into and out of Southampton, four focus groups were conducted in total: two groups resided on the West side of the water and two groups resided on the East side, each with a spread of ages from each location. Date Location Area* Age 29 th October 2018 Totton West 18-44 29 th October 2018 Totton West 45+ 30 th October 2018 Woolston East 18-44 30 th October 2018 Woolston East 45+ Note: see map on page 3 The participants were asked about their current journeys in and around Southampton, what they liked and didn’t like about local travel, their opinions on autonomous vehicles in general and then specifically boats, and how they would feel about an autonomous ferry service on Southampton Water. Connected Places
Identifying user needs: Telephone interviews Connected Places To target those likely to use a new transport service linking up locations on the West and East sides of the water with Southampton, interviews were carried out with households randomly selected from defined postcodes in the area around Southampton Water. The target area was split into 3 (East, Central, West) with 100 interviews achieved in each area, selected to give a broad distribution with respect to age, gender and employment status. West Central East Postcode Interviews Postcode Interviews Postcode Interviews SO40 57 SO14 32 SO19 56 SO45 43 SO15 28 SO31 44 SO16 40 Age Range ALL Female Male 18-34 32% 31% 34% 35-44 25% 26% 25% 45-54 14% 14% 15% 55-64 11% 11% 12% 65+ 16% 18% 14%
Traveller Case Study: Traveller Case Study: From West Side From East Side ‘The journey east-west through ‘Depending on the time of day it can Southampton seems to be getting take about an hour and 15 minutes worse over the years. It’s always been just doing the last few miles, which quite bad at rush hour but now it is really infuriating.’ seems to be quite bad a lot of the time’ The journey by car into Southampton can be good on clear roads There are multiple driving routes into Southampton and parking is but when disrupted the journey time becomes very long for the available (but can be expensive). Routes tend to be single lane roads distance covered. Some people report shifting work start time to and the flow is affected by the number of sets of traffic lights at 10am or turning down appointments before 10am. junctions. Travel on M27 and M271 can be slow in the morning if travelling around Southampton from the east. Locally, there are only trains from Totton to Southampton. Although the service is quick and good value, its lack of frequency (hourly) There are plenty of bus and train options including links to the results in people choosing to drive. Also if you need to drive to the airport and the bus services seem to be good albeit affected by station you have to pay for parking. road congestion. Buses are regular during the day but suffer from traffic issues on the A326 and do not run after 7pm. The cost of the bus was also cited as an issue – it’s just as cheap to drive and park. Connected Places
Demand Modelling: Frequency, duration and mode Connected Places Understanding the typical journey purpose, frequency, mode and duration was a key target output, building a picture of the typical user needs. Frequency Mode Duration Shopping trips 14 mins Visits to friends and family 21 mins Commute to work 22 mins Social occasions/evenings out 19 min Leisure/sport/hobbies 18 mins Hospital, doctor or other appointments 18 mins Daily Weekly Monthly Car Bus Walk/Cycle Other Predictably, commuting was the most common reason for transport, with the car easily the most significant mode of transport for all journey types. These findings are consistent with the perceived view of transport in Southampton.
Demand Modelling: Overview Connected Places Understanding the likelihood of and reasons for travelers to use the service was a key target outcome. While a faster journey time was a strong motivator, just under half the participants would still consider using the service even if it delivered a slower overall journey time. Faster journey 42% 32% 12% 10% 95% 82% 61% 62% 70% Same journey time 30% 39% 14% 18% Leisure/sport/ Social Commute Visits to Shopping hobbies occasions/ to work friends and trips 18% 31% 20% 31% Slower journey evenings out family Very likely Quite likely Not very likely Not at all likely Same duration Faster Slower Analysing the anticipated journey types that users would undertake on the service, taking into account journey time, was also an important objective. Assuming a similar journey time, respondents were broadly in favour of using such a service, though the lowest level of support was found in respect of commuting. Nonetheless, as the most frequent classification of journey, it is encouraging that 61% of respondents would be likely to use the service if the journey time were the same.
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