Abstract for: Understanding the perceived impacts and fairness of transport decarbonisation policies

The need to decarbonise transport quickly will risk widening inequalities, which impacts fairness. Whether the public supports decarbonisation policies thus depends on whether the policies are seen as fair. This study builds onto the “hopes and fears” exercise, developing it into a method that can be used to elicit mental models. Given the resource limitations faced by UK planning authorities, the here developed method is designed to work with limited time contribution from participants. The novel method is then applied to study how different parts of the UK population understand transport policies and their impacts on fairness. Aside from the methodological contribution, findings from this study will show whether public concerns around transport decarbonisation are accurately understood and responded to in policymaking.