Comparative analysis of transport modes for regional mobility: a case study

Limits to mobility are imposed by geography and the speed, access, energy and ergonomic constraints of travel modes, which cannot be manipulated arbitrarily by design or technology. Achieving ‘sustainable, efficient and sufficient’ regional mobility needs thinking in terms of a ‘nexus’ between transport, human settlement and activity, and geography. A travel mode's characteristics and usefulness are defined by its speed and accessibility in space and time. This paper addresses the practical limits on principal modes of personal and collective land movement in the light of technological advances, urban structure and land and resource constraints. It is concluded that personal road vehicles cannot achieve sufficient connectivity in a city-region like the UK's ‘northern powerhouse’ and conventional and high-speed rail have limitations. However, integrated public transport centred on advanced technology such as magnetic levitation could enable radically improved mobility and, combined with corridor-based intensification, could promote sustainability by avoiding the drawbacks of megacities and car-dependent dispersion.