Sustainable Accessibility of the Randstad

Last July, NWO [the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research] honoured four research proposals relating to the Sustainable Accessibility of the Randstad programme. All four proposals were designated  ‘excellent’, and the Transport policy and Logistics’ Organisation (TLO) section, part of the Faculty of TPM, was closely involved in all of them. NWO had the choice of 25 proposals, and a total of 3.4 million Euros to be allocated. TLO researchers Caspar Chorus and Bert van Wee are proud and delighted. So why did they win the jackpot, and what are their plans for the money?

“We were very surprised that all four proposals were honoured”, says Caspar Chorus, lecturer and researcher in the TLO section and involved in three of the four proposals. He immediately adds: “Some of the credit must go to our colleague Eric Molin”. Molin is temporarily absent due to health problems, but he was the driving force behind one of the four proposals. Chorus: “The applications for subsidy were made by consortia, groups of  researchers from various universities. We spent a lot of time consulting with each other, probably more than the other applicants.” Bert van Wee, head of section and lecturer in TLO, continues: “We were already working closely with our partners, but we didn’t simply repackage existing programmes. Our proposals are completely new.”

Serious questions
The four programmes, two of which are being headed by TLO, ask serious, far-reaching questions about the future accessibility of the Randstad conurbation. The research spans the period until 2030 - 2040. How will motorists react if they have to pay more to use their cars and less to own them? What will happen if oil supplies run out or fuel is rationed? These questions are within the normal scope of the TPM research field. “I think we would have had a lot of explaining to do if none of our proposals had been honoured”, says Bert van Wee realistically. “But we worked on a total of seven proposals, so three did not receive subsidy. This is nothing to be ashamed of. You are competing with the best research groups in the Netherlands. Furthermore, the three that were rejected were all positively assessed, one of them was even designated as excellent.”

Smarter choices
The two programmes that TLO is heading are good illustrations of the innovative quality of the proposals. The programme Synchronizing networks, of which Eric Molin is the programme leader, is based on the assumption that people move through several networks simultaneously: the traffic network, the public transport network, the IT network. But do they get the best out of these various networks? Caspar Chorus explains: “Better coordination of the infrastructural networks and activities people use would substantially improve the accessibility of an urban area like the Randstad. For example, people take their children to the crèche on their way to work. Crèche staff have to be at their posts by then. Everyone is travelling at roughly the same time, often using the same mode of transport; the car. So what would happen if you designed the crèche as a kind of Park & Ride, and coordinated the opening hours to coincide with the arrival and departure times of the intercity trains? This is what we are going to research at TLO: how much can you expect from people if you change mobility in this way? It does not just include physical mobility, but also the whole IT field. Would motorists make smarter choices if you put public transport information into a GPS car navigation system? Technology can help to synchronise the networks. It sounds abstract, but what we are actually doing is designing networks and predicting the flows within them. An awful lot of calculation goes into this research.”

Scenarios for the future
The second sub-programme being headed by TLO is called The value of recreation. It will give us better insight into how the population values recreational activities and how this affects mobility. Programme leader Bert van Wee: “We tend to think that recreational requirements are of little societal relevance. But the leisure sector is rapidly becoming a large branch of industry, and the economic implications are massive. It should be receiving much more attention.” Van Wee’s team will first compile an inventory of the choices people make in their spare time: where do they go, what do they do there, how do they rate it? They will then examine the activity patterns of recreation and how they link in with mobility. The research will be carried out by VU University Amsterdam and Eindhoven University of Technology. Delft will turn the data from these inventories into scenarios for the future: how will recreation patterns be affected if major changes take place? If a steep kilometre tax is introduced, for example, or stringent policy on energy and emissions, whereby people are allocated a (transferable) quota of CO2 emission rights for travelling. How would people respond to unorthodox measures like these? Would they go to a campsite on the Dutch coast three times a year rather than Thailand by aeroplane once? What are their opinions on owning a second home? Van Wee: “The answers to these questions can have implications for spatial planning in the Netherlands. In the final phase of the research, a postdoctoral researcher will explore where recreational areas should be constructed for the eventuality that everyone stays in the Netherlands instead of going abroad, and how we should arrange the infrastructure to provide access to these areas.”

Hawking output
So this is exciting new research, which will be carried out by still-to-be-appointed PhD students and postdoctoral researchers. The programmes will run for four years, but the TLO section will be ‘standing on the barricades’ as Van Wee puts it, right from the very start. He explains: “It is essential that the Ministries concerned and the Randstad authorities can make practical use of our findings. We are very keen to translate our research into policy. We shall be hawking our output via papers and at conferences, as well as through formal and informal contact with Ministry representatives.” Conversely, the researchers hope to gain inspiration from policy officials.

Caspar Chorus: “This is a normal working method for TPM. In this respect, we are doing nothing spectacular or new. We must also ensure that our scientific results can be exchanged on a wider scale. We devise models and instruments that could be of interest to researchers  who have nothing to do with the Randstad. The model work is at the forefront; the Randstad work should be seen as a case study.”