Participant Information Sheet

Study Title: Mobility credits questionnaire

Researcher: Dr Rich McIlroy

ERGO number: 88059

You are being invited to take part in the above research study. To help you decide whether you would like to take part or not, it is important that you understand why the research is being done and what it will involve. Please read the information below carefully and ask questions if anything is not clear or you would like more information before you decide to take part in this research. You may like to discuss it with others but it is up to you to decide whether or not to take part. If you are happy to participate you will be asked to indicate your consent in the questionnaire via a tick-box.

What is the research about?

This questionnaire study is part of a larger project investigating how using a phone app (Breeze) might encourage the use of public transport (buses, trains, and ferries), active travel (walking and cycling), or micromobility (e-scooters and hire bikes) instead of using cars. The project is being led by Solent Transport, an apolitical organisation bringing together Southampton, Portsmouth, Isle of Wight, and Hampshire councils.

With this questionnaire we are exploring how behaviours and attitudes to travel, and satisfaction with journeys, change as people are supported in their use of public and shared transport modes.

Why have I been asked to participate?

You are being asked to participate in this questionnaire study as someone that has been offered to take part in the Solent region’s mobility credits scheme. The scheme will have up to 800 participants across the region.

What will happen to me if I take part?

If you choose to take part, you will be asked to fill out a questionnaire at four time points across 14 months. The first will be at the start of the mobility credits scheme before your Breeze app account has been credited with its first £50. The second will be after six months of participating in the scheme. The third will be at the end of the scheme, after twelve months of having received up to

£50 per month in mobility credits. The final questionnaire will be sent two months after the mobility credits scheme has finished. The questionnaires will ask about your travel habits (e.g., what modes you use and how often), how satisfied you are with journeys taken by different travel modes, and your attitudes top public transport, car use, and active travel (e.g., walking, cycling). It will also ask for some details about yourself, including age, gender, and the vehicles you use.

Are there any benefits in my taking part?

We will benefit from the insights gained from your participation, insights that will go on to benefit those that travel in our region (and beyond).

Are there any risks involved?

There are no risks to completing the questionnaires.

What data will be collected?

You will be asked to complete a short demographic questionnaire which will request information including your age and gender as well as your travel behaviours and the vehicle(s) you own and use. The questionnaires will also ask how satisfied you are with journeys taken by different travel modes, and your attitudes to public transport, car use, and active travel (e.g., walking, cycling).

Your Breeze app use data, including tickets purchased and journeys planed, will also be recorded. Personal information will be collected by Solent Transport for the mobility credit scheme; this will not be passed to the University of Southampton and we will not use personal information in our research.

Will my participation be confidential?

Your participation and the information we collect about you during the course of the research will be kept strictly confidential. All data will be stored on a password protected laptop and server.

Members of the research team, of Solent Transport (those running the mobility credits scheme) and responsible members of the University of Southampton may be given access to data about you for monitoring purposes and/or to carry out an audit of the study to ensure that the research is complying with applicable regulations. Individuals from regulatory authorities (people who check that we are carrying out the study correctly) may require access to your data. All of these people have a duty to keep your information, as a research participant, strictly confidential.

Do I have to take part?

No, it is entirely up to you to decide whether or not to take part. If you decide you want to take part, you will need to consent to show you have agreed to take part. Taking part in the mobility credits scheme does not mean you have to complete the research questionnaire sections, i.e., questions 21 to 24.

What happens if I change my mind?

You have the right to change your mind and withdraw at any time without giving a reason and without your participant rights and involvement in the mobility credits scheme being affected. If you withdraw from the study, we will keep the information about you that we have already obtained for the purposes of achieving the objectives of the study only.

What will happen to the results of the research?

Your personal details will remain strictly confidential. Research findings made available in any reports or publications will not include information that can identify you. The results of the study will be shared with our partners in this project, including The University of Portsmouth, Solent Travel and BIT and may form part of a report to the Department for Transport. The results may also feature within academic journals. Anonymous data will be stored indefinitely and may be used for future analyses. Freeform text responses may be quoted directly after ensuring that doing so will not jeopardise anonymity

Where can I get more information?

If you have any questions or require more information please contact Dr Rich McIlroy at r.mcilroy@southampton.ac.uk or Professor John Preston at J.M.Preston@southampton.ac.uk, though note that this may undermine your anonymity to the research team if you include information that can be linked to your questionnaire response.

What happens if there is a problem?

If you have a concern about any aspect of this study, you should speak to the researchers who will do their best to answer your questions.

If you remain unhappy or have a complaint about any aspect of this study, please contact the University of Southampton Head of Research Ethics and Clinical Governance (023 8059 5058, rgoinfo@soton.ac.uk).

Data Protection Privacy Notice

The University of Southampton conducts research to the highest standards of research integrity. As a publicly-funded organisation, the University has to ensure that it is in the public interest when we use personally-identifiable information about people who have agreed to take part in research. This means that when you agree to take part in a research study, we will use information about you in the ways needed, and for the purposes specified, to conduct and complete the research project.

Under data protection law, ‘Personal data’ means any information that relates to and is capable of identifying a living individual. The University’s data protection policy governing the use of personal data by the University can be found on its website (https://www.southampton.ac.uk/legalservices/what-we-do/data-protection-and-foi.page).

This Participant Information Sheet tells you what data will be collected for this project and whether this includes any personal data. Please ask the research team if you have any questions or are unclear what data is being collected about you.

Our privacy notice for research participants provides more information on how the University of Southampton collects and uses your personal data when you take part in one of our research projects and can be found at http://www.southampton.ac.uk/assets/sharepoint/intranet/ls/Public/Research%20and%20Integrity% 20Privacy%20Notice/Privacy%20Notice%20for%20Research%20Participants.pdf

Any personal data we collect in this study will be used only for the purposes of carrying out our research and will be handled according to the University’s policies in line with data protection law. If any personal data is used from which you can be identified directly, it will not be disclosed to anyone else without your consent unless the University of Southampton is required by law to disclose it.

Data protection law requires us to have a valid legal reason (‘lawful basis’) to process and use your Personal data. The lawful basis for processing personal information in this research study is for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest. Personal data collected for research will not be used for any other purpose.

For the purposes of data protection law, Solent Transport is the ‘Data Controller’ for this study, which means that they are responsible for looking after your information and using it properly. Solent Transport will keep identifiable information about you until the study has finished after which time any link between you and your information will be removed.

The University of Southampton should be considered as ‘Data Processor’. We will have access to pseudonymised data. That is data that has no identifying characteristics on its own but could be linked back (using a unique participant identification number) to the original dataset held by Solent Transport by individuals that have access to both datasets.

To safeguard your rights, we will use the minimum personal data necessary to achieve our research study objectives. Your data protection rights – such as to access, change, or transfer such information - may be limited, however, in order for the research output to be reliable and accurate. The University will not do anything with your personal data that you would not reasonably expect.

If you have any questions about how your personal data is used, or wish to exercise any of your rights, please consult the University’s data protection webpage (https://www.southampton.ac.uk/legalservices/what-we-do/data-protection-and-foi.page) where you can make a request using our online form. If you need further assistance, please contact the

Thank you.