The bus historically has faced a challenge to sustain itself.  Increasing social aspiration and car ownership from the 1950s onwards drove a continuous decline in patronage which has only recently  been arrested; fixes such as driver only buses and improved maintenance regimes failed to stem the decline with only growth in London in the 2000s stemming this tide of decline in overall usage.   Internal to the bus industry has been a ‘cycle of decline’ with reducing patronage forcing costs to be spread over fewer users driving reductions in service levels...

We sit down with Michelle Wood, Head of Technical Development at PTRC to talk about the 20-Week Evening Lecture Series. Here’s what she had to say…

The title of this piece could be read in a sarcastic tone but the aim of this piece is to show that cycling really is a complex mode to design for.  A mode in fact, about which the very question of whether it needs anything specifically designed for it, is brought into question.  I usually start cycling design training sessions with a very zen statement: There is no such thing as a cycling scheme and there is no such thing as a scheme that isn’t a cycling scheme.  The point is that you cannot design exclusively for cyclists without considering the impacts on other road...

Originally published on transportfutures.co Last week, 28 - 29 June 2017, transport planning in the UK had its big annual bash, the Transport Practitioners Meeting, where for the second year running it found itself in the underrated Midlands city of Nottingham. The great and the good of transport planning where there (although notably only one person who I saw from the Department for Transport), as well as a great mix of graduates, researchers, old hands, and young upstarts. Originally published on transportfutures.co Last week, 28 - 29 June 2017, transport planning in...

James Gleave, Founder of Transport Futures, has played a pivotal role in helping us shape the special two-day plenary session ‘Death to Transport Planning, Long live Transport Planning!’ taking place at The 15th Annual Transport Practitioners’ Meeting 28 – 29 June in Nottingham. We caught up with James to find out more about why this debate is important to the industry. To find out more information read below, head on over to Transport Futures for the original articles, follow James on Twitter and be sure to visit the...

Once again the debate at the core of UK transport planning has emerged, this time in the challenge set down by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE).  This champions the cause for sustainable transport and supports the claim that road building is inherently unsound. CPRE draws on evidence that new roads don’t achieve anything like what is claimed during the planning stages – the contrast with investment in other types of transport infrastructure is clear.  So, it appears that a programme of road construction doesn’t necessarily improve productivity,...

Many people have long believed that the way forward for cities to manage their transport is to get people out of their cars and on to public transport, their bikes or their feet. This reduces congestion and pollution and improves travellers’ health, as well as usually being lighter on their wallets. This way forward has now become the accepted approach for cities as tackling pollution and congestion rise up the political agenda.  But just how realistic is this in practice? 

Like walking, cycling is regularly hailed as a ‘miracle pill’ equivalent. Most of us don’t get enough physical activity, which is linked to conditions from diabetes to depression. We don’t, in general, have time, money and/or motivation to ‘exercise’ daily, and our jobs are often sedentary, so cycling to work is perfect. We can get exercise without even trying. And society benefits: cycling doesn’t produce air or noise pollution or CO2. Compared to driving it’s very space-efficient – a boon for congested towns and...

The pace of technological change and its impact on our lives is ever more evident each day. It also has profound implications for our experience as consumers, set challenges for established business models and has the potential to transform societal relationships and culture. In particular, researchers have focused on various classes of “disruptive” technologies which are rapidly advancing, showing signs of major capability breakthroughs and have the potential to radically impact the status quo in multiple dimensions. Whether commenting on LinkedIn, sharing a Tweet or debating...

November's Autumn Statement was another in a long line of missed opportunities by the UK Government and fails to support low-income households with investments to improve local travel choice with alternatives to car travel such as cycling and walking - says Xavier Brice, Chief Executive, Sustrans