Mobility Camp 2022
Mobility Camp, previously known as Transport Planning Camp, is in its 5th year. Having previously been in Leeds, Manchester, online, and Glasgow, this year it came south to Bristol and the Engine Shed.
This year’s theme was ‘Backing Sustainable Transport’. Transport is responsible for 27% of UK greenhouse gas emissions, so finding practical and effective ways to enable a rapid transition to sustainable modes is important.
The event is open to anyone interested in mobility, and it attracted a good cross-section of people from graduates to academics, members of the public to councillors, and transport consultants to tech SMEs. The volunteer led organising team, of which our CMO, Liz Davidson, was a part, had devised three streams for the participants
- Influence – how do we reach beyond our own echo chamber to convince the unconverted?
- Off-load – some much needed ‘therapy’ for the weary transport professional
- Design – a workshop to come up with ideas for the biggest challenges facing the event’s theme.
Mobility Camp's volunteer organising team
Fireside chat reveals untapped political will
But first, the day started off with a Fireside Chat led by Professor Glenn Lyons. The energetic conversation quickly revealed frustrations at lack of progress. But there were also reasons for optimism including ‘untapped political will’.
Key learning: Sustainable mobility advocates should aim high rather than be tempted to water down proposals in the hopes they’ll be accepted.
You can read a full write up here
Influence stream
The political choices around sustainable transport can be difficult. Even more so in ‘medieval’ cities like Bristol where space is a premium.
In the course of the day, the Influence stream explored some of these before reviewing the viewpoints of different stakeholders through the lens of the SCARF behavioural framework. (Hat-tip to Thomas Ableman’s podcast with Rory Sutherland for that.)
Key learning: Effective and appropriate community and stakeholder engagement is difficult and nuanced. There is a skills – and even a research – gap.
You can read a full write up of the Influence stream here
Offload stream
The Offload stream looked at ‘15% solutions’; things that may be small scale but are easily to implement.
Key learning: Small wins are milestones on which to build progress.
You can read a full write up of the Offload stream here
Design stream
This group clustered the 80-ish ideas brainstormed by all attendees into 4 key themes.
These were
- politics and policy,
- public engagement,
- finance, and
- rural mobility.
The Design stream then used the ‘double diamond’ design process to explore responses to those themes.
There were 4 key ideas here:
- Bring together all road-based funding, governance and policing under one body so that any road-based development incorporates sustainable transport and safety.
- VR presents: from crayons to co-design. Engage schools in co-designing local initiatives and share among the wider community using VR.
- Bring back the Post-Bus in rural areas to consolidate passenger and freight
- Implement Community Carbon Credits for rewards that communities can spend on anything from trees to food banks.
You can read a full write up of the Design stream here
Look out for Mobility Camp 2023
Mobility Camp is the brainchild of James Gleave and he’s the person to follow for updates about future events. You can also follow Mobility Camp on LinkedIn here