News & opinion
Read the latest news from across the whole sector that highlights the development of affordable, accessible and low-carbon shared mobility
News - 19 Jun 2019
Our Chief Executive’s Thoughts After His First Month
News - 20 May 2019
CoMoUK New Chief Executive Announced
Richard Dilks delighted to be taking the helm at CoMoUK
Richard Dilks’ passion for what transport does for people has brought him to CoMoUK as their new Chief Executive. Richard was previously transport programme director at the business group London First, where he led policy and advocacy across a wide range of transport modes. Prior to that he worked as a policy adviser and journalist at the consumer body Which?. On taking the role at CoMoUK Richard says “It is a huge honour to become CoMoUK’s Chief Executive at this momentous time for shared mobility. The opportunities for it to deliver the journeys people want in a more efficient and healthy way than is possible with private car-based transport are real and happening right now, and yet also have so much potential for growth.” Climate change and air quality are key issues for our time. Richard believes that shared use of cars and bikes can still play a critical role in tackling these. “Bike and car share can make a real contribution here. How can shared mobility become more like one ecosystem, working in concert with public transport?” These are the questions CoMoUK seeks to resolve as it celebrates its 20th birthday and looks to the future. Richard will be CoMoUK’s first London based appointment and his plan is to raise the charity’s profile and stakeholder relations in London while building on its successful track record nationally. Antonia Roberts will revert to her position as Deputy Chief Executive based in Leeds. In the next 20 years CoMoUK forecasts that private car ownership will increasingly be a thing of the past, people being much more able to choose the mode of transport that works for them, for that journey – to their benefit, places’ benefit and the environment’s benefit.articles - 5 Apr 2019
DfT Future of Mobility Report Review
Mobility not modes
The report denotes a change in language and intent: the emphasis throughout is on mobility rather than transport. Mobility is our ability to access goods and services over space and time, transport is the mode which takes us there. The emphasis is therefore on accessing said goods or services, not on the relative performance of the mode in question. The strategy rightly cites the danger of a siloed and fragmented marketplace as a threat to delivering optimum mobility services.Guiding Principles
There is a recognition that the moment of opportunity has comes with the advances in vehicular technology, data science, mobile technology and artificial intelligence. However, these advances alone won’t deliver the urban transport system that reduces congestion, improves air quality and makes our cities liveable for years to come. On this, the strategy will be underpinned by nine principles which will facilitate the innovation in urban mobility for freight, passengers and other services. We consider this principle-based approach a very positive step for the provision and delivery of urban transport. The DfT Principles are inspired by Robin Chase’s well-known 'Shared Mobility Principles for Livable Cities' in North America and have been interpreted into a set of well-constructed useful framework for transport planning in the UK. The strategy has recognised the moment of opportunity that comes with the advances in vehicular technology, data science, mobile technology and artificial intelligence. However, this alone won’t deliver the urban transport system that reduces congestion, improves air quality and makes our cities liveable for years to come.Micro-mobility
Getting into more detail on the nuts and bolts of the strategy makes for positive reading. The first of these is the regulatory review into micro-mobility modes. With advances in mobile phone and battery technology, a suite of new modes and operations have come to market. However, our current vehicular and licensing legislation is not-fit-for-purpose. The regulatory review will encompass micro-mobility modes, Mobility as a Service, transport data, bus and taxi licensing. CoMoUK hopes this serves to legalise micro-modes such as E-Scooters, but only in ways that create the tools for local transport authorities to manage and regulate them. One of benefits of the CoMoUK accreditation is that, in the absence of formal regulatory tools to manage shared modes it has provided a voluntary framework for minimum standards for operators. The accreditation schemes could provide the basis for future regulatory framework which would allow government in their efforts to manage and regulate these new modes plans to build-in flexibility in to the framework and we will be making this point in our formal response to the DFT strategy.Spreading the benefits to all
As the strategy recognises, there is an opportunity to drastically improve our urban transport systems. The gains could be great. To this end, we want and need the mobility providers who want to innovate and change the way we move for the better. The government wants to harness this innovation by incentivising cleaner, safer and more efficient modes. Importantly the strategy has underlined the importance in creating an environment where new mobility providers can flourish and prosper. This is reflected in the second principle which refers to the need for the benefits of technological gains to be realised by all segments of society across all parts of the country.Turning principles into reality
