Refining our plans for 21st Century Mobility

Our second session of the iLab exploring 21st Century Mobility which took place in March 2021.

We looked at one of our flagship projects: the Heathrow Demonstrator. This project recognises the many barriers for people cycling in and out of Heathrow. We will identify these and try to address as many as we can. We’ll also study global city approaches to the movement of goods and people and apply this thinking to the development of green and travel infrastructure in and out of Hounslow.

Here are some of the ideas that were discussed:

A ‘clean corridor’ from Hounslow centre to Heathrow. This is about allowing cycle journeys from an urban centre to a major destination in a straight line and avoiding dirty traffic to make cycling more appealing.
Cycling to Heathrow has plummeted since the tunnel which allows cycling access has been closed. It was suggested that new cycling paths/infrastructure could be launched to coincide with the reopening of Heathrow’s tunnel.
How do we signal that Hounslow is a place where we ‘do cycling’? Getting off a train at Cambridge and seeing the sea of bicycles parked outside the station is a useful signal. Can this signal be used in Hounslow? Such parking infrastructure also addresses people’s fears about the security of their bikes, which is a significant barrier. It was also pointed out that ‘Sheffield stands’ shouldn’t just be concentrated in one area: what helps day-to-day cycling is having them available at both ends of a journey.
There was also discussion about ‘last mile’ journeys. Rikshaws were raised as something that could be encouraged in the borough, particularly at Heathrow. One rikshaw company called Pedal Me claims to be cheaper than Uber. This discussion made us consider the need to address the two main types of transport user coming in and out of Heathrow: the needs of employees are different to what tourists need.