Transport services are increasingly booked through smart phones, yet travellers are often unaware of the impacts that changes in technologies have for operators and how they shape the city. This project engages with citizens of Bengaluru, India, and further afield by producing and disseminating a short documentary film that traces the day-to-day lived experiences of auto rickshaw drivers who form a key component of Indian mobility systems.

The FAIR (Fuel and trAnsport poverty In the UK’s energy tRansition) project will examine the intersections between fuel and transport poverty, and low carbon energy transitions, in the UK. Fuel poverty has been defined as the inability to secure materially- and socially-necessitated energy services, such as heating a home or using appliances. Transport poverty is the enforced lack of mobility services necessary for participation in society, resulting from the inaccessibility, unaffordability or unavailability of transport.

Advances in vehicle connectivity and autonomy have increased speculation around the future of the car. Dominated by techno-economic views, these debates currently tend to overemphasise the scale, speed and benefits of a shift to connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs). 'Non-technical' factors (e.g., costs, regulatory frameworks, public acceptance) are typically seen as presenting the main barriers to deployment. Such accounts fail to recognise how cultural, institutional and everyday practices will shape CAV developments.

The purpose of this project is to develop an alternative path to electric vehicle ownership and use for households without sufficient or appropriate parking to charge electric vehicles from their homes. Park and Charge (PnC) aims to deliver a new technological and business model design via an easy-to-use, car-park-based service.

The impacts of commuting on employment and well-being of different social groups in African cities are understudied. This pilot project addresses the gender dimensions and implications of congestion and mobility in Accra, Ghana - a rapidly growing city with inadequate provision of housing and transport infrastructure amidst limited employment opportunities. It will deploy a survey of 500 commuters and focus groups and use the resulting data to explore the impact of commuting on labour market activities, health and well-being given prevailing socio-cultural gender norms. The project will deliver proof-of-concept for the methodology, build capacity for a large grant application, and generate three journal articles.

The energy storage capacity of electric vehicles (EVs) presents new opportunities and value propositions for vehicle-to-grid (V2G) power system services. Potential benefits could include the alleviation of the need for generation and transmission investments and increases in network efficiency and energy security. These benefits arise as V2G technologies enable EVs to deliver electricity from their batteries back into the smart grid which can then be used to power homes and businesses.

PEAK Urban is a 51-month, international, multidisciplinary programme (PI Michael Keith, University of Oxford) funded by the Research Councils UK Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) of UK Research and Innovation and involving researchers at the University of Oxford, Peking University, University of Cape Town, the Indian Institute for Human Settlements and EAFIT University.