Welcome to another packed newsletter. Our first-ever analysis of the shared transport potential of England & Wales is out (spoiler: the potential is enormous), do take a look and cite our evidence and analysis. We will now be advocating around its findings, all collaborations welcome.
We were really pleased with how well the annual conference on 4 December went. We had an opening video from Simon Lightwood MP, in which we were delighted to hear him state that shared transport was central to achieving the government's goals. The recordings will be on our conference webpage shortly. Many thanks to our sponsors, Arcadis and SLR.
Next week, on 12 December, we have our AGM, please do come along, especially if you are a member of CoMoUK, details below.
It was good to be in the room as the Transport Secretary, Louise Haigh, launched her vision for an integrated national transport strategy in Leeds recently. Even better was to hear her talk about shared transport as part of this strategy. We will of course be continuing to engage Government on this promising new approach, hoping that it continues with her successor, Heidi Alexander.
I was also pleased to be doing the media rounds on e-scooters recently in a positive light, given the Transport Secretary’s recent remarks about the desirability of legislation. These were very welcome, but what we need is of course the legislation itself, a case we will continue to press. More immediately, there has been welcome news on potential new shared e-scooter trials.
So some promising signs, but before we get too carried away there’s the recent Invers report linked below, which uses our data to provide telling comparisons with other comparable nations that are further ahead on car club provision levels.
Plenty to keep the fantastic, compact team at CoMoUK busy then.
Best wishes and chat soon,
Richard Dilks
Chief Executive, CoMoUK
News & insights 🗞️
The Full Potential of Shared Transport in England and Wales
This month CoMoUK launches its first report on The Full Potential of Shared Transport in England and Wales.
This month CoMoUK launches its first report on The Full Potential of Shared Transport in England and Wales. Kindly funded by the Foundation for Integrated Transport, this ground-breaking work estimates how many people in the England and Wales could potentially use car clubs, bike share, e-scooters and ride share and what the environmental and social benefits of that shift would be. The report combines data from CoMoUK’s longstanding user research and demographic data from the 2021 census.
The key finding is that the potential impact is huge: for example 29% of all households could feasibly use car clubs; and shared e-bikes and e-scooters could help cut the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions from domestic travel by approximately 1%, or 1 Megatonne of CO2 equivalents.
CoMoUK welcomed Transport Secretary Louise Haigh’s vision for the integrated national transport strategy, in particular the recognition that shared transport has an important role to play in such a strategy.
We will be contributing to the call for evidence along with the promised infrastructure strategy in the spring. Also announced is an expert panel to review capital projects, another opportunity for us to make the case on what a fantastic return on societal and economic investment shared transport is.
DfT asks for new shared e-scooter trial expressions of interest
In a welcome move which CoMoUK has long pushed for, DfT recently asked authorities to put forward expressions of interest to have new shared e-scooter trials in their areas.
While we wait to see – with continued case-making from CoMoUK – whether any new trials do come into being, this breaks the default ‘no’ position that has been adopted since the start of the trials in the summer and autumn of 2020.
DfT has also recently permitted some increases in e-scooter fleet caps and minor area extensions, again welcome steps which CoMoUK has long supported.
Government moves closer to e-scooter legalisation
The Transport Secretary commented recently that legislation is “clearly required” on e-scooters, which is music to our ears here at CoMoUK. She also said they could be a “really effective part” of an integrated transport strategy.
We were pleased to get extensive quotes and coverage around this, for example in Air Quality News, the Telegraph, the Times , LBC and Forbes among others.
Any primary legislation should take the opportunity to address a range of needs across sustainable personal mobility, including for disabled people, as well as sustainable logistics. CoMoUK will be continuing its active engagement with Government on this very important agenda.
INVERS Mobility Barometer on European Car Sharing 2024
It was interesting to see the new Mobility Barometer on European car sharing published by Invers this month. The UK data is supplied by us at CoMoUK.
This year, for the first time, the report splits out back to base, free-floating and peer-to-peer car sharing.
From a UK perspective it is a shame to see – and important to note – that despite all the recent growth we are well behind the development of other countries even taking population into consideration. For example, Germany has roughly ten times the number of shared cars the UK does, but only 20% more people. The UK does fair well in terms of the transition to electric car club vehicles with 35% of the fleet converted, compared to only 18% in Germany. This lags behind Italy and Spain with over 60%.
CoMoUK is proud to be part of the Low Traffic Future alliance, alongside organisations including Asthma and Lung UK, Road Peace, Brake, Greenpeace, Ramblers and the Faculty of Public Health.
The alliance is running a Close Knit Communities campaign, which encourages people to contact their MP about the Government’s housing plans. As CoMoUK made clear in its consultation response to the proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework recently, much ground remains to be covered if the Government’s housing ambitions are to result in a material contribution to reduced transport emissions, rather than increased transport emissions.
Events 🗓️
CoMoUK AGM 2024
Thursday, 12 December 2024
The CoMoUK 2024 Annual General Meeting will be on Thursday 12 December from 10:00 - 11.30am. As well as carrying out the formal business of the meeting, there will a chance to hear an update on the work of CoMoUK over the previous year.
You are all welcome to join the session to hear more about our work during the year. Only members and Friends of CoMoUK will have voting rights. To join please see details on our membership page.
To register for the event please use the link below.
"Where I live there is not enough parking for the amount of cars in the street. Having the car club option means I don’t worry about parking, I don’t worry about car maintenance. And I cycle, use public transport and walk a lot more than I did when I owned a car as I now have to book the car when I need it. I think it’s been good for my health, my environment and obviously it’s great for my street that there isn’t another private car clogging up the road."
