Across the UK, local authorities and city planners are in urgent need for strategies that will reduce the number of vehicles on our roads, decrease congestion and improve air quality. One of the measures is the promotion of ridesharing schemes; the notion that vehicles should carry more than one passenger to a shared destination. However, this option comes with its own set of challenges, not least an entrenched human preference to own a private vehicle for personal journeys.

According to TRL, the global centre for innovation in transport and mobility, in order to find a solution requires a greater understanding of where the challenges lie, particularly in terms of the complex inner workings of human decision making.

In a call for further research to be undertaken, TRL is pursuing a greater understanding of how we can shift the way people analyse transport options available to them from a personal need viewpoint to a more altruistic, society gain standpoint. This will not only help bring in solutions like ridesharing, it will also help to educate end-users in the need to look further than personal benefits.

Would you like to find out more about TRL’s research into solutions including ridesharing, either through an article from a TRL expert discussing the need and the research required, or through a telephone briefing? If you do, then contact Andy Parker on [email protected] with your requirement.