By the time you read this we will have completed our joint event at the Labour Party conference and will be looking forward to our next mobility hub roadshow in Nottingham. Details on that are below and we would love to see you there to experience their hubs, hear from our speakers and make connections of your own. You can read more on what we have been up to with our delivery partners at our pop-up hub in Nottingham below.
Our next webinar will be on cargo bikes – long a subject of interest here – and I also really hope you can join us online for that. Details below.
I’m delighted we can now announce the start of our ground-breaking project in London’s former Olympic Park with the 3Scooter. This device is ground-breaking too and you can read more below on what we are going to be getting up to with our fabulous project partners.
Community Transport Week is coming up, details are below, and we bid a fond farewell to Tim Caswell. You can read more on his remarkable career below.
Finally, we are looking for a new treasurer, please get in touch if this position is if interest.
Best wishes,
Richard Dilks
Chief Executive, CoMoUK
News & insights ��️
The impact of our pop-up hub in Nottingham
Our Active Travel England-funded pop-up hub in Nottingham is now in its fourth and final location after roaming around the city this summer. The hub has acted as a focal point for a range of active travel engagement activities and drawing in a new audience with its colourful highly visible presence in the local community.
Around 200 people have attended activities so far, 30% of whom are not in education, training or employment. A further 400 have stopped by at the hub to hear more about walking and cycling opportunities in the area. The hub has also attracted 200 additional Lime bike hires and helped to identify a new popular shared bike hire location.
Here are some stories we have collected so far:
A Dr Bike customer with type 2 diabetes explained that cycling is his main form of transport and helps him manage both his weight and diabetes. He appreciated being able to have his brakes checked.
One woman wanted to cycle but does not currently feel confident enough. She was helped to book onto a cycle confidence session and “Build a Bike” activity which allows participants to learn bike building skills from recycling parts and keep the bike at the end.
A young Muslim woman and her younger brother attend a Dr Bike session, as commercial repair costs are currently unaffordable.
New accessible shared three wheeled e-scooter trial
We are delighted to announce that CoMoUK has been awarded funding from the Motability Foundation to launch a shared mobility pilot at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
We are leading a consortium—including Supersmith, TRL, MOBY, London Legacy Development Corporation, Wheels for Wellbeing, and Disability Rights UK—to deploy a fleet of innovative, self balancing, three wheel seated e‑scooters (Supersmith’s 3Scooter). This is to evaluate how accessible micromobility increases independence and activity levels for the local disabled community.
After initial test phases, the full pilot will launch in May 2027 for 12 months, with key findings scheduled for publication in August 2028. Please get in touch to learn more.
Community Transport Week 2026
We believe in supporting other sustainable transport modes here at CoMoUK, so are delighted to promote CTWeek26 (12–16 October).
This year’s theme is Driving Communities Forward. It celebrates the people who keep community transport moving every day, while also looking ahead at what the sector needs to thrive in the future.
Throughout the week, the Community Transport Association will be highlighting the people and organisations keeping communities connected, alongside some of the challenges and opportunities shaping the sector, including driver recruitment and licensing, funding and volunteering. They will also be taking their campaign on D1 driver licensing reform to Westminster on Thursday 15 October, bringing Community Transport voices directly to policymakers and making the case for change.
There has been a rash of consultations and policy work here at CoMoUK lately, with more to come.
We recently sent in our Budget submission, which highlighted the unequal tax treatment faced by shared transport (for example that all its services attract VAT at 20%, including electric vehicle charging at public chargepoints) and made the case for action to improve the economics of operating EVs in the shared car fleet.
There’s more to come too: two enquiries of relevance from the Transport Select Committee (safer journeys for women and girls; getting to work for young people); the next round of consultation on the London Plan; the consultation on the Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate and the London Assembly’s forthcoming session on dockless bike hire in the capital.
Get in touch if you would like to discuss any of these with us.
The career of Tim Caswell, shared micromobility pioneer
This month marked the retirement of Tim Caswell, a veteran of the bike sharing sector. Tim founded Hourbike in 2008, launching some of the first fleets of publicly shared bikes outside the original TfL London scheme – in Bristol and Blackpool. Limited budget government funding in 2011 supported growth for new services in Reading and Liverpool as well as university schemes in Lincoln, Northampton and Oxford launched in 2013.
Through the 2015 DfT-funded Shared Electric Bike Programme, CoMoUK supported Hourbike to place the first app-based e-bikes in the UK into the Oxford scheme, with Co-bike also placing some in their scheme in Exeter. It seems strange to think there were only a handful of electric bikes on the street at this time. Hourbike also deployed the first 100% e‑bike service in Derby in 2018, using first generation e‑bikes from Social Bicycles, which later became Jump. Tim has since worked for Jump, Tier and Dott.
We thank Tim for all his support for CoMoUK over the years and his great contribution to developing the sector in the UK.
CoMoUK is seeking a new Treasurer
Are you interested in joining the CoMoUK Board of Trustees as our next Treasurer? We are the national charity for the public benefits of shared transport and our current Treasurer Martin Hill is stepping down this December after many years of excellent work.
The role involves quarterly online board meetings as well as regular check-ins with the Deputy Chief Executive to discuss bookkeeping and accounting issues arising. Each year the new Treasurer will also offer support whilst the annual accounts are finalised by our advisors and presented at the AGM.
If you are interested and would like to arrange an informal conversation to discuss the role please get in touch.
Events 🗓️
Shared Transport Webinar: Shared Cargo Bikes
12 October 2026 | 11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Join our upcoming virtual session focused entirely on the growing movement of shared cargo bikes. The webinar will provide an overview of current UK schemes and dive into the practical impacts and challenges of operating them successfully.
To bring the theory to life, attendees will hear real-world insights through detailed case studies from Bristol, Bath and Frome. Open to CoMoUK members and local authorities, this is a must-attend session for anyone looking to support sustainable micro-freight and active travel in their communities.
Join CoMoUK and Nottingham City Council for a special roadshow exploring the latest developments and innovations in mobility hubs. Held at The Council House in Nottingham, this in-person event kicks off with a morning of insightful presentations from industry leaders—including representatives from Trueform and RideWise—discussing hub infrastructure strategy and how to engage the local community in sustainable travel.
Following a networking lunch and an exhibition of shared transport options, attendees will have the unique opportunity to step outside and take guided tours of two operational sites: the St Ann's Valley Library pop-up hub and the Percy Street suburban mini hub. It is a fantastic opportunity to network with fellow transport professionals and see these innovative community spaces in action.
