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Birmingham Case Study
Transportation Research Part A 46 (2012) 1318–1327

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Transportation Research Part A journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tra

Identifying the early adopters of alternative fuel vehicles: A case study of Birmingham, United Kingdom
Amy R. Campbell a,⇑, Tim Ryley a,1, Rob Thring b,2 a b

Transport Studies Group, School of Civil and Building Engineering, Loughborough University, Leicestershire LE11 3TU, United Kingdom
Department of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering, Loughborough University, Leicestershire LE11 3TU, United Kingdom

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 25 November 2011
Received in revised form 29 March 2012
Accepted 16 May 2012

Keywords:
Alternative fuel vehicles
Electric vehicles
Early adopters
Driver characteristics
Cluster analysis

a b s t r a c t
The transport sector has been identified as a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. As part of its emissions reduction strategy, the United Kingdom Government is demonstrating support for new vehicle technologies, paying attention, in particular, to electric vehicles.
Cluster analysis was applied to Census data in order to identify potential alternative fuel vehicle drivers in the city of Birmingham, United Kingdom. The clustering was undertaken based on characteristics of age, income, car ownership, home ownership, socio-economic status and education. Almost 60% of areas that most closely fitted the profile of an alternative fuel vehicle driver were found to be located across four wards furthest from Birmingham city centre, while the areas with the poorest fit were located towards the centre of
Birmingham. The paper demonstrates how Census data can be used in the initial stages of identifying potential early adopters of alternative vehicle drivers. It also shows how such research can provide scope for infrastructure planning and policy development for local and national authorities, while also providing useful marketing


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