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To commence the new DRT Strengthening Communities project, we have been conducting workshops with our local authority partners – Gloucestershire County Council, East Midlands Combined County Authority and Essex County Council. These gatherings were organised with several ambitions in mind. Foremost was reconnecting with the local authorities and the wider network of stakeholders in these areas. Many local organisations and individuals helped us with our previous fieldwork and we were keen to share our plans for the new project. However, this was not just an update, we took these workshops as an opportunity for the attendees to build our understanding of the challenges for businesses and organisations in their area which is the focus of our new project. They were also invited to provide critical input onto our methodology.

Alongside shaping the methodology, we had some practical needs such as getting more information about the key employers and destination points in each of the study areas. In advance of the workshops, Like Jiang and Muhammed Adeel had carried out GIS analysis to map origin and destination pairs for DRT trips made across the three study areas. The maps revealed key corridors and trip attractors for DRT users. However, because the services stop at virtual bus stops, rather than named destinations or specific addresses, it can be difficult to attribute these clusters to specific businesses and organisations benefitting from the DRT services. We drew on the combined local knowledge in the room at each workshop to help identify those businesses and organisations. For the two in-person workshops in Gloucester and Derby we had large-scale printed maps on which we could mark up suggestions with pens and post-it notes. Our Essex partners who joined us online did a valiant job contributing to a Miro board we’d prepared with similar maps.

All told, we came out of this process incredibly grateful to the local authorities and community of motivated stakeholders in each of the areas for their generosity in sharing their local knowledge. We were glad to see that in all of our local authorities the DRT services were continuing and in some cases expanding – with the services clearly maturing since our previous visits. A particularly noteworthy change included the transfer of responsibility for DRT from Nottinghamshire County Council to East Midlands Combined County Authority who are now our partners on the project (updated website logos incoming). The team there were doing an admirable job navigating the transition process and hosting us in a building that was brand new to most of them.

We’re now digesting the information we gathered and refining our methodology and fieldwork to reflect the fantastic input received. Keep your eyes out for future updates as we move towards data collection in the coming months.

This post was originally posted on the Centre for Transport and Society Blog here. It was written by Eda Beyazit, Kiron Chatterjee and Daniel Johnson.

Our recent webinar brought together more than a hundred practitioners, policymakers and researchers. Chaired by our project partners, Richard Dilks (CoMoUK) and Sharon Payne (Transport East), participants got the opportunity to hear our study findings, ask questions, share experiences and listen to a panel discussion involving our three partner local authorities. It was clear that understanding DRT’s wider social impact is both timely and urgently needed. In this post, we share our reflections under four themes (diagnosis, drivers, dialogue, and direction), highlighting what we learned and where this conversation is heading.

Diagnosis – increasing realisation of the importance of capturing social value

 Our starting point was the need to look beyond standard performance metrics such as revenues and costs when considering the case for investing in public transport systems such as DRT. The KPMG report ‘The economic impact of local bus services’ highlights the significance of wider social and economic benefits. While DfT’s Transport Appraisal Guidance (TAG) acknowledges these broader impacts, evidence remains limited. Kiron Chatterjee (project lead, UWE Bristol) explained our research set out to address this gap by developing a way to understand and quantify the social value of DRT for both users and communities.

The county councils of Essex, Gloucestershire, and Nottinghamshire are the three local authorities who participated in the study. We looked at three case study DRT schemes in rural areas featuring pockets of deprivation. These were DigiGo in Central Essex and Braintree, the Robin in South Forest of Dean and NottsBus On Demand in South and North Ollerton.

Using survey data, we explored not only why people used (or did not) use DRT but the purpose of trips made and the extent to which DRT trips enabled employment, education, healthcare, and social participation. This led to a question during the webinar on whether the same methodology could be applied to conventional bus services. Dan Johnson (project co-lead, Leeds), who led on social value methodology, confirmed this would be possible if similar survey data were collected.

We explained how other work the UWE researchers have been doing for DfT has looked at the overall performance metrics of DRT services funded by the Rural Mobility Fund with an interim report published in 2023 and a final report just published. ECT Charity has developed a methodology for estimating the social value of community transport services which served as an inspiration for our work, but we required a methodology fit for purpose for DRT. Johnson explained our approach focused on the added value of journeys which could not be made without DRT and the value of the activities enabled, whereas user benefits conventionally focus on time and money saved for journeys that would mostly still happen anyway. Much of the value estimated stemmed from enabling employment, facilitating recreational activities and saving resource cost to NHS from avoiding missed appointments.

