As cities replan their centres around people, not cars, they face resistance from suburban residents who see no alternative to using private motor vehicles. This piece for ITS International looks at examples from four European cities and asks whether they can keep the tides of traffic at bay.

As part of its new Surface Access Strategy, Heathrow Airport has replaced a fixed-line bus serving the nearby town of Dedworth with a demand-responsive service for air passengers and airport staff. This case study looks at the rationale behind this decision and the effect of changing the service type including journey times, ease of use and passenger satisfaction.

How an obscure VAT rule makes low carbon visitor experiences harder to create.

At the start of this year we had the opportunity to be part of an extremely exciting project initiated by Gloucestershire Community Rail Partnership: designing and trialling a brand new bus service linking rural communities with local transport hubs and amenities. 

Passenger vehicle operation in the UK is an obstacle course of regulations - can we do anything to smooth the way for flexible transport?

E-scooters fuel alarmist headlines, but they can also help clean up our transport system. This piece for Smart Transport looks at e-scooters in light of the recent trials in many UK towns and cities and considers the issues that their wider use would address and create.

A new report on the ethics of location data has interesting insights for transport.

Is decarbonisation of transport dependent on public support, or tough choices by politicians?

As “disruptive” tech comes to transport, Mark Zuckerberg’s adage is starting to take on a sinister new undertone.

New survey examines the progress of on-demand services

The May 2021 issue has two articles from Beate, looking at the deliverability of the National Bus Strategy and examining the barriers to MaaS thrown up by the UK’s commercial and regulatory landscape.

The Bus Strategy regularly refers to demand responsive transport ensuring that the network runs in areas and at times where there are fewer passengers. Considering that DRT can be provided through private hire licensing or bus operator regulation, now is the time to think about how much of our network is provided through regular employment (with the safety framework it entails) and how much heavy lifting is done by gig economy workers.

What’s the block on mobility as a service in the UK? The problem is buses. But the solution may just have been published.