Report Launch: The Future of Demand Responsive Transport

Share on:

Yesterday, the Community Transport Association (CTA) and Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) launched our report, The Future of Demand Responsive Transport

You can read the report in full here.

What’s in the report?

A more sophisticated approach to how we think about and organise travel, through a more demand responsive passenger transport network, will lead to positive benefits for people, places and the planet. It will reduce the number of unmade journeys which lower people’s work and life aspirations and can leave them isolated. It will address concerns about under-used capacity and our carbon footprint.

Within this report we highlight what we believe are the major breakthroughs that will lead to demand-responsive transport (DRT) solutions being much higher in the passenger transport mix, and we consider how far that can go in terms of being inclusive and accessible to all.

Why is CTA involved in this research?

Community transport helps to address quality, availability and affordability of transport options for people that can’t drive and don’t have access to a conventional bus service, especially in rural areas.

The creation of a demand responsive community transport service can often be as a result of the withdrawal of a commercial or subsidised service. In rural areas DRT is often seen as the only viable alternative when bus services are withdrawn, so it’s not so much a choice. Local authorities will often signpost to community transport and other DRT type services when asked to advise people who have lost commercial or subsidised bus services, which may sometimes be taken from the same pot that others subsidised services would have been funded from.

What’s next?

The report makes recommendations for transport providers, transport commissioners, travel planners, and local authorities.  If you work in this field, we want to hear from you, and find ways to work together to implement some of the recommendations.

If anything strikes a chord with what you are trying to achieve through your role and activities then please get in touch.

Email: hello@ctauk.org