The 22nd November was a rainy day. Swathes of Britain had been flooded and, although Bristol wasn’t as badly affected as other areas, many of the country roads that commuters often use as alternative routes into and out of Bristol were out of action. This made traffic in and around …
After months theorising about passengers and designing a system that we hope they will like and want to use, finally putting buxis on the road for the first time was a major step. When you’re trying something new, you expect it to be a ‘learning process’ (read, you expect to make …
Wow! On Thursday 1st November, two buxis made six journeys between Bradley Stoke and major employers in Filton, including Airbus and NHSBT. This day felt like a major milestone after months of work and, I won’t lie, we were nervous. But, we’d prepared thoroughly and it went well. Julia and …
There’s article in last week’s Economist titled ‘Seeing the back of the car’. It seems that car use has had its heyday and in the developed world, we’re driving less. Academics are beginning to talk about ‘peak car’, the notion that car ownership and vehicle-kilometres driven have plateaued or are …
Yesterday, the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership announced us as winners of the Low Carbon Mobility Challenge. And we’re mighty proud! This competition is run to identify and promote low carbon innovations with the potential to cut carbon emissions and other environmental impacts arising from transport in cities. “The [winning] ideas challenge …
It’s no secret that government policy has for years supported a car economy and that driving has been relatively cheap. But as our road network struggles to cope with the volume of traffic and petrol prices rise so does the financial cost of commuting by car. The AA estimates the …
Congestion is something that affects everyone. It’s an issue we’re all too familiar with, something to moan about by the office water cooler every morning, and a problem that is worsening by the day. But you know we’ve truly reached a crossroads when the Chairman of Ford outlines his ‘Blueprint …
On the back of a carton of smoothie (of all places) is a question that hits a transport nerve. Amongst mock curiosity about ‘mouse flavoured cat food’ and ‘why dinosaurs had such tiny hands’ (hardly topics to lose sleep over), is a question that really is troublesome: ‘What is the socially …
At first glance, the answer to this question is yes. After all, so many bus services run empty sucking up subsidies, contributing to pollution and congestion, and, apparently, serving nobody. But, success is in the eye of the beholder and, we’d argue, that if a bus service is regularly full …
They say there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and it’s certainly true of parking. ‘Free Parking’ isn’t free. Somebody pays. The little patch of tarmac so neatly outlined in white, costs between £400 and £1000 in running costs. The capital costs can be £2000. And the cost of …
