Planning, meets transport: mobility hubs in 2026

Our first session explored work across the country to create mobility hubs that bring together public, active and shared transport.

Sam Margolis, Head of Transport Strategy and Projects at London Borough of Camden, shared key lessons from developing new mobility hubs in Somers Town. They used STALs (Sustainable Transport Accessibility Levels) to map access to shared mobility across the borough and target areas for improvement. The hubs were developed using CoMoUK’s resources and incorporate cycle parking, shared micromobility bays and car clubs, as well as features such as seating, rain gardens and cycle repair kits. Even with all these features, each of the hubs took only 5-7 parking spaces, providing excellent use of space.

Rebecca Britton, Regional Director of Communications, Communities and Partnerships at Urban&Civic, shared her experience developing transport options in Waterbeach New Town, a new development to the north of Cambridge. To embed sustainable travel behaviours, it was important to ensure offsite connections were ready as early as possible – improvements to cycleways were completed before anyone moved in, new bus services were brought in as early as possible, and visitors to the development were encouraged to hire bikes to get around. New residents were offered incentives such as 10 free bus tickets for their first journeys. As a result, take-up of bus travel and cycle hire has been high, and there has been positive feedback from Waterbeach New Town residents as well as the existing local community.

Finally, we heard from Jeremy Wiggin, Head of Sustainable Transport at Norfolk City Council, about how they built on the existing congregation of transport services in villages. Bus shelters were refurbished and timetables were made clearer, and integration with trains was improved; at Norwich, bus departures are shown on the same board as train departures, while the bus stop at Diss was moved to be much closer to the platform. Jeremy emphasised the importance of taking stakeholders on the bus journey itself so they could see the potential impact, and of combining different datasets to see where is most impactful to target.

Across these examples, we saw the importance of using both data and feedback from passengers. Space and funding can be used efficiently to connect and improve existing services, as well as making pleasant public spaces. We look forward to seeing these examples continue to grow, and hope to see these approaches used in mobility hubs develop across the UK.