Trinity College Dublin - Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental
Engineering

Post graduate funding is available for 3 MSc/PhD research students:

1. The potential impacts of LUAS on travel behaviour in Dublin
Predicting the potential impacts of new urban public transport on people’s
travel behaviour is very complex. A key aspect of travel behaviour is the
choice of mode.  It is particularly difficult to estimate the number of
people who will use new urban public transport systems. Understanding modal
choices related to these systems is especially important in view of
concerns about the impact of the car on the environment, on quality of life
and on congestion levels in towns and cities.
In Dublin, the new light rail system will change the existing supply of
public transport quite dramatically. This offers an opportunity to
investigate how the travel choices of commuters in Dublin are affected by
the presence of new urban public transport. There will be two elements to
the proposed study: one will involve qualitative interviews with a panel of
respondents whose views, attitudes and use of Luas will be monitored both
before and after the system has opened up. In addition, a large-scale
postal survey of potential users of the system will be carried out.

This project will lead to a PhD (3 years). Funding is available from the
Higher Education Authority (HEA) in the form of fees and maintenance. The
funding is available for a student to commence in October 2002.

2. Passenger perceptions of interurban public transport services in Ireland
At present, there seems to be little choice but for people to use their
cars when travelling between cities in Ireland. The rail service is slow
and investment is required to improve the safety of the railway service.
The objective of this study is to examine the level of service offered by
inter-urban public transport systems in Ireland and the perceptions of
users of those services. In particular, the work will examine the
differences in people’s perceptions of these services and the actual
service offered and at what can be done to encourage greater use of the
services. It will also examine the competition between bus and rail
services on particular routes and examine how the services impact upon each
other. Two students will work on the project. The PhD student will attempt
to ascertain what factors place the greatest role in motivating modal
choices and will establish a model of modal choice on inter-urban trips.
The MSc student will attempt to quantify a measure of the value of the
attributes of the bus and train.
Funding is available from the Higher Education Authority (HEA) in the form
of fees and maintenance. The funding is available for students to commence
in October 2002.

If you are interested in either of the above projects, please contact:

Dr. Aoife A Ahern
Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering
Trinity College Dublin
Dublin 2
Ireland

Tel: +353 1 6082387
Fax: +353 1 6773072
e-mail: [log in to unmask]