Building on over a decade of collaboration, our new workplan will continue CoMoUK’s support of shared transport in Scotland, working with operators, local authorities and Scottish Government.
Scotland’s low emission zones offer an opportunity to radically change our city centres and reduce our reliance on the private car. There is however a risk that communities impacted by transport poverty due to a lack of affordable, accessible public and shared transport options will struggle to part from the private car, whatever penalty might be applied.
We propose to carry out profound community consultations in an area of multiple deprivation in each low emission zone, to understand what is wanted and needed. We will carry out this work in collaboration with groups already connected at a community level, community councils, local authorities, and other active and sustainable transport partners.
We believe that shared transport can be a crucial player in supporting Scottish government’s commitment to reducing car kilometres by 20% by 2030. To achieve this will be a complex feat, relying on input from government, private industry, the third sector, and crucially the general public. To tackle the relationship many of us have with the private car, alternative modes must be showcased and presented aspirationally.
To achieve this, we will work with some green influencers and social media marketers to create content for Instagram and Tiktok, highlighting the interoperability of different modes, and the freedom and choice of moving away from the private car. By targeting young adults, who are in a moment of change in their lives, transitioning to university, college and early employment, we can specifically target those not yet reliant on a private car. The nature of social media will also allow us to gain significant data from interactions users have with our content.
CoMoUK has been collecting evidence on car clubs in Scotland since 2010. This research focuses on outcomes and impacts of car clubs in Scotland.
We will investigate trends in usage, demographic insights and further develop the car club evidence base, demonstrating impact on private car displacement.
We will feed our research into policy makers, stakeholders and communities to facilitate informed, data-driven decision making.
CoMoUK has been collecting data on bike share schemes in the UK since 2016. We will provide a Scotland specific report looking at the use, growth, and impact of bike share in Scotland in 2022/23.
We will continue to highlight the role of bike share in the wider active travel context, providing insights into reversion of lapsed cyclists, benefits in low-income communities and the gender balance bike share promotes.
CoMoUK will continue to be the go-to voice and service on shared transport (car clubs, bike share, ride share, mobility hubs and DDRT), providing expertise and support to organisations and locations across Scotland. We will do this by:
We will continue to directly engage with communities, local authorities, planners and developers, and workplaces. We are hearing more from universities, particularly in connection with mobility hubs, so we will keep a watching brief on how best to work with and support them.
Building on the work we have begun this year of creating a shared mobility knowledge centre, we will create a new suite of interactive resources to meet the changing needs of community car clubs. Community car clubs have changed and developed, as has the transport landscape in which they operate. A new suite of resources, including videos and interactive tools will allow existing car clubs to maintain high standards, as well as supporting new community car clubs once they have completed the routemap we produced in 2021/22.
In the context of falling bus patronage, the deleterious effect of Covid across public transport and the new opportunities afforded to local authorities by the Transport (Scotland) Act, the role of digital demand responsive transport (DDRT) will play a key part in the future of shared mobility.
We will offer events, a suite of resources, again hosted on the Knowledge Centre, and case studies that will support local authorities and operators, to best shape pilots and longer running schemes that they might choose to pursue. This is particularly relevant in the context of the First Minister’s commitment to a Community Bus Fund, supporting local authorities to trial different options of delivery.
Scotrail has now been renationalised. This is an incredible opportunity for Scotland, and to push further on decarbonisation by achieving greater integration of sustainable travel modes across the country. As a nation, we would better achieve our ambitious climate crisis goals, such as a 20% reduction in car kilometres by 2030, by acting boldly from the outset of this nationalisation process. Shared transport is already an effective first/last mile mechanism that supports rail journeys; rail nationalisation is a key opportunity to make more of this interplay.
We will create a new post of Rail and Shared Transport Liaison Officer at CoMoUK who would lead on delivering an action kit and mobility hub visualisations for railway stations, convene events and provide advice in order to best integrate Scotland’s Railway and shared transport.
