We have launched a new webpage for the ESRC-funded project ‘Inclusive and Healthy Mobility: Understanding Trends in Concessionary Travel in the West Midlands’. The project analysed 400,000 anonymised concessionary passengers to understand the sharp decline in bus boardings in the West Midlands Combined Authority between 2011 and 2016.
The webpage provides
- findings and evidence on recent boarding trends;
- an interactive dashboard of regional boarding trends;
- data packs and interactive maps of mobility and accessibility indicators;
- manuals to reproduce the linkage of smart card data following the UK ITSO format.
Key findings include
- Bus boardings under the ENCTS scheme which entitles senior residents to free bus travel, have fallen by 21 per cent between 2011 and 2016;
- Only parts of this trend can be attributed to recent eligibility restrictions to the scheme;
- Our smartcard analysis identified six types of passengers with distinct residential patterns within the West Midlands Combined Authority;
- A sharp withdrawal of regular bus users occurred in 2015-2016 and can be geographically linked to social disadvantage;
- The decline in patronage coincides with structural changes in the transport system (extension of Midlands metro, introduction of e-hailing services) and uptake of online shopping among senior residents.
More information and detail findings can be found here.