Step Change: Sustainable Transport

STEP-CHANGE (Sustainable Transport Evidence and modelling Paradigms: Cohort Household Analysis to support New Goals in Engineering design) is an EPSRC funded project that brings together a research team from the Institute for Transport Studies (ITS) at the University of Leeds, the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Birmingham, and the ESRC Centre for Research on Socio-cultural Change (CRESC) at the University of Manchester. STEP-CHANGE is a collaboration between social scientists, transport engineers and mathematicians. The project began in 2010, and is now in its final phase. The study was designed to examine how we can bring about a 'step change' in the way we understand travel behaviours of individuals and organisations, which can in turn feed into planning and modelling practices that help to enhance the long-term sustainability of the urban environment and its inhabitants. The study is exploring what use people make of transport and why; how this use relates to their circumstances and relationships; and how external factors and events can influence travel patterns, both now and in the future.