Designing transport digital twins that work for people

As transport systems become more complex and data‑driven, digital twins are increasingly used to support planning, operations and coordination across organisations and systems. However, technical capability alone is not enough.

Without attention to how people behave in transport systems, interact with models and interfaces, and whether organisations have the skills and readiness to use digital twins effectively, these tools risk being under‑used, mistrusted or side lined. Human factors offer a way to address this gap, ensuring digital twins are usable, trusted and embedded in real organisational practice, with human behaviour recognised as a critical enabler of adoption, safety and impact.

Workshop format and topics

The morning session comprises three short, high‑level presentations that set the context and establish a shared understanding of Human Factors in transport digital twins. The afternoon focuses on an interactive, workshop‑led discussion.

Emphasis throughout is on dialogue, shared learning and practical insight rather than technical depth. Topics include:

• Human factors as an enabler of digital-twin driven decarbonisation
• Making complex human behaviour ‘machine readable’ using personas
• What human factors mean in practice in a transport digital twin context – and what they are not
• How people interact with digital twins, including models, interfaces, outputs and decision‑making
• Skills, capability and organisational readiness needed to use digital twins effectively
• Common barriers to trust, uptake and effective use, and how these can be addressed
• What good looks like in practice – examples and principles of effective, human‑centred digital twins
• Achieving a ‘just transition’ for all

Session Why attend?

Test assumptions, share experience and explore how human‑centred approaches can improve the adoption, safety and impact of digital twins in transport decarbonisation.

This event is designed for a broad, non‑technical audience, including stakeholders across the transport ecosystem, practitioners working on human factors, operations or digital systems, policy and public‑sector stakeholders concerned with transport, skills and safety, and current and future users of transport digital twins.

About TransiT

TransiT a national research hub using digital twins and associated technologies to identify the fastest, least-risky and lowest cost pathways to transport decarbonisation in the UK.

It is a collaboration of eight universities and almost 70 industry partners, jointly led by Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow and funded by the UK Research and Innovation Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the main funding body for engineering and physical sciences research in the UK, and supported by the UK government’s Department for Transport.