Introduction to mobility hubs

In this final section of week three, we will be looking at how shared mobility can work practically in the real world and how different forms of shared mobility can work alongside each other to create a sustainable transport network. One of the key future developments in order for this to happen is the introduction of mobility hubs. A mobility hub is a recognisable place with an offer of different and connected transport modes supplemented with enhanced facilities and information features to both attract and benefit the traveller. A mobility hub is designed and spacially organised in an optimal way so as to facilitate access to and transport between modes.

This can include human powered and electric shared modes, as well as provide extra transport related and digital services such as public transport and Wi-Fi connectivity

Spread over an area, mobility hubs provide an unambiguous, recognizable network of defined areas, providing services to connect people through sustainable travel and improve the public space. Mobility hubs will generally be situated at significant points on major public transport corridors as they form a critical element and supporting the role of high frequency public transport within cities and large towns. A typical mobility hub will often contain three key characteristics. first of all, it should include the co-location of both public and shared mobility modes. Secondly, they should involve a redesign of the space they are in to reduce private car space and improve the surrounding area and landscape.

Finally, an indicator or sign which identifies a space as a mobility hub and which is part of a wider network, ideally providing digital travel information.

Now, my colleague Beth introduced you to what the mobility hub could contain and how these transport modes can work together. Today at the exhibition, Cenex has this mobility hub. And this comes down to the core concept that electric cars are wonderful and great, and we’re very excited about having more and more on the roads, but ultimately there’s many problems that won’t be solved by electrifying the car. So we need to think about how we travel and the way we travel in a different way. And that includes things like micromobility small electric vehicles, shared mobility and public transport in taxis. from things like the WiCET project with our wireless taxi.

This project is in Nottingham to investigate how taxis can charge through wireless pads on the floor. It will allow taxi drivers to use electric taxis and not have to get out and plug in and charge and worry about being able to losing out on a fair because they have to go off and charge. And then next, we have the Enterprise Car Club. Enterprise Car Club you can come and pick up the car, use it whenever you want so you don’t need to own your own car.

You can have a fleet of cars accessible to you within a city, and Cenex have worked with Enterprise on a number of different initiatives, including helping them to get car clubs into low income neighborhoods and deprived areas, and helping them to understand how the electrification of car clubs could work in a city environment as well. So it’s working even with an established brands like Enterprise who are specialists in rental. But getting them into an audience in the community, otherwise maybe they wouldn’t be able to do so. So I’d only come to two wheels. What have we got here? Yeah. So these are the interesting ones that we have, the scooters and e-bikes as well.

So this is an example of ginger. And obviously in the last year, we’ve seen a massive increase in scooters across the country through the trials, and we see more and more e-bike rental schemes coming out. And there’s also many, many forms of innovative light electric vehicles coming onto the market. So Cenex are working both with the companies, with local authorities and with DfT and regulators and innovators to work out how these new vehicles fit into our cityscape, how they can be regulated, how they can be safely used, and also how they can really create some wonderful opportunities for our cities to provide transport to everybody that is inclusive across the city.