A (very warm indeed) welcome to this newsletter. It is heartening to hear the Prime Minister address the climate crisis (more below on this), we look forward to commitments to action from Government in the future, (read more on this in the Joint Statement on Transport in a Climate Emergency below). Perhaps the Labour Party Conference will be a suitable moment for this. We are thrilled to be putting on an event there with other sustainable transport NGOs – if you are there, do come along.
We also welcome the recognition of shared transport in the newly published NPPF. Car clubs and shared micromobility are key tools to support the reduction of parking in new developments.
We have some international news on hubs from Japan and Germany to share, as well as two fantastic little videos that capture what our pop‑up hub project with people not in education, employment or training in Nottingham is about.
We also have a great example of our consultancy work and a refresher/explainer of our two accreditation schemes.
Finally, to close on a positive, we are pleased to see Active Travel England’s new rural design guide feature cycle hire and hubs – welcome steps in the right direction in our view.
Best wishes,
Richard Dilks
Chief Executive, CoMoUK
News & insights 🗞️
We urge the Prime Minister to break his silence on the climate crisis
We were very happy to sign a letter urging new Prime Minister Andy Burnham to break his silence on the climate crisis, doing so in the midst of this all‑time record‑breaking UK summer’s fifth heatwave.
The letter was co-ordinated by Hannah Martin of Green New Deal Rising and signed by over 50 organisations also including WWF, the Women’s Institute, Uplift, Friends of the Earth, Wildlife and Countryside Link, Greenpeace, Low Traffic Future, Conscious Advertising Network, Possible, War on Want, Adfree Cities, Stamp Out Poverty, Ashden and E3G among many others.
We were pleased to hear the Prime Minister say on the day this letter was published that he was in “no doubt about the changing climate and what we need to do to adapt, build resilience and a clean industrial future”. He went on to say that “we cannot accept [this heatwave] as the new normal” and to state that “we have to tackle the causes of climate change”.
Joint Statement – Transport in a Climate Emergency
CoMoUK has joined a range of organisations and individuals from across transport, health, climate, academia and more, to form a coalition and publish a joint statement on transport and climate.
The statements calls upon the Government to fulfil the commitment it made in opposition to set a national trajectory for delivering a sustained modal shift in line with the sustainable transport hierarchy, increasing the proportion of journeys made by public transport, shared transport, walking, wheeling and cycling, alongside its commitment to a rail freight growth target.
Active Travel England rural design guide features cycle hire and hubs
We of course hope this guide will make an impact. You can view our pages on community bike sharing and we are always eager to talk to anyone on this topic.
More broadly we hope that our recent positive meeting with Active Travel England will be a sign that the organisation engages with bike share in a structured, long-term way, understanding bike share’s profound role in cycling more generally.
Greater support for shared transport in the revised NPPF
Earlier this week, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published the revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), following a consultation of the draft text in March that we responded to. While much of the media focus has been on new rules about turning pubs into homes, there was also a welcome recognition for shared transport.
Under the theme of promoting sustainable transport, policy TR2 on local parking standards now states that "Maximum standards for car parking should be set where they will support efforts to encourage the use of sustainable transport modes and shared transport". This was one of the points made in our submission to the consultation.
Shared transport, from car clubs to shared bikes and e-scooters, is shown year-on-year in our annual reports to support low-or-no car lifestyles and we have long supported the use of maximum parking standards in developments to support the adoption of these modes.
Collapse in shared car numbers
Our latest metrics for car club are now published, showing in full stark focus the impact of Zipcar having closed. The total number of active users had been around 330,000 members for several years – but has now fallen to just under 115,000.
The fleet has also contracted, nearly halving to just under 3,000 vehicles.
These figures make a very uncomfortable contrast with continental Europe.
We continue to work hard with all stakeholders to increase provision, including existing and potential future operators, individual boroughs, Transport for London and the Greater London Authority – as well as stakeholders outside the capital.
We hope a roundtable with London Transport Deputy Mayor Seb Dance in the autumn will provide some vision and leadership over the issues.
E-scooter injuries
We were pleased to give comment on recent analysis of data on incidents involving e-scooters. As the authors acknowledge in the piece in Nature, the evidence on this important topic is limited. Until we have legalisation, it will remain so.
