Regenerative Mobility Systems

regenerative mobility systems

MOBILITY SYSTEMS

Design program, 3rd year, semester one, 2023

STUDENTS

Luke Bartley

Sophie Leeson

Lily May

Daniel Paice

Tai Cat Phuong

Studio Lead: Vanessa Ward

In collaboration with Behavioural Science Lab: Prof. Robert Hoffman, Lauren Scott, and Herry Basuki

Hobart City Council, Design Lab: David Kaldor

Cover artwork: Iman McGregor

Change is imminent.

As our roads near capacity, we have an opportunity to reassess & redesign how we travel, the type of city we want to live in and become.

With current road infrastructure reaching its limits and congestion growing as fast as Hobart’s population, it has become evident that Hobart requires design interventions on a systemic level to provide relief to commuters.

In response to the growing transit crisis in Hobart, five Systems Design students took on a Mobility Challenge project to develop an overarching futurevision for what mobility could look like in Hobart.

The students partnered with the UTAS Behavioural Science Lab and their students to deepdive into the area of mobility and get stuck into ideating what suitable solutions could look like for Hobart. The students further dissected identified leverage points in the system that could greatly benefit from change and help Hobart achieve a more life-centered and connected transit system, promoting convenience, affordability, climate resilience and community.

Lily May

Tactical challenge

How might the city make use of upcoming planned network disruptions to demonstrate new possibilities, shift behaviours and accelerate transformation?

Systemic challenge

How might the city shape the systems of mobility needed to support sustainable urban growth and community wellbeing over the coming decades? Our thanks to Professor Rob Hoffman and David Kaldor for their time and collaboration.

Lay 1% more asphalt, and you get 1% more traffic.

259,230 Hobart’s population, 2022

KEY:

WATER WAYS ROADS

BIKE TRACKS

PEAK HOUR TRAFFIC

8-9 AM, 3PM, 5PM

GLENORCHY KINGBOROUGH

E. SHORE

Water and mountains put constraints on the city’s mobility infrastructure.

300,000+ Hobart’s estimated population by 2033

roadways are nearing capacity.

Mobility of the Greater Hobart region is fragile, with only three routes in and out of the city center.

Hobart’s

Glenorchy

Hobart

Kingborough

Eastern Shore

Per capita, Tasmania has the highest levels of single occupancy car usage in the country.

SOUTHERN RURAL AREAS

What if everyday felt like a holiday... Like living in a national park?

There is plenty of greenspace and almost no cars in sight.

I enjoy my walk to my local transit hub while truly feeling immersed and part of the identity that makes my town of Kingston so unique.

I go to my favourite coffee shop while I wait for my express bus, secure in the knowledge that there is one leaving every 15 minutes.

Once I arrive in Hobart, I listen to music while I walk to my place of work. It’s relaxing because the transit station and my workplace are in a pedestrian zone free of cars and full of greenspace. I don’t have to consider waiting times at crossings on my journey.

After work I walk to the bar with my colleagues and enjoy

a few drinks without worrying about a car park closure or being under a driving limit.

The later buses don’t run as often but they are still reliable and feel safe so I don’t mind staying out later.

After arriving back at the Kingston transit hub, I pop into the shops to grab some groceries for dinner on the way home.

Photo by Kevin Bosc, Unsplash.

01. 15-Minute Walkable Cities

Building denser, mixed-use architecture housing all essential services to be liveable within 15 minutes.

02. Expanding Transit Network

Identifying and building suitable transport hubs based on people’s current movements. Dedicated Bus Lanes. Multi-Modal network infrastructure.

03. Green-space in Cities

Increasing greenery in cities; for biophilic and sustainable engagement with the city.

04. Car free pedestrian-Zones

Car-free zones that promotes safe active mobility.

05. Identities & Stories connect Communities

Planning our city in a way that allows people to explore, engage and resonate with it.

Maximising use of the waterways for scenic transport.

Green spaces integrated into denser city living.

Green space dominates.

Trackless trams to accommodate and connect to active and multi-modal transport.

Photo by Chuma A on Unsplash

Photo by Rodney Truitt Jr on Unsplash

Facilitating multimodal transit in Hobart through walkability, micromobility, and a universal, single-pass ticketing system

Several different apps and payment systems are needed for different modes of transit in Hobart, which makes it confusing and difficult for users to easily move from one mode to another.

