Dear colleagues,

In my capacity as Chairman of the Department for Transport's Transport 
Direct Research Steering Group I am contacting you to invite expression(s) 
of interest in new end-user research we hope to be commissioning later this 
year. I am particularly keen to ensure that the academic transport studies 
community is aware of this research alongside consultancies who have 
already expressed an interest in and/or been engaged in research for the 
Transport Direct Programme.

  As a reminder, Transport Direct was a major initiative announced in the 
Government's 10 year spending plan for transport published in 2000. It aims 
to provide the public with information for door-to-door journey planning 
and execution using public or private transport for trips in Great Britain. 
The Transport Direct Portal (website) was formally launched at the end of 
2004. The development of Transport Direct is an ongoing activity and 
continues to be strongly underpinned by research.

A draft specification for the following project is available now on request:

MR13 Challenges in monitoring and evaluating the public's feedback 
concerning the travel information marketplace

The Transport Direct Programme is being evaluated to determine its 
effectiveness. One of the main aims of the evaluation is to determine the 
Programme's external impacts on the public. External impacts notably relate 
to the extent to which the public's ability to make more informed travel 
choices is increased. As research associated with the development of 
Transport Direct has continued it has become increasingly clear that 
judging public attitude towards and use (or not) of travel information 
services and the behavioural responses to such use is extremely 
challenging. Judgement, in order to be meaningful must be context specific. 
However, the greater the requirement to be context specific becomes, the 
more complex becomes the task of designing a suitable research method that 
can successfully record information to measure attitude, use and 
behavioural response. To address this challenge this project will seek to 
better understand the nature of the challenge and to consider issues of 
research methodology that may point towards an appropriate tool for longer 
term assessment of the effectiveness of Transport Direct.

We are also examining the merits of whether to commission a second project 
later this year - if this is the case then details will be made available 
on the DfT's research section of its website 
(http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_science/documents/page/dft_science_037757.hcsp) 
in the next 1-2 weeks.

If you would like to express an interest in project MR13 please do the 
following:

1. Contact Graham Knapper in the Transport Direct team to request a copy of 
the draft specification - 
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]

2. Use the DfT website 
(http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_localtrans/documents/page/dft_localtrans_030519.hcsp) 
to submit expression of interest no later than Wednesday 14th September. 
Please ensure that within the confines of the online form that you convey 
your reactions to the draft specification. You should also ensure that you 
indicate 'Strategy Economics and Mobility' as the Programme title within 
the form.

Please be aware that submission of an expression of interest does not 
guarantee a subsequent invitation to tender.

Should you wish to learn more about Transport Direct either visit the 
travel information service itself at 
<http://www.transportdirect.info/>www.transportdirect.info or the corporate 
website at <http://www.transportdirect.gov.uk/>www.transportdirect.gov.uk.

I am on leave for the next two weeks but, as a reminder and if you are 
interested in tendering for Transport Direct end-user research, please 
consult the DfT website research pages at the end of next week or the 
following week to check whether or not a second project (this would be 
called MR14) is to be taken forward. If this is the case and you wish to be 
considered for invitation to tender then please follow steps 1. and 2. above.

  We look forward to hearing from you.

  Glenn

___________________________________

Professor Glenn Lyons
Centre for Transport & Society
Faculty of the Built Environment
University of the West of England
Frenchay Campus
Coldharbour Lane
BRISTOL BS16 1QY
Tel 0117 32 83219
Mobile 07748 768404
Fax 0117 32 83899
Email [log in to unmask]
Web www.transport.uwe.ac.uk
___________________________________ 

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