Community Travel Platform

Shared transit, such as public transport, is key to getting people around and maintaining our economy. It is vital in reducing our impact on the environment. UK cities have well-developed public transport infrastructure, but effective mass-transit solutions are disparate outside of large cities.

Transport providers are under increased pressure to deliver vital improvements, whilst simultaneously being faced with reduction in funding and a subdued economy. For example, TfL's budget shows a £700m annual reduction in government funding, requiring tighter financial management and efficiency trade-offs.

78% of the 808 billion passenger kilometres travelled in the UK each year are made by car, and the average car journey has only 1.6 riders, indicating that there is scope for increased vehicle utilisation. Transport is the UK's biggest contributor towards greenhouse gas emissions in the UK and reducing our vehicle usage would significantly help the UK's goals to lessen the effects of climate change.

Much of the conversation around the Future of Mobility is around technology breakthroughs. We believe that in order to meet the UK's Industrial Strategy, innovative business models are just as crucial.

The only realistic solution in the short-to-medium term is the better utilisation of existing transport infrastructure, but for a number of reasons this has not worked. Public perception towards shared transport options is poor, namely due to cost, difficulties in planning, trust and the inconvenience associated with multi-modal transport. These factors mean that people are driven towards making ill-informed, expensive and unsustainable travel decisions.

This six-month feasibility study will evaluate the potential of a platform solution that aims to incentivise and encourage sustainable and community-focussed mobility. This feasibility study will focus heavily on understanding the UK's shared transit landscape (including public transport, micro transit and carpooling provisions), the barriers to uptake, including consumer appetite, and whether a platform proposition could encourage greater utilisation of the UK's existing transport infrastructure.

Understanding these characteristics will be particularly important in light of the Corona Virus pandemic, where attitudes towards sharing have changed drastically, and it is unclear on whether this shift will reverse following Covid-19\.

We will assess the market, operational, technical and economic feasibility of such a solution, particularly focussing on any identifiable strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats. The outputs of this study will support stakeholders in deciding whether to undergo an additional phase of work which looks to develop, test and scale solutions with a view to commercialisation.