Government’s Future of Mobility Grand Challenge starts

The government’s Future of Mobility Grand Challenge, which aims to change how people, goods and services move around the country, has been launched.

The call for evidence will look at ways to transform last mile deliveries and the way people travel.

This could see electric cargo bikes, vans, quadricycles and micro vehicles replace vans in UK cities, reducing emissions and congestion around the country.

There are already 300,000 HGVs and over 4,000,000 vans on our roads and with online sales continuing to increase, this is likely to increase further. But new green delivery vehicles could replace the millions of conventionally-fuelled vans which are currently a common sight in city centres.

Other plans look to transform travel around the UK, with the introduction of flying vehicles or widespread use of self-driving cars, all while data helps to delivers better journeys.

And the potential increased use of self-driving vehicles and shared travel could also allow the majority of parking spaces to be removed in city centres, opening areas up for redevelopment and potentially hundreds of thousands of new urban homes.

The plans are being outlined ain the government’s Last Mile and Future of mobility call for evidence documents, which have been published today, 30 July

As part of this, the government is also confirming £12.1 million of funding for six projects working on simulation and modelling to aid the development of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles. The capability will be essential for developing, testing and proving the safety of the vehicles.

The call for evidence is asking for ideas to clean up transport; automation; data and connectivity; drones; shared mobility; and new business models.