Connecting all public transit and micromobility in Hobart under a singlepass ticketing system eases this difficulty, and facilitates multimodality in travel, while allowing expansion in future.

A web interface and system companion app allows users to manage their card and pay with their devices. Bank card and digital wallet options are also available on transit services for universal access.

A single, user-specific pass, for use through a physical card or app, that grants its users access to all collective mobility in Hobart.

Several physical and digital system interaction points, including website, application, vending machine, and help desk, making the purchase and management of cards easy and accessible.

Linking Greater Hobart’s mobility services under a single pass provides maximum convenience to users. It also makes mobility data more meaningful, leading to more effective mobility legislation.

Behavioural Science Principles

How can Behavioural Science be used to influence how people use mobility in Greater Hobart?

Friction Points and Incentives

Incentivise public transit by making it as convenient or more convenient than driving.

Reward users for using the new singlepass system, e.g. positive reinforcement through messages and notifications, and rewards programs that offer discounts and free trips.

Dissuade the use of single-occupancy vehicles by making their use less convenient, using toll points, for example.

Social Proof and Similarity

Show users that other people are a part of the new system, and that these other people are just like them (age, occupation, and where they live).

Contrast Effects

Show users the time or money they save by comparing different transport methods - users are likely to choose the median option.

One way of improving the convenience and accessibility of public transit, and removing barriers to mobility in Greater Hobart is by linking mobility services together under a single-pass ticketing system.

Based on current city or country-wide ticketing systems such as those in Europe, or South-East Asia, a system like this has the potential to

unite public transit and micromobility services in Greater Hobart under a single, uniform, accessible payment system that caters to the needs of all its users.

Facilitating convenience and ease of use in public transit is an important step, alongside tangible changes to transit services, in getting more people out of their cars and onto public transport, and

Luke Bartley

a single-card ticketing system greatly simplifies users’ transit journeys.

In this booklet, the current barriers to mobility are examined, as are user’s needs for a changing mobility system. The form that a new ticketing system for Hobart and the Greater Hobart area would take, and the opportunities it would provide are also put forward.

With just 5% of

This project piece for the entire semester focuses on the concept on limiting the number of cars on the road by improving the bus system.

road expansion funding, buses can be free for passengers in Hobart, instead of expanding the roads for more cars to fill.

What the research has found is that people actually want to take the bus more, but prefer to take their own transport like their car, due to the unreliability of our bus system turning up on time, and how people socially treat their bus drivers - which creates a bad experience for everyone riding them.

The final product resulted in making the buses free by moving 5% of the 204 million revenue from road expansion funding per year to metro funding. Therefore people are more likely to catch the bus of all ages regardless of their economic status, instead of using their own car as there isn’t a financial barrier.

BUS EXPERIENCE DESIGN

The other side of the product is integrating real-time and route tracking of the buses with a google maps plugin, to replace bus timetables and make it accessible to your phone. Creating reassurance and reliability to when and where the buses are, so you can catch them efficiently.

Behavioural Science Principles

1. Feeling safe on the bus with filling up your card Broken window theory - people are more likely to treat a place poorly if it is not cared for.

2. Increasing “me time”- wifi on buses and stops promotes using the bus without it selling your data as you can’t use wifi while driving. it would certainly make the buses a more attractive option. Whether that is enough to increase frequency of usage remains to be seen.

3. Predictability is very important to improve adoption. Predictability reduces uncertainty which improves the basic economic calculation (“I’d be more inclined to use a bus that’s on time 75% of the time rather than 50% of the time”).

Behavioural science has shown that “losses loom larger”. Losses are more acutely felt than gains/positives.

Re-envisioning right of way in Hobart City through blue & green infrastructure

After generation of a future vision to improve mobility in Hobart City I decided to develop a community facing booklet to promote & garner community support for the concept of daylighting the Hobart Rivulet.

Daylighting the Hobart Rivulet from Molle St through to Elizabeth Street Mall would create a green & blue spine throughout Hobart City. This would allow for safer active mobility connections for people to traverse the city centre whilst allowing

for an overhaul on the existing stormwater infrastructure. The daylighting would be partnered with a broader vision to pedestrianize a large area of the Hobart CBD & develop an intricate network of laneways & public transit only roads to increase pedestrian accessibility of the CBD.

