3.5. Urban mobility hubs
Delivering mobility hubs in more urbanised locations
Urban areas and suburban, commuter towns offer a greater number of opportunities to link charging infrastructure with other transport modes.
Their larger populations increase traffic volumes, and thereby revenue, across transport modes. This makes the operation of good quality interconnecting hubs cost effective.
Urban areas also have lower numbers of properties with off-street parking where private chargepoints could be installed. This means a high proportion of residents will be reliant on public charging infrastructure to support electric vehicle use. It is therefore likely that public chargepoints will be an essential component of mobility hubs in these areas.
The stakeholders to involve when co-locating charging infrastructure with other transit options and amenities must be considered carefully. The development of larger hubs, with more services, will involve engaging with a greater number of stakeholders.
For a large city centre hub, components may include rail platforms or station connections, bus stops, taxi ranks, car club vehicles, bike or ebike share schemes, and electric vehicle charging infrastructure. It could also feature an on-site café or other similar amenities. Seated waiting areas, either in or outdoor, and toilets are also likely to be essential inclusions.
A suburban mini hub will have similar components to the city centre hub, however it may also include additional components providing local community services, such as a package locker or a community noticeboard.
CoMoUK’s guidance on Mobility hub delivery models (specifically, pages 10-13) detail the range of components and stakeholders commonly involved in hubs in both a ‘large city centre/interchange hub’ and in a ‘network of suburban mini hubs’. Depending on project scale, partners responsible for individual components can include national and local government, commercial transport operators and community groups.
It should be noted that the capital funding element of mobility hub infrastructure is expected to trend away from exclusive public funding and towards more commercialised private funded models.
