FAQs

Future Mobility looks at how we will need to travel and move around in the future. This could include a shift away from owning vehicles or bikes, to a model where people pay for access to services instead. This might take the form of paying a monthly ‘travel’ subscription which provides people with access to public transport, bike hire, a car through a car club (for journeys when using public transport is not practical), and potentially use of autonomous (driverless) vehicles. There are several videos which help to explain key concepts, which you can find here. 

The Strategy demonstrates how Future Mobility technologies and approaches can help our region achieve its goals of becoming more productive, inclusive and sustainable. The Strategy identifies a series of actions to be implemented over the short, medium and long term that will help to enable the region’s objectives to be met (see summary presentation available to view here). 

No – the Future Mobility Strategy develops several of the themes identified within the West Yorkshire Transport Strategy – particularly the ‘smart futures’ and ‘one system public transport’ themes. These set out our ambitions to make the best use of advancements in technology across all our transport networks and develop a world class transport system that connects different modes of transport seamlessly into one comprehensive easy-to-use network. 

The Strategy has been developed by West Yorkshire Combined Authority, in partnership with our partner councils in West Yorkshire. The strategy identifies how future transport and technology will help us to achieve our objectives of making the region more prosperous, inclusive and sustainable.  

The Strategy covers West Yorkshire – which includes the five local authority areas of Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield. 

The purpose of the Future Mobility Strategy is to demonstrate how future mobility and new technology can help achieve our region’s key objectives: 

• Supporting and enabling inclusive growth while positively contributing towards productivity growth 
• Contributing towards the region’s objectives of becoming net zero carbon by 2038 and helping to make a positive contribute towards tackling the climate emergency 
• Helping us meet our targets to increase bus and rail use, walking and cycling as outlined in the West Yorkshire Transport Strategy 2040, while also reducing car use. 
• Help to better plan and manage all our transport networks to transform the affordability, ease and experience of the people using them 
• Contributing towards our region’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis 

The aims of this engagement are to: 

• Inform people about the proposed strategy, such as those who live, work and visit West Yorkshire, as well as organisations involved in future mobility 
• Seek feedback on the proposed strategy to help shape it and ensure we get the best outcomes for West Yorkshire 

Members of the public can have their say via https://www.yourvoice.westyorks-ca.gov.uk/future-mobility-strategy. Please register on the page be kept informed about progress on the strategy. 

Following the close of consultation, all feedback will be considered and used to shape the final version of the strategy. The strategy will be submitted to the West Yorkshire Combined Authority Transport Committee in autumn 2020 for approval. 

Once adopted, the strategy will set the priorities for our work on Future Mobility over the next 10 years and inform our funding and investment decisions to ensure we make the best choices for the region to have a better, fairer, and greener transport system. 

 Please register to receive updates about the project at www.yourvoice@westyorks-ca.gov.uk/future-mobility-strategy  

The public consultation will be open for responses from 21 August to 18 September. After the consultation has closed, the responses received will be analysed and used to shape the final version of the Future Mobility Strategy. This will then be submitted to Transport Committee for approval in autumn 2020. 

The Strategy will set the principles and priorities for our work on future mobility to meet our wider ambitions over the next ten years to support the delivery of the West Yorkshire Transport Strategy 2040 as well as our Strategic Economic Framework and emerging Local Industrial Strategy. Once adopted, it will allow us to develop, test and evaluate new services and inform our funding and investment decisions to ensure we make the right choices for the region to create a better, fairer, and greener transport system. 

The action plan sets out our priorities over the short, medium and long term and identifies where work has already begun. 

There are several actions identified in the Future Mobility Strategy that are currently being delivered, such as trials of digital demand responsive transport (DDRT) and research projects into the benefits of autonomous/ driverless public transport vehicles.  Some actions can be delivered through existing programmes but other actions are currently unfunded, and the Combined Authority is looking at opportunities for identifying funding opportunities in order to progress these areas.