Medical drone deliveries and legalising e-scooters are just two proposals the Government has announced as part of a consultation to make journeys easier, smarter and greener, it said.
Alongside the review, funding of £90 million will lead to trials in three “future transport zones”: Portsmouth and Southampton, the West of England and Derby and Nottingham.
The Government said the zones will provide real-world testing, which will include working with local bodies such as hospitals and airports to test innovative ways to transport people and goods.
For example, one of the projects will involve drones carrying medical supplies from clinics on the Isle of Wight to mainland hospitals, a move intended to help speed up diagnoses by cutting time spent travelling on ferries and roads. Portsmouth and Southampton will also test last-mile deliveries for freights.
West of England Combined Authority will test booking platforms that allow people to book one journey across multiple modes of transport. It will also trial self-driving cars to transport people between Bristol airport and central Bath.
Derby and Nottingham have been granted more than £15 million to invest in new mobility hubs that encourage more widespread uptake of public transport, bike hire, car clubs and electric vehicles.
The Government is also considering how to ensure the safe use of e-scooters on roads. This includes a minimum age, vehicle standards and insurance requirements. E-scooters are currently illegal but have been an increasingly common sight over the past few years.
The Government will also consider whether people could book buses on their phone, operating in a similar way to on-demand private hire vehicles, while also making payment simpler.
Transport secretary Grant Shapps said: “We are on the cusp of a transport revolution. Emerging technologies are ripping up the rulebook and changing the way people and goods move forever.
“This review will ensure we understand the potential impacts of a wide range of new transport modes such as e-scooters, helping to properly inform any decisions on legalisation. Funding these new zones across the country will also help us safely test innovative ways to get around, creating a greener future transport system for us all.”
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e-scooters - perfect 'last mile'
e-scooters could really help. You can drive to an out of town car park to reduce pollution and congestion then use the e-scooter to get to your ultimate desitination, with less cars on the roads being used the e-scooters can have a safer road journey for all. However, I've ridden superbikes for 30 years. Would be interesting how your average un-co-ordinated car driver copes! Maybe they should stick to e-buses.....
An e-scooter would make sense
An e-scooter would make sense for me, as the local town with its train station is just four miles away.
The county council is currently widening the footpath, to make it suitable for people and bikes. So the journey will shortly be easy using anything with two wheels, except perhaps on rainy days.
But the main plus of an e-scooter is its compactness, especially on board a train or in a car.
Popular on the continent
Went to Paris and Barcelona recently; I noticed how popular electric scooters are in these cities, with people of all ages, although mainly young, scurrying around on these things at considerable speed. Is there some sort of app-driven pick-up-anywhere hire scheme in operation? - many were just left unattended on the pavement with green LEDs glowing on the control panel.