CAR2GO, THE ‘pay-by-the-minute’ car club launched in the UK in London approximately six months ago (LTT 7 Dec 12), has now started operations in Birmingham. 250 cars will be provided at first in a 12-month pilot scheme  (LTT 17 Aug 12), costing 35p per minute for registered users to drive. The car2go ‘zone’, within which cars can be picked up and dropped off, covers the Birmingham city area between Oxhill Road; Pershore Road, Vicarage Road; Highfield Road; City...

Local authorities in the North East of England are drawing up plans for a Combined Authority that will lead to the demise of the Tyne and Wear Integrated Transport Authority. A governance review is currently underway covering Durham, Northumberland and the five Tyne and Wear conurbation authorities: Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland, North Tyneside and South Tyneside. The CA would comprise the leaders of the seven authorities and take decisions on transport, economic development, and...

Amongst the surprises contained in the 2011 Census statistics on travel to work are some encouraging and some challenging findings for supporters of ‘smarter choices’ and sustainable transport more generally. First some good news: across the country as a whole, the share of commuting by car has fallen, slightly. London continues to show the rest of England how modal shift from driving to public transport can be achieved. Apologists for bus deregulation used to argue that...

In Early April certain sections of the media became rather excited about the prospects of a major road building programme having the potential to rejuvenate the nation’s ailing economy. And some papers also suggested that at least one of the proposed new schemes, a M4 relief road in South Wales, could be partially funded by tolls – although this has subsequently been denied by both the Welsh Government and the Treasury. Prior to this denial, however, several papers had treated the...

I'm reading a book at the moment called Made to Stick, written by the brothers Heath. It explores how and why certain ideas lodge in the popular conscience while others don’t; and begins by examining a few ‘urban myths’ – tales that become widely accepted as truth despite being unsupported by any evidence beyond hearsay (and usually being, in fact, untrue). I was surprised that the authors didn’t choose to cite, as exhibit A, the myth that more and or free parking...

I've got my ‘just-in-time’ approach to station arrival times down to a fine art. Check NRES’ live departures a couple of minutes before leaving the house and allow 12 minutes to get to Slaithwaite station. It isn’t that my time is so precious that every second counts, so much as the freezing weather we’ve been having for weeks. The station is unstaffed and we have a cold, unheated waiting shelter. The frustrating thing is that I enjoy chatting to people on the...

The South East of England is to be a testbed for new forms of ‘smart’ rail ticketing. The proposal is outlined in the DfT’s new ‘door-to-door’ transport strategy that aims to simplify the journey experience through measures such as new ticketing, better information and improving interchange between modes. Speaking on the day the strategy was launched, transport minister Norman Baker told LTT: “What’s really exciting about it for me is the fact...

A major shake-up to the way the DfT provides support to the bus industry in England was signalled last week with the publication of new guidance on Better Bus Areas (BBA) funding. In areas that secure BBA status, Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) paid directly to bus operators for commercial services will be gradually phased out. In its place, the equivalent funding – plus a top-up capital grant of 20% – will be paid to the local transport authorities to fund  capital and...