The strategy is light on funding for initiating the transition to more sustainable modes, particularly walking and cycling which is key for these short urban trips which make up a significant proportion of journeys in our cities. The strategy points to the 45% of urban trips which are under two miles. Principle 3 (promoting walking and cycling for short local trips) will need to be underpinned by financial commitment from central government to ensure active travel has the best chance of being the go-to mode for short urban trips. The strategy makes little reference to the use of punitive measures or controls to curb private car use. We welcome, however, that it points to the alternatives to private car use such as car clubs or lift-sharing. The ‘Future of Mobility: Urban Strategy’ sets forth a framework for delivering the urban transport system that is definitely needed and welcome. Our journeys of the future could be faster, cleaner, safer and more affordable, bringing benefits to both individual journeys and society at large. We agree with the strategy that in the future we should continue and increase to use our mass transit networks. To do this, and as the strategy rightly says, it makes sense to move away from the ownership model of transport, a system which drives inefficiency, and transition to the usage model of mobility instead. CoMoUK looks forward to seeing the DfT vision for the Future of Mobility become a reality and will continue to support shared mobility development as a key linchpin. If after reading this review you have any questions or would like further comment from CoMoUK please don’t hesitate to get in contact with us through info@como.org.ukDepartment for Transport Principles

articles - 21 Nov 2018
What would future mobility look like if designed by real people? Alistair Kirkbride for LTT Mobility Matters

So how will people want to travel? MaaS gets a lot of press, but only recently are results of pilots emerging. These get interesting as they show what people actually choose and prioritise when services are presented side-by-side. The ESP group’s Navigogo project[1] involved target users – young adults in the Dundee and north Fife area – in the co-design of the Navigogo MaaS platform. The main demands were facilities such as personalised journey planners, deal matchers, easy payment and booking, information on destinations and taxi fare splitters i.e. facilities to make planning easy, reduce cost and reduce the sense of “missing out” on the best deals. This reflects Transport Focus’s 2018 work “Using the bus: what young people think”[2] (LTTZZZ). This showed that younger people (late teenagers) would like bus services to be easier to use (simpler fares, mobile tech for planning and ticketing), better value for money with better facilities for people to stay connected whilst travelling i.e. wifi and at-seat charging. The value of being connected trumping travel keeps coming to the fore in research. I recently took part in a workshop at a MaaS symposium that revealed some really interesting insight into our possible views on modes in a MaaS system. The participants (imagine those who attend MaaS symposia to gauge the nature of the sample) were asked to convert their existing mobility lifestyles to a private-car-free MaaS lifestyle, then score each mode by how pivotal it was (to make their MaaS work) and how attractive it was to them. And the answers? Though core public transport (intercity & local trains, buses, underground & trams) were pivotal, 1-way bikeshare was the second most attractive mode (after the underground), followed by trains (intercity, local) then 1-way car clubs. Interestingly, ride hailing came quite a way down the list. From a co-mobility / shared transport perspective, I clearly like to hear this, but what does it tell us about future mobility, especially if the user really is going to be more central in defining services? If I was going to extract main attitudinal themes just from the above evidence to help define a mobility system, they would probably include the following. 1. Personal control of journey-making and personal space; 2. Value for money; 3. Simplicity, transparency & fairness, especially regarding cost; 4. Reliability & back-up service “insurance”. This isn’t new, but how do these translate to a mobility system? Here’s one stab at translating what people seem to want into a mobility system:
- mass transit would remain the backbone – both inter-city, inter-settlement and within cities & towns. It provides the efficiency to move lots of people along the main demand corridors in an affordable way.
- demand-responsive & ride sharing services would both feed mass transit and to pick up the finer-grained matching between users that DR services are able to do.
- point-to-point services (1-way car sharing, bike sharing, scooters and taxis (conventional or ride hailing)) would allow for journeys where larger scale matching isn’t viable – people or small groups want to go from point to point individually, either because the points are otherwise difficult to access or there are special circumstances (large loads, special needs etc)
- back-to-base car (sharing/rental) and bike services would provide ways of people making independent back-to-base journeys over different timescales.
News - 4 Jun 2018
The evolution from Carplus Bikeplus, echoes the evolution of shared mobility
CoMoUK's intention is to play a leading role in the UK's transition to integrated mobility solutions designed for the public good.
CoMoUK works to maximise public benefit of shared modes, car clubs, bike share, 2+ ride share, and emerging modes such as "on demand" buses and scooter sharing, by supporting their development and nurturing innovation.
The charity carries out research to illustrate the impacts of the sector, leads on innovative development projects to maximise benefits to all and facilitates the sharing of best practice. In addition CoMoUK offers technical advice and consultancy services.
News - 4 Jun 2018
Car Club User Survey Prize Draw Terms and Conditions
The Prize Draw is open to all respondents to the car club survey. Route to entry for the Prize Draw is via completion of the survey including your email address (in order for CoMoUK to notify you should you win the draw). Closing date for entry in Prize Draw is midnight (GMT) on 21st December 2020 After this date then no further entries to the Prize Draw will be permitted. No responsibility can be accepted for entries not received for whatever reason. The promoter will notify any changes to the Prize Draw to entrants as soon as possible. The promoter is not responsible for inaccurate prize details supplied to any entrant by any third party connected with this competition. No cash alternative to the Gift Vouchers will be offered. The prize is not transferable. Prizes are subject to availability and we reserve the right to substitute any prize with another of equivalent value without giving notice. The prize on offer is Gift Vouchers to the value of £50 which will be delivered via email.
Shared Cars News - 30 May 2018
Car Clubs are growing in Scotland
The full report and infographic highlighting the key findings are available here.