Lords Place by the Elizabeth St bus mall is one of many spaces that could be reclaimed from cars if we pedestrianised the CBD.

When we build our landscape around places to go, we lose places to be.

- Rick Cole

a Community of Mixed interest

Place Branding Hobart’s Waterfront:

What? Why? Behaviours

A visual identity and brand for Hobart’s waterfront. In collecting stories and attitudes of occupants of the wharf, I identified a deep connection with history, a sense of individuality and a rich diversity of user groups. With this information I developed a visual motif based around the collision between society and the sea. This motif unifies the diverse user groups under a single banner and represents their means and relationship to the ocean. The brand also pushes for harmony between the water and its users.

Strategies like this can help users find resonance, invite new users, establish boundaries for communities, and foster relationships within those communities. In promoting identities for our towns and spaces that encourage an organised distribution of people based on their interests or industries, we can begin to alleviate the dependency on daily commuting.

Attractiveness

Both the brand and the space itself need to be attractive in order for the local population to commit to this definition of identity.

Brand as a Visual Cue

The wharf is an extremely diverse area, but brand can be used to reinforce the space as a unified whole.

Continual Physical Presence

Place branding must additionally be tangible in order to be felt within the space. Consistent usage of signage and other physical implementations of brand aid in making an association between brand and place.

Image source: treasureisland03 (no date) wikisource.

Image source: Scuba Diver Plays With Octopus985119 (no date) Youtube. RM Video

How bus lanes change the way people use buses

I guess I have no choice but to use the bus

I can go to work by bus everyday

Do people really use buses as a convenient transport nowadays, or just as an alternative solution when the car is unavailable or impractical for particular journeys?

In this project, we explore how implementing bus lanes could intervene to make a more reliable bus system that could perhaps turn infrequent or non-bus users to frequent bus users, and change

those inhibiting pressures that stop people from utilising the service to promoting pressures that encourage people using buses. I

have to walk to the station

“ I have to walk to the bus stop.”

Time, as the measurement is more relatable and efficient, compares to kilometres, which allows people to integrate them easily into their journey.

“ Oh, the bus stop is just 10 minutes away I can do it.”

A nudge is a small change in the environment that influences behavior predictably, without removing choices or drastically altering incentives.

For instance, displaying walking time on bus lanes encourages walkability and increases bus usage without banning cars entirely.

Adding bus lanes makes people feel the bus stop is closer than it really is.

“ I have to wait for the bus to come.”

turn up and go every 15 minute

If commuters acknowledge that anytime they are at the bus stop, they have to wait at most 15 minutes, they feel proactive in their transportation choice and aren’t restricted by any time schedule.

“The bus is convenient, it takes me anywhere anytime”

15 minutes may or may not be the magic number, but the key to this is to look at it in terms of loss aversion. Behavioural science has shown that “losses loom larger”. Losses are more acutely felt than gains/positives. Playing with the frequency helps to mitigate the sense of loss it’s not as bad if I miss the bus or it doesn’t show up if the next one is in only 15 mins, rather than an hour.

“ What if the bus comes late?”

People want the bus that is on time 85% of the time rather than 50% of the time

Bus lanes separate buses from the general traffic. This priority allows buses to move more efficiently, avoiding congestion and reducing travel time, especially during peak hours.

“ Maybe from tomorrow, I will go to work by bus ”

Predictability and reliability is the key to better adoption of buses by commuters. Predictability reduces uncertainty, which also mitigates loss aversion and contributes to a modal shift from private vehicles to public transportation.

When people know that they have to wait at most 15 minutes, they do not consider it as part of their overall travel time.

MOBILITY SYSTEMS

Design program, 3rd year, semester one, 2023

STUDENTS

Luke Bartley

Sophie Leeson

Lily May

Daniel Paice

Tai Cat Phuong

Studio Lead: Vanessa Ward

In collaboration with Behavioural Science Lab: Prof. Robert Hoffman, Lauren Scott, and Herry Basuki

Hobart City Council, Design Lab: David Kaldor

Cover artwork: Iman McGregor