Transport Study

Tech4all has sponsored this research in order to investigate whether modern technology could create a radical improvement in the availability of high-quality transport services for disadvantaged groups, at low or zero incremental cost to the taxpayer, and in a way which fosters integration of disadvantaged and better-off users.

The broad aims of the study are:

• To conduct a re-analysis of the demand and supply of road public transport services, to test the hypothesis that higher-technology, more flexible approaches to transport provision would better meet the needs of the travelling public, including the poor
• To consider the operational feasibility of any alternative transport systems, particularly in terms of resource costs
• To consider feasibility more generally, including any specific implications for the poor

Work to date has been conducted through desktop feasibility studies, although informed where possible by real world knowledge of transport economics and transport systems. The study is primarily focussed on the needs of urban travellers, although may well have relevance for rural travel markets.  

The work is reported through three staged documents, relating to the numbered points above

• Stage 1 considers evidence on demand, the extent to which existing transport services meet those needs, and the nature of a possible alternative
• Stage 2 focuses on supply issues, conducting a feasibility analysis of implementation scenarios in the city of Bristol, with the new system variously coexisting with and replacing the established transport systems
• Stage 3 examines the practical barriers to implementation and practical barriers to advantaging the travel poor through implementation