Audience questions allowed us to further unpack the methodology. Concerns about wage levels, optimism bias, and the valuation of employment led to clarifications around the shadow wage approach, the incorporation of reduced benefit payments and wellbeing gains, and the alignment with existing government valuation frameworks. Similarly, when asked whether a single accepted value per passenger existed, we emphasised that the range of values we presented (£12.60–£17.80 per supported return trip across the three case studies) were specific to our research and the average value will depend on the mix of journey purposes and proportion of trips enabled by a service that would not otherwise have been possible.

Drivers – understanding what is motivating DRT use

Eda Beyazit (co-lead, UWE Bristol) and Asa Thomas (researcher, UWE Bristol) presented results on what motivated people to use DRT and how it made a difference to their lives. This triggered discussion around drivers of DRT use which highlighted the mix of social, practical, and economic factors shaping people’s mobility choices. Convenience and affordability emerged strongly, along with the directness of routes, particularly for trips that would otherwise require multiple interchanges. Some participants noted the importance of safety, especially for women, raising questions about whether DRT is perceived as a safer and more comfortable option. Thanks to our research exploring these issues, through a mixed-methods approach, we not only identified the significance of these factors across different user groups but also demonstrated how DRT provides a more personal touch from drivers of the minibuses that is not matched by other options.

Audience members with their own experience of DRT noted that a small group of frequent users may account for a significant share of trips. Others observed unexpectedly high numbers of hospital journeys, raising questions whether DRT was substituting for NHS patient transport services.

There was interest among the audience whether app-based bookings meant some groups were advantaged and others were missing out. The research team noted DRT journeys could also be booked via call centres but acknowledged that app bookings made it easier to make block bookings and that could affect the way in which DRT is used.

Participants also reflected on how patterns of regular use might indicate where fixed-route services could be viable. Examples mentioned included Manchester where DRT services are used for early-morning airport commutes, and East Suffolk where school runs are integrated into DRT schedules.

Dialogue – knowledge exchange between researchers and practitioners

The webinar brought together 121 participants from more than 90 organisations, with nearly half representing local authorities and many others from national authorities (9%), including DfT and Defra, regional authorities (7%), consultancies and private companies (13%), and research institutions (15%). The richness of the discussion in the chat space and during Q&A sessions and during the panel session demonstrated both the timeliness of the topic and the thirst for evidence-based guidance in this area. Our webinar also facilitated interaction between participating local authorities to share their experiences with each other.

One theme was how to manage the interaction between DRT and fixed network bus services. Durham raised concerns that DRT was being treated as a ‘cheap taxi’, drawing passengers away from existing bus routes. Leicestershire and TfGM shared measures they were taking to avoid duplication, such as restricting DRT bookings when scheduled services are available or highlighting fixed-route alternatives in the app. Norfolk and others were eager to explore integration through interchange hubs, joint ticketing, and coordinated marketing.

Participants shared how their systems operate in practice. Leicestershire had added a fixed-route service to complement their FoxConnect (DRT service) and take the pressure off it. NHS-related transport emerged as another area of interest with suggestions to look at historical examples such as the Border Courier service started under the RUTEX (RUral Transport Experiments) in the 1970s and reflections on the significant sums the NHS spends on taxis for both patients and medical samples.

Direction – the way forward

A key takeaway from the panel discussion was that the study findings can guide future evaluations and policies. One question was whether the Treasury would accept the social values derived. Johnson pointed out that, while our approach aligns with TAG guidance, particularly in recognising the wider social impacts of transport, it also offers a pragmatic way to understand the value of specific impacts without needing a full appraisal. Importantly, social value should be treated as complementary and not necessarily additional to economic benefits such as time savings.

Our social value calculations are seen as a “real game changer in the assessment of the value of these services”. They could influence the future of these services, particularly in serving relatively more deprived areas where DRT is viewed as providing “social insurance”. It was highlighted that the study findings can enable LAs to engage more confidently in dialogue with organisations such as the NHS based on hard evidence. Some patients already regularly use DRT services and operators also attract bookings from hospital staff.

The panel discussion also revealed that social value assessment could help leverage new transport provision in rural developments, helping justify DRT as an initial service model that can later transition to fixed-route bus services as demand grows. Another benefit of DRT services is the travel demand data generated which helped Nottinghamshire identify a high-demand route and implement a fixed-route service that operates alongside DRT.

Essex noted that DRT enables them to serve a broader demographic than possible with fixed-route services and therefore offer a more equitable service. It is not a case of choosing one over the other – both fixed-route and DRT services play a role in supporting communities. Gloucestershire also noted that DRT can complement existing community transport. They wanted to avoid “accidentally hurting the community transport sector” and have found DRT has freed up capacity for community transport to serve its principal purpose of meeting the needs of those that cannot use conventional public transport.

