Micromobility, Levelling-Up and Net Zero

Micromobility, in the widest sense, and its electrification, presents an opportunity to achieve a reduction in private motor car use by enabling more and a wider range of people to move about without using motor vehicles.

Micromobility allows riders to ride a e-bike, or e-scooter for short journey trips of time at a relatively low cost can also enable more people to travel in this way. Research shows the 3 mile car journey can be mostly replaced by micromobility for personal travel.

Globally, micromobility is outpacing electric car adoption and shared mobility schemes increasingly offer a viable alternative for transportation needs, through electric powered bikes, scooters, mopeds and cars. As well as reducing air pollution, bikes, scooters and mopeds can also help remove parked cars from city streets providing further opportunity for regreening and community spaces.

The latest data from the Department of Transport (DfT) shows there’s been over three and a half, maybe four million journeys since e-scooter operation started in August 2020. It’s clear that there is a benefit. In 2023 the DfT will set to legislate for the micromobility provision.

Not everybody can afford a car, not everybody wants a car, and we really don’t want everyone using cars, so they are beneficial. As the cost of fuel continues to climb the price of running a car is expensive. Connectivity and accessibility are the core parts of the UK Government’s levelling up agenda, micromobility can support this.

Micromobility faces a promising future by replacing short distance vehicle trips and providing currently underserved first- and last-mile solutions for public transit riders. However, transport sector faces challenges particularly around lack of infrastructure, policy and regulation to achieve this promising future. There is a need to find the best way to integrate electric and shared vehicles to the full  transport network with other road user vehicles and to take full advantage of their potential in increasing the efficiency of the transport network.

We have launched UK’s first ever training course on Micromobility inclusion into Transport Policies and Road Network.

This one day training course will focus on defining micromobility and describing their potential for individual, business use, as well as for towns and cities as a whole. Scooters, bicycles, ebikes, power ebikes, cargo bikes and other micromobility will be assessed in terms of their proper place in streets with a description of cases for personal, business and freight. The course will present case studies from international experiences.

Our course trainer Carlos F Pedro, with 20 years of experience in urban mobility spanning on four continents, says 

“The transport sector is ill prepared for micromobility, but the good news is that solving this is straightforward. This course is designed to learn how to understand and act upon that disruption”.

The course will discuss the impact and benefits of micromobility in achieving net zero carbon emissions. This will be presented based on case studies from international experiences. Please contact us and book your workforce bring micromobility experiences on their doorstep.

Zeenara Najam

i-Select Consultancy

Levelling-Up and Bus Funding

The Levelling Up White Paper has set an aspiration to improve public transport outside London and identifies the need to close the UK’s productivity and the economic gap to alleviate the country’s geographical differences. Strong local bus networks will be at the core of both of these policy issues; good urban mobility, through a robust bus network, increases the number of workers who can access the places in which their jobs are located, particularly in city centres.

The statement in accompanying the Levelling Up White paper said this would “connect people to opportunity, improving local skills provision, or being able to act more flexibly and innovatively to respond to local need.” Transport will be helped by “improved services, simpler fares and integrated ticketing.”

The £3 billion national bus strategy, Bus Back Better published in March 2021 acknowledged the role of local buses in improving social cohesion to support the Government’s net zero agenda. Local authorities were also encouraged to publish Bus Service Improvement Plans which outline what can be done at a local level to make travelling by bus as attractive as possible.

However, reports that local authorities will now have only £1.4 billion to bid for from the original £3 billion will simply add to the uncertainty facing regions and bus operators.

Buses are the cornerstone of the Government’s future plans to decarbonise the way we travel, as set out in the Transport Decarbonisation Plan and also in the National Bus Strategy. Buses are a form of good public transport to deliver net zero agenda especially where electric vehicles and modal shift can’t be achieved. Transport regional and local authorities have warned funding cuts would affect city bus routes at risk to operate. Bus routes could be cut or completely lost to connect communities with city centres, employments and with other vital services.

The Confederation of Passenger Transport, which represents operators, said the situation was urgent as almost a third of city bus routes could be cut within weeks without urgent government funding.

Local authorities are unlikely to be able to find money to maintain routes requiring subsidies, typically those in rural or isolated communities and those running outside peak hours. Also, with ongoing debate for proportionality of rail infrastructure investment for North to unlock the economy, investment in buses is vital for both city and rural routes across the country to “level up”.

Zeenara Najam

i-Select Consultancy

Levelling Up - Jobs and Skills

The Levelling Up White Paper presents an opportunity to reset the relationship between central and local government and put councils at the heart of delivering the Government’s ambitious programme to improve opportunities in all parts of the country.

The Government launched the prospectus for the £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund alongside the Budget 2021. The Levelling Up Fund will invest in infrastructure that improves everyday life across the UK, including town centre and high street regeneration, local transport projects, and cultural and heritage assets. The Government has identified priority places based on an index of local need to receive capacity funding to help them co-ordinate their applications.

How levelling up agenda can be achieved for North?

The Northern Powerhouse aimed to promote economic growth in core cities through improvements to infrastructure, education, science, and innovation.

The UK2070 Commission – an independent inquiry into the UK’s city and regional inequalities – produced a report highlighting the extent of UK’s North South divide. The report found that a child qualifying for free school meals in Hackney, London, is three times more likely to attend university than a child growing up in Hartlepool under similar economic circumstances.

It is likewise predicted that pupils in the South of England are 40% more likely to achieve top GCSE grades than those in the North of England, who at the same time, are vastly underrepresented at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

The government’s levelling up agenda been criticised for adopting a largely ‘place-oriented’ approach which neglects the people there within. The consultancy company Frontier Economics stresses that effective regional policy is ‘people-orientated’, and aims to enhance the employment and salary prospects of those living in particular areas.

In a document published today by the Convention of the North and the NP11 group of northern local enterprise partnerships (LEPs), northern leaders set out the five “gamechangers” which, through collaboration across the North and with Government, will grow an inclusive economy that delivers for the North and the country, while also tackling the health inequalities that have been laid bare by COVID-19. Those game changers are:

• Leading the Green Industrial Revolution

• Closing the healthy life expectancy gap between the North and South through innovation

• Closing the education and skills gap

• Improving connectivity in towns and cities in the North

• Increasing private and public investment in R&D spending in the North

Skills and trainings are vital to levelling up. We believe trainings provide a huge opportunity to level up skills. A skilled workforce can deliver the gamechanger projects to achieve levelling up agenda. Look at our trainings list and contact us today to arrange in-house trainings for your workforce.

Zeenara Najam

i-Select Consultancy