Antony de Heveningham examines the reasons for cuts to local bus services, and comes up with a novel culprit.
Read moreConnectivity joins the dots
I’ve contributed an article to issue 5 of Smart Transport magazine which examines the possibilities created by the new generation of connected vehicles, from shared ownership and “car club-ready” vehicles, to risk management and fleet data.
Interview for Skedgo's "Women in Maas" series
I was interviewed by mobility service provider Skedgo as part of their regular series “Women in MaaS”. I spoke about the need for open data in MaaS, its relationship with existing public transport, and how it can be introduced in rural areas.
Read the full interview here.
Meet Snowflake...
I live in a small, semi-rural town in the north of England. And I have just admitted to myself that I can’t quite do all the things I want to do without a car.
Read moreThe changing world of Mobility as a Service (and how to keep up)
The Annual Survey of Mobility as a Service is now in its third year. Whatever your work in transport, either as a planner, providing public transport, bike share, car hire, leasing, payments, operational support, TRANStech please complete the survey to gauge how MaaS – and our hopes and fears for it – are developing.
Read moreNarrative and new mobility
I’ve watched the ebbing fortunes of the ‘bike share unicorns’ - notably ofo and Mobike - with concern over the past year. Their cheery growth, rapidly scattering thousands of orange and yellow bikes across UK cities seemed like a magic solution to get more people cycling without costing cities a fortune. But their equally rapid retraction holds lessons for all sorts of new mobility.
Read moreBikes, bubbles, canaries and crashes
My attention was drawn to an interesting piece of bike industry news from China today.
Chinese bike manufacturers are reporting significant drops in turnover as a result of bike share companies shrinking. Like, really significant – ofo supplier, the Shanghai Phoenix Enterprise (Group) Co Ltd, experienced a 55% drop in turnover and net income in the first six months of this year.
Read moreMan* cannot travel by FirstGroup alone
The announcement today that FirstGroup has reported a £356m loss along with change at the top of the transport group provoked me to recall three key statistics which stood out when researching this year's Annual Survey of Mobility as a Service.
Read moreComments on the Transport for the North Strategic Transport Plan
Whilst the desire to upgrade and enhance the rail offer for the North is welcome and not before time, along with an emphasis on simplified and best value ticketing, I fear that insufficient attention has been paid to the potential for behaviour change, active travel, transport data and novel forms of transport to make an impact on the plans for the road network, which potentially renders them inappropriate or irrelevant.
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