The panel emphasised the importance of presenting a full picture of the benefits that DRT brings to local areas. By consistently framing investment in this broader way, authorities can build a stronger case for the benefits these services deliver to residents. They will be working to embed social value assessment into routine decision-making, ensuring they provide the “right solution for the right people at the right time in the right area”.

What became clear from the high level of engagement during the webinar is that this work is both timely and essential. Local authorities, operators, and policy makers are all trying to understand how to maximise the wider benefits of DRT and identify what this means for service design, investment, and long-term planning.

The insights from this study, along with the contributions made by webinar participants, will influence the next phase of our research as we continue to develop more robust, transparent, and meaningful ways of assessing social value in flexible transport systems. At the end of the webinar, Chatterjee briefly introduced the next project, where we will extend our work to look at the effects on local businesses and community organisations.

On the 19th of November we welcomed over 100 policy makers, practitioners and academics to our end of project webinar. This was the culmination of over a year of research as part of the DRT-CPO project and we shared findings from across the different workstreams of the research. This included key insights from our survey, calculations of the social value of trips enabled by DRT, and DRT user experiences from in-depth interviews. We ended the seminar with a fantastic panel discussion with members of Essex, Gloucestershire, and Nottinghamshire county councils, hosted by Sharon Payne from Transport East. The recording of the webinar is posted here for anyone who wasn’t able to attend at the time, and we also have the slides available to download. This should be a helpful resource for any policy makers and practitioners working with DRT systems in their area or making the case for investment in public transport more generally. Thank you to everyone who joined us for the event. We look forward to staying in touch as we develop this work further.

Slides

Recording

After intensive fieldwork across three counties, the DRT-CPO project is drawing to a close. Over the past year, our research team from UWE and the University of Leeds has worked with Essex, Gloucestershire and Nottinghamshire county councils to understand how Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) is connecting people in rural areas to essential opportunities. Through surveys and interviews with residents and users of DRT services, we’ve built a detailed picture of the journeys made possible and the wider impacts on people’s lives.

Fixed-route bus services have been cut back in many rural and suburban areas, leaving gaps in connectivity that DRT schemes aim to fill. However, concerns remain about DRT’s long-term financial viability. To better understand the benefits of continued public investment in DRT, this project has aimed to more fully capture how rural public transport benefits communities — not just in terms of ridership, but in enabling access to work, education, healthcare and social participation.

In this final webinar, we will present findings from this research, including our methodology for estimating the social value of DRT in monetary terms. We’ll share real-world examples of the difference DRT makes to individuals’ lives, and end with a lively panel discussion on the implications of these findings for transport policy and investment.

Please feel free to join us online on Wednesday 19th of November, from 10:00 to 12:00. For more information and to register, please follow this link:

Final Webinar: Capturing the Social Value of Demand Responsive Transport

At the end of last year the DRT-CPO online survey finally went live, with leaflets delivered to over 40,000 addresses across Gloucestershire, Nottinghamshire, and Essex at the beginning of December. However, sending out leaflets is no replacement for on-the-ground experience, and over the last few weeks we have been busy visiting the study areas in person to speak to residents, help them fill out the survey, and experience the local transport for ourselves – including riding the different DRT schemes. We’ll give you a bit of a flavour of those trips here.

Aside from a quick day trip across the River Severn to visit the Forest of Dean early in the year, our first proper fieldwork trip was in mid-February when a contingent of both UWE and Leeds researchers journeyed to Nottinghamshire (albeit from different directions). Although we based ourselves in the market town of Newark-on-Trent, we spent most of our time in the village of Tuxford, which is well placed on the boundary between two zones of the Nottsbus on Demand scheme. In the village we delivered another 600 leaflets by hand, helped residents to complete the survey, and spoke to many more on their doorsteps about transport issues in the area. For us the frigid weather (and anticyclonic gloom) was only a slight deterrent to spending time out on the streets. However, we did need to warm up at times and the Greens Deli in Tuxford welcomed us in for a hearty lunch on several occasions.

We ended our trip to Nottinghamshire by spending some time in the smaller settlements in the North Ollerton DRT zone. We delivered leaflets and completed questionnaires in villages and hamlets like East Drayton, Treswell and South Leverton, getting insight into the different challenges of moving around these slightly more remote parts of the county. The morning of our final day was spent riding Nottsbus on Demand between Newark and Ollerton where we met several of the regular users who gave us a wonderful account of how they use the service in their daily lives.  

