Project Description
The Transport Academic Partnership (TAP) is a $3.7 million agreement between the Department of Transport and Main Roads, the Motor Accident Insurance Commission (MAIC), Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Griffith University (Griffith) and University of Queensland (UQ). The TAP agreement aims to build mutual transport capability within the university sector, the agencies, and industry to address future transport challenges and create a single integrated transport network accessible to everyone.
TAP’s objectives are:
– Building, supporting and facilitating transport research excellence.
– Fostering strong alliances between government, industry and academia.
– Fund, enable and deliver positive outcomes for the transport systems.
University partners undertake a broad Annual Work Program of research and development activities to benefit all parties. Research and development activities include:
– projects that meet the agencies’ strategic priorities
– trial projects such as proof of concept
– joint projects with other universities; and/or industry partners and other ad-hoc/emerging issues
– Australian Research Council linkage proposals and other leveraged funding opportunities
– knowledge transfer such as advice and information seminars
– capability building, training, professional development, and work experience placements
– university in-kind support and access to high calibre academic professionals.
At Griffith University our team is mostly engaged in projects on active transport (walking and cycling), micromobility (e-scooters and e-bikes), public transport (light rail, busways, ferries, fare systems and more), Mobility-as-a-Service, transport planning, transport policy and transport-and-land-use. This includes recent projects on impacts of cashless fares, the Logan Demand-Responsive Transit (DRT) trial, new market segmentations for mode choice modelling, and new work on Movement-and-Place frameworks, and on transport for major events.
Project Personnel and Beneficiaries
Our TAP research projects seek to improve Queenslander’s access to the goods, services and jobs they need in daily life, and businesses’ access to their customers, their suppliers and their labour. Our research develops new concepts, novel methods and undertakes applied research on Queensland, Australian and international transport systems. Particular groups that benefit include:
– pedestrians, cyclists, e-scooter riders, public transport users and other sustainable transport users
– local and state governments responsible for transport infrastructure
– transport operators
– transport planners and modelers
Outcomes to Date
Griffith University TAP projects have led to a series of theoretical/conceptual advances, new method, a series of improvements to transport planning practices and transport operations, and specific policy recommendations. This includes:
– Our collaboration on the Logan DRT system helped TMR identify scheme improvements that were influential in the design of the new Pacific Pines/Nerang DRT system commenced in early 2022;
– Research on Mobility-as-a-Service options in regional Queensland have led to funding from Queensland Government and industry partners for the first specific tourism-focused MaaS trial in Queensland; and,
– Research on fare policies and on active transport led to the appointment of Prof Burke to both the Queensland Fares Advisory Panel and the Queensland Cycling Advisory Group, statutory committees that advise the Minister.
Project Significance
The TAP agreement primarily serves SDG 11, to “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”. The United Nations has recognised how important transport systems are to achieving this goal, but has also noted how transport is also related to the SDGs on “food security, health, energy, economic growth, [and] infrastructure” (see https://sdgs.un.org/topics/sustainable-transport).
Sustainable transport is essential to providing access for all, reducing the burden of road traffic crashes, improving air quality in cities, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Private car travel is extremely high in Australian cities. Increasing the share of trips made by active and public transport, shifting to electric propulsion, increasing rates of sharing of vehicles and of trips, and improving the efficiency of the urban system as a whole, will have a serious impact on all the negative impacts of modern transportation.
Our work in TAP on active transport helps promote the most sustainable forms of transport, those that are human-powered. Our research on transport-and-land-use interactions, and on ways to use ‘value-capture’ funding and financing, are about finding more efficient and sustainable settlement patterns, and ways to fund the public transport systems of the future. Our projects with the Queensland Government on Mobility-as-a-Service and on cashless fare policies are about improving transport services and encouraging public transport use, but also about ensuring the transition is inclusive, maintaining universal access for the most vulnerable groups in society.