J.L. (Janet) Veldstra, PhD

MOCOLODO- Mobility during and after corona lockdown: sustainability, safety, inclusiveness

This project is a multidisciplinary collaboration between RuG and five other universities (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Tu-Delft, Utrecht University, TU-Twente) and a number of city and regional authorities (i.e. municipality of Groningen, municipality of Amsterdam, transport region Amsterdam, province of Utrecht, municipality of Utrecht, municipality of Almelo, Achmea, Dutch Railways NS). The project will address urgent (policy) questions about mobility in and after corona times, in particular the effect that the corona lockdown has had on travel behavior and the performance of the (public) transport system. 

• What can we learn about mobility behaviour and its determinants during lockdown and relaxation?
• Based on this knowledge, how can we advise governments on flexible and effective management of mobility during lockdown and relaxation?
• How can this be brought into line with long-term sustainability goals in (urban) mobility?

This project is funded by the ZonMW* COVID-19 bottom-up research programm.   *ZonMw stems from "ZorgOnderzoek Nederland (ZON)" and the field of Medical Sciences (MW), and works closely with the NWO.

Postdoc researcher: Leonie Vrieling

SMiLES -Shared connectivity in Mobility and Logistics Enable Sustainability  

Societal challenges such as global warming and an increasing population invite us to reconsider logistical and mobility systems. The goal of this SMiLES is to establish a Living Lab to study barriers and opportunities for open sharing networks in a comprehensive way through an interdisciplinary lens.

This means we study psychological, technical, legal, moral, spatial and economic barriers and opportunities for sharing in logistics and mobility. We investigate the role of technology, human behaviour, ethical and legal boundaries, trust, governance, and develop innovative business and organisation models for open sharing networks to enable efficient, effective and emission-free transport. We do this together with Faculties of Economics and Business, Behavioral and Social Sciences, Law, Spatial Sciences, Philosophy, Science and Engineering, Campus Fryslân and the Hanzehogeschool and have 2 public partners (province of Groningen and the municipality of Groningen), and 18 business partners so that we can perform studies in practice to gain new insights from practice for theory development, as well as to test concepts in a public-private-people cooperation. 

Consortium Partners: University of Groningen, Qbuzz Public Transport, Koopman Logistics Group, Arriva Passenger Transport Netherlands, Bidfood, Wagenborg, Suikerunie, KPN, Natuur & Milieu, Province of Groningen, Gemeente Groningen, Groningen Bereikbaar, Port of Lauwersoog, New Energy Coalition Foundation, Next Generation Shipyards, OV bureau Groningen Drenthe, Vinturas, 5Groningen, Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Noorderpoort.

This research project is part of the research programme Sustainable Living Labs, which is co-financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO), the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, Taskforce for Applied Research (SIA) and the Top Sector Logistics.

SUaaVe: SUpporting acceptance of connected automated Vehicle's (CAV)

As the technology development for automated functions in vehicles progresses and the market introduction of connected automated vehicles (CAVs) approaches, deployment roadmaps start emphasizing societal issues related to CAV technology. Since of the main reason for a contested technology to fail is because societal needs and public acceptance are not taken into account in due time public acceptance of CAVs is of paramount importance. 

Acceptance is a multi-faceted construct, which covers a variety of psychological factors. In this project we will study the psychological factors affecting the accpetability and acceptance of CAV's and test if trust in automated systems can be increased by making the system more human like.  

This project is funded by the European Union (H2020 Transport programme in Pillar 3).

PhD student: Jorick Post

The Urban Mobility Observatory,

Cities continue to grow, both in the Netherlands and abroad, which means that the transport system is under increasing pressure. To alleviate that pressure, we first and foremost need insight into what exactly happens in the transport system. With the Urban Mobility Observatory (UMO) we can provide the required data requirements for smart solutions. UMO links its own databases to existing databases. In this way we realize a complete integration of different types of data, such as data on traffic and mobility behaviour and spatial data. The data have different semantic characteristics in terms of spatial scale, time scale and granularity. Combining that data can lead to completely new insights. With UMO we take a leap forward in mobility research by up-scaling obtaining, analysing and combining empirical mobility data. This leap makes pioneering scientific research possible in the area of ​​passenger and goods traffic and transport and creates the acquired insights that can make a substantial contribution to solving societal mobility related problems and accelerating innovations in urban mobility.

Besides RuG the UMO-consortium consists of: TU-Delft (initiatiefnemer); Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; CIT Amsterdam; TU/Eindhoven; University Twente; Utrecht University en het Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan solutions.

This project is funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). NWO-groot.

Research fitness to drive with long-term use of medication 

According to Dutch law people who are long-term users of medication that is classified a danger for traffic safety according to International Council on Alcohol Drugs and Traffic Safety (Icadts, type III) should not drive. These are for example commonly used medicines against insomnia, anxiety or depression. This means that a large proportion of society is actually not allowed to drive. The research on which this classification is based is mostly direct and short-term effects research, while in the in the scientific literature, there are doubts about whether these are actually representative of long-term drug effects. In this study we will investigate whether this doubt is justified. We do this by comparing the driving skills of a group of long term and short terms Icadts type III medication with other road users that do not use these drugs.

Phd student: Joke van Dijken

DRUID (Driving under the Influence of Drugs Alcohol and Medicine)

In this project we researched the direct effects of  MDMA, THC and alcohol driving performance and traffic safety. This research was done in the DRUID consortium in which the infleunce of several types of drugs on driving and traffic safety were tested in order to find out if it was possible to establish treshold values for use of these substances in traffic.  See druid-project.eu