Our most recent trip was to Essex, where we spent three days on the outskirts of Braintree and in the nearby village of Great Waltham. We had great support from the team at Essex County Council, especially Clarke who is an apprentice in the marketing team there and joined us for two days of door knocking and engagement. A particular highlight from our trip was a visit to the Coffee House in Black Notley which is attached to the Cornerstone Church. On a very rainy Wednesday morning we were welcomed in and met many local residents who had gathered to enjoy the wonderful coffee and cake, have a chat, and perhaps shelter from the weather. We learnt a lot about the transport issues and met a passionate DigiGo user who we found out had already filled out our survey before we’d even arrived.

We will be returning to the Forest of Dean later this month where we will be drawing our data collection to a close. If you’re in the Cinderford and Coleford areas in March look out for us as we travel around looking for people to chat to. After the survey officially closes on March 17th, we’ll begin drawing all this wealth of information together. Look out for future posts on our initial findings in the coming weeks!

To kick off the DRT-CPO project in the summer of 2024 our research team conducted a series of workshops to set the stage for the research. These workshops engaged local authorities and stakeholders in our study areas of Gloucestershire (South Forest of Dean DRT area), Nottinghamshire (North Ollerton and South Ollerton DRT areas), and Essex (Central Essex and South Braintree DRT area). Although all three of these areas are rural and have some degree of local deprivation, each also have their own specific challenges, unique local economies, and public transportation provision which impact the priorities and potential benefits of their respective DRT services.

There were two primary objectives to these workshops. Firstly, to explore the challenges and opportunities associated with the DRT services in these regions, and secondly, to engage with the research design and shape the data collection with residents and DRT users in their areas. During the workshops the research team presented maps showing the geographical variation of several different socio-economic and demographic indicators in the DRT areas and their surrounds. The workshops allowed participants to put pen to paper on these maps to identify issues local populations face in accessing opportunities as well as specific destinations of importance. This mapping methodology provided a visual and data-driven foundation for discussions, helping to pinpoint critical areas of interest and elicit local knowledge to help shape the methodology – including identifying potential places to focus data collection.

However, these meetings weren’t just about discussing research design, it was also a chance for our research team to visit the areas, and most importantly try out the DRT services for ourselves. Using the services helped us better understand the user experience for people in these varied local areas, and chatting to the drivers gave a helpful perspective on the day-to-day operation and usage of the schemes. There is also nothing transport researchers love more than trying out a new way of getting around.

Workshop Insights

1. South Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire The initial workshop in June saw our team visit the South Forest of Dean, a region with a long history of mining and, in spite of a rising tourism sector, several ongoing socio-economic challenges. The local DRT service, The Robin, aims to enhance connectivity to existing transport hubs. The workshop discussions held at Shire Hall in Gloucester underscored the critical need for improved transport accessibility to support local employment, particularly in the engineering sector, and to address the out-migration of younger populations to nearby cities.

2. North and South Ollerton, Nottinghamshire The second workshop held in Nottingham highlighted the local priorities for the Nottsbus On Demand service. For the two zones adjacent on the former coal mining community of Ollerton, DRT provides essential connections to employment hubs and tourist sites. Other Nottsbus schemes aim to also support the nighttime economy in nearby Mansfield and Newark-on-Trent with an evening DRT service. Participants emphasised the role of DRT in supporting local workers to reach less accessible employment hubs as well as an emerging visitor economy.

3. Central Essex and South Braintree, Essex The final workshop in Essex examined the DigiGO service, which operates with a fleet of electric vehicles. Pockets of deprivation and poor transport accessibility persist in the rural areas around the towns of Braintree and Chelmsford served by the Central Essex and South Braintree DRT service. Discussions focused on the potential of DRT to alleviate social isolation and support economic growth by providing affordable and flexible transport options to areas which have previously not been served by any public transport service.

Common Themes and Challenges

Several common themes emerged across the workshops:

Access to employment and services: DRT services can provide crucial connections for residents to employment, education, and essential services, particularly in areas with limited fixed-service public transport options.

Social Inclusion and reducing isolation: By offering flexible and safe transport to a variety of destinations, including many community spaces, DRT can help to reduce social isolation and support community cohesion.

Technical and operational challenges: Issues such as mobile network coverage, administrative boundaries, stop locations, and the legibility of the service to users were identified as barriers to effective DRT implementation.

Addressing transport poverty: Especially with the £2 fare cap currently in place, DRT services can reduce the need for multiple car ownership (and associated financial hardship for households on lower incomes) and help reduce the cost of journeys that previously would only have been made possible with a cab ride.

Future Directions

The insights gained from these workshops will inform the next steps of our research project. Based on this feedback we are currently developing data collection methods and tools to assess the impacts of DRT services that may not be picked up by only looking at scheme costs or ridership statistics. By collaborating closely with local stakeholders through these workshops, we intend this project to reflect the local priorities for DRT in each of these areas.

Check back for more updates on our project as we continue to explore Demand Responsive Transport in rural areas.