We told Motorcycle News that “Shared e‑scooter schemes remain the only legal way to use an e‑scooter on the public highway. As this study shows, the data on safety relating to e‑scooters at large in the UK is partial at best. We continue to make the case that the UK Government needs to follow its commitment to legislating in this area by bringing forward actual legislation as soon as possible. The UK is the only developed country without a legal standard for e-scooters generally.”
Sustainable Transport Alliance event featuring CoMoUK at the Labour Party Conference event
Alongside other members of The Sustainable Transport Alliance - Community Rail Network, Community Transport Association, Living Streets and the Walk Wheel Cycle Trust - we are thrilled to be putting on an event at the Labour Party’s Conference this year.
It takes place from 5-6pm on Tuesday 29 September at the Hilton Liverpool City Centre, Albert Suite 4.
Our Chief Executive Richard Dilks, along with Senior Policy and Research Officer Will Airey, will be attending the conference. Do get in touch if you would like to meet up there.
New videos showcasing pop-up mobility hubs
As part of the Active Travel England-funded pop-up hub project in Nottingham this summer, CoMoUK has created two new promotional videos. The footage showcases how the brightly coloured units are helping to reach a new audience by being out in the community and acting as a base for active travel activities.
The first video has a focus on how a mobile “Dr Bike” clinic offering minor repairs and checks is getting people moving again, while the second video provides some fantastic quotes from participants at the innovative “Build your own bike” sessions. These give training to help local residents not in education, training or employment to turn recycled parts into working bikes to keep. Matthew tells us how his bike will not only give him transport but also a renewed purpose to go out looking for a job.
We are grateful to Nottingham City Council for supporting the project and RideWise and Runspire for running activities.
It envisages 3,000 hubs around Germany’s capital by 2035, splitting the city into three different density zones.
Around half of the hubs are intended to feature car sharing, with shared micromobility progressively restricted to pick up and drop off at the hubs only as the network of hubs builds.
We continue to engage governments across the UK about mobility hub implementation at local levels and overall policy at higher levels.
In the Japanese hub, LiDAR and AI analysis of outdoor camera footage have been used to understand how people move and gather before designing and building the hub.
With Japan also experiencing significant heatwaves, options for an energy‑efficient outdoor air conditioning unit are being looked at in order to tempt people outdoors and to use the space.
CoMoUK introduces mobility hubs at Landor Active County Cambridgeshire
Earlier this summer, our Head of Consultancy and Research Patrick Utz presented at the Active County Cambridgeshire conference.
Patrick’s presentation focused on CoMoUK’s work with Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority. We have been supporting them in developing a mobility hub strategy for the region. Patrick elaborated on CoMoUK’s methodology for selecting potential sites for mobility hubs.
He also spoke about the opportunities and challenges of providing mobility hubs in a region that is marked by both exceptional levels of cycling and heavy car dependency in rural locations.
One best practice case study that Patrick elaborated on is the new development hub at Waterbeach that is due to receive CoMoUK gold accreditation. If you want to know more about how we can support you in rolling out mobility hubs in your region please visit our consultancy webpage for more information.
Benefits of car clubs and bike share accreditation
One of the corner stones of CoMoUK’s work is to uphold standards within the sector. Our two accreditation schemes, one for car clubs and one for bike share, provide an agreed set of criteria which are consulted on annually between January and March each year. This is to ensure they are inclusive and move with sector developments.
We believe it is important for authorities to include CoMoUK accreditation as a criterion in procurement or contracts because it maintains those standards and saves effort for both authorities and operators.
As well as providing authorities with guidance on which providers are operating above this bar, the scheme offers a complaints service whereby stakeholders can raise concerns. We typically handle two complaints per year. CoMoUK is happy to support authorities and operators through a mediation process where criteria are not being met consistently. We will help to find resolution or, as a last resort, we can withdraw accreditation from an operator.
Provisional accreditation offers a route for new entrants to demonstrate they have met the majority of the standards whilst recognising that some aspects will only be in place once they are operational. When we award provisional accreditation we agree a list of outstanding items to be put in place one a scheme involving that provider is up and running.
"We don’t own a car and don’t really want to at present, but being outdoors in more remote locations is important to us as a family. Since many of these places are either unreachable or difficult to reach with public transit, being members of a car club allow us to do this."
Female user from Glasgow, 25-34, Annual Car Club Report 2025
