How to get rural communities to embrace new sustainable forms of mobility?
On 6-7 February 2025, the Policy Learning Platform held an online peer review for the Leitrim County Council in Ireland, which has requested insight from other very thinly populated areas in Europe on their progress with sustainable mobility and community acceptance.
Alongside Katharina Krell and Magda Michalikova, from the Policy Learning Platform, a group of experienced peers participated in the peer review:
- Brian Masson, Multi Modal Transport Solutions Ltd, UK
- Dr Darren McAdam-O'Connell, The Environmental Forum / Cork Transport & Mobility Forum, Cork, IE
- Jenny Milne, JLM & Founder of the Scottish Rural and Island Transport Community, UK
- Jorge Brito, Coimbra Region Intermunicipal Community, PT
- Malene Kofod Nielsen, Region Nordjylland, DK
- Sérgio Caetano, Coimbra Region Intermunicipal Community, PT
Leitrim County Council has already trialled many different new sustainable forms of mobility in the past but without the desired community impact and without being able to find long-term funding or business models due to the low demand for any mobility option in the very thinly populated territory.
The peers all came from territories with similar challenges and provided relevant examples of successfully introduced new mobility solutions as well as recommendations to achieve community buy-in for these. Some key points are listed below.
Key recommendations
- Rural areas need multiple mobility solutions: traditional buses and trains combined with new and more sustainable forms of mobility, all connected in attractive intermodal hubs.
- Bus / train stops are ideal location for so-called “mobility hubs”, offering onward mobility solutions, such as parking space, bike parking, lockers, shared (e-)bikes and shared (e-)cars. Such hubs should be safe, user-friendly and visible (well-lit, sturdy materials, CCTV-cameras, lockers…)
- The peers presented successful schemes for car-pooling and cargo-bike-sharing (Northern Denmark), on-demand transport (Coimbra region), community-based transport schemes with volunteer drivers (Scotland), greenway networks for active mobility (Cork), each catering to different user groups.
- Good, accurate and up-to-date mobility data helps design the right mobility solution. Most of the new mobility solutions also benefit from digitalisation as apps have become the standard to help plan journeys, book services, share assets.
- Adopt a long-term approach (5 years +) and don’t judge the impact based on a short time pilot. Changing habits is slow. Evidence from other regions has shown continuous increase in users for new mobility scheme where these were continued after a piloting phase with continuous promotion campaigns.
- Introducing new forms of mobility is resource intensive, and there are economies of scale in bundling several municipalities for joint tenders. Scale attracts tenderers whereas single locations might not attract any. Joint tendering by e.g. the region or an intermunicipal entity also removes the burden of tendering from individual small administrations. Scale also reduces the costs.
- Business models for public transport are rarely working, and even less in areas with low demand due to high dispersion of riders. However, the cost of providing mobility and accessibility must be weighed against the costs of not providing it.
- Small-scale new schemes, such as better intermodal hubs with bike parking and lockers etc. are not very costly but still useful.
- Social business models and more community-based mobility offers can work and offer an alternative. Social business models are about creating social value, not about shareholder return. The different motivation mobilises often volunteering resources, making them more affordable. But even social business models often need some public funding to sustain their operations.
- There are tools to determine the social value of mobility solutions and translate it into Euros. This can help make the case for financing and opens up possibilities for non-mobility funding, e.g. from health budgets or charities.
- Traditional communication, promotion and marketing for newly introduced mobility offers is a must.
- In addition, it is helpful to use insights from behaviour science, understanding of motivators and barriers to change, and apply techniques, such as nudging and incentivising.
- The gold standard for the introduction of new mobility solutions is co-creation / co-design together with the community stakeholders from the outset. Participatory planning and collaboration with stakeholder groups requires a change in administrative procedures but brings the community on board. Collaborative solution design has been successfully implemented in Scotland and Cork with focus on user value and user needs.
My recent participation in the Interreg Peer Review process was a thought provoking experience. A useful insight was gained from the peer experts and we will consider which of the recommendations can be implemented in Co. Leitrim
Geraldine Reynolds
The host’s policy challenges, and all the peer suggestions will be available shortly in the follow-up report.
Peer review publication
Find more information on the methodology and experiences of previous beneficiaries in our publication.
Apply for a peer review
Start your peer review application process today and find solutions to your policy challenge with our expert and peers!