Response from The TAS Partnership Ltd

The Department for Transport recently consulted on a number of topics in the context of its ‘Future of Mobility’ programme. This consultation focused on potential regulatory / legislative changes in respect of:

• Micromobility – e-scooters, e-skateboards, Segways, monowheels, etc.
• Flexible bus services – with a view to regulations and service registrations being brought up to date to match the latest technology
• Mobility as a Service (MaaS) – looking at how the planning and management should be coordinated
• Some wider issues including:
  • How to avoid excluding any groups within society from the benefits associated with innovation
  • How to trial new modes effectively and fairly
  • Who should be leading the local deployment of new mobility services

The consultation background and questions can be seen here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/future-of-transport-regulatory-review-call-for-evidence-on-micromobility-vehicles-flexible-bus-services-and-mobility-as-a-service

TAS Partnership Ltd Response

The detailed TAS response can be found here. This was underpinned by three key considerations:

• How the planning for change needs to think more about the needs of disabled people or risk adding to their exclusion
• How to avoid democratic control of innovative transport development becoming the dead hand of local authority bureaucracy
• Shifting the balance of regulation away from a job-creation exercise for regulators and towards the needs of the consumer

Our response called on our experience delivering a recent international benchmarking project on ‘Powered Personal Transport’, decades of involvement with planning and implementing demand-responsive transport services and our work developing Best Practice Guidance on Bus Partnerships for the Department for Transport.

For information about this or any other aspects of our work, email or call Sarah Huntley – sarah.huntley@taspartnership.com  01772 204988