Climate Change

How the UK Plans to Climate-Proof Its Transport System

A key challenge for transport systems in the coming years will be improving resilience to climate change. The UK has issued its climate adaptation strategy for transport.

Key Takeaways

• Vision: The strategy aims to create a climate-resilient transport system that keeps people and goods moving even during extreme weather.​
• Setting stronger adaptation objectives: The government will set clearer objectives to prepare for at least 2°C of global warming by 2050, and implement climate resilience standards by 2030.
• Return on investment: Adaptation measures can deliver £2 to £10 in benefits for every £1 invested.
• Systems-based approach: Success depends on understanding interdependencies across transport modes and with other sectors, such as energy, water, and digital infrastructure.
• £1 billion local highways fund: To repair bridges, flyovers, and tunnels to improve resilience to extreme weather and modernise England's local road network.
• Mainstreaming adaptation into decision-making: Climate resilience must be embedded throughout planning, appraisal, procurement, and operations.
• Sector-specific actions across all modes: Network Rail will develop regional adaptation pathways, National Highways will strengthen climate focus in roads, and new collaboration frameworks are being established for aviation, maritime, and public transport.
• Building robust evidence: The government is co-funding research, developing climate risk data improvement plans, and publishing metrics to assess transport network resilience and fill data gaps.​
• Regulatory and leadership accountability: All transport organisations should identify senior leaders responsible for climate risks, while regulators will embed adaptation into their oversight duties.​
• Current vulnerability and projected risks: As of 2024, 38% of roads and 37% of railways in England are at flood risk, projected to increase to 46% for roads and 54% for rail by 2050.​

Comment

Improving resilience is a core part of strategic asset management in transport. Given how immature many parts of the transport sector are in Strategic Asset Management, there would be significant benefit in using the need to improve resilience also to mature more general strategic asset management, decision making and investments.

What Next?

How are you building resilience and strategic asset management of your assets?

Aviation

From Drones to eVTOLs: How the US Plans to Integrate Advanced Air Mobility

The United States has published its Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) National Strategy. Although focused on the US, AAM could have a significant impact on transportation systems around the world.

Key Takeaways

• The AAM National Strategy is built on pillars that support successful integration of AAM in the U.S. transportation system.
• Pillar 1: Airspace. Key Goals:
  • Maintain and mature sound regulatory oversight of airspace safety, security, efficiency, access, and economic competition.​
  • Pioneer a new public-private cooperative model to integrate advanced aviation safely and efficiently with traditional aircraft.​
  • Modernize systems and management practices, including adapting the Federal workforce to oversee a federated air traffic system.​
• Pillar 2: Infrastructure. Key goals:
  • Adapt existing infrastructure for new uses and technologies, leveraging current assets for immediate benefits.​
  • Improve energy planning and distribution in aviation.​
  • Develop spectrum solutions for future mobility needs.
  • Develop additional weather networks and forecasting capabilities.
  • Achieve new levels of accessibility, competition, and interoperability.​
• Pillar 3: Security. Key goals:
  • Apply existing security frameworks immediately as needed.​
  • Develop a risk-based approach to identify and address potential physical, personnel, and cybersecurity threats to AAM operations.
  • Develop resilient security measures for AAM manufacturing and service in the United States to promote independence and economic vitality.
• Pillar 4: Community Planning and Engagement. Key goals:
  • Help local officials and government leaders better understand the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder in the delivery of AAM.
  • Provide a repository of best practices and resources to assist local officials and government leaders to communicate with the public.
  • Develop new resources to measure noise impacts of AAM.​
  • Promote accessibility in AAM aircraft and operations.
• Pillar 5: Workforce. Key goals:
  • Expand the aviation workforce and the number of aviators, while managing the introduction of new and automated technologies.​
  • Create new pathways to aviation careers.
  • Incorporate aviation skills into technical education programs.​
  • Create opportunities for upskilling and retraining the existing workforce.​
• Pillar 6: Automation. Key goals:
  • Enable automated AAM flight.
  • Coordinate testing and evaluation methods to shrink development time and cost.​
  • Position the United States as the world leader in automated flight.​​

Comment

Drones and Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft are beginning to find uses in small niches. However, they will only become mainstream and scale significantly if they can solve major issues such as safety and noise.

If they solve these problems, we will need to give serious consideration to their role in creating better transport systems.

What Next?

Do you have a strategy for Advanced Air Mobility?

Active Travel

New Research on School Streets: Progress, But Not a Silver Bullet

I am a big fan of measures to increase walking and cycling to school. This research looked at the impact of traffic restriction schemes (School Streets) during drop-off and pick-up times outside schools in the UK.

Key Takeaways

• Most studies have evaluated educational, informational, or social support interventions, such as walking buses, school travel planning and cycle training.
• Fewer have evaluated environmental or policy interventions, such as improving cycle lanes and crossings or the effects of disincentives to drive.
• The study used data collected by primary schools on children’s modes of travel to school between 2012 and 2023.
• The study matched each intervention school to two control schools based on area-level deprivation, urban-rural status, school size, baseline prevalence of active travel to school and geographical region.
• The study used data from 498 schools (166 intervention and 332 control), at which, on average, 70% of children travelled to school by active modes at baseline.
• The proportion of pupils in intervention schools travelling by active modes increased by 5.9 absolute percentage points.
• The largest contributor to the net increase in active travel was an increase in the percentage of pupils using 'park-and-stride' - driving to the boundary of the restriction and then walking the last stage.
• The proportion travelling by private motor vehicle decreased by 5.3 points.
• While the overall patterns of absolute and relative change were consistent, there was substantial variation in the size of these changes between schools.
• Most of the overall effect was driven by results in London; the pattern of results for England outside London and for Scotland was similar.

Comment

Whilst I think School Streets are an important policy, I am not overly surprised that they did not bring a large mode shift on their own and often only induced a park and stride response.

What I feel is required is a set of policies that favour active travel to school, including School Walking and Cycling Buses, Safer Junctions, Slower Speeds and Active Transport Infrastructure, such as protected cycle lanes.

We should also not overlook the land use aspects. Bigger and bigger schools with ever larger catchments will mean fewer children walking or cycling to school.

What Next?

Do you have a comprehensive strategy for encouraging walking and cycling to school?

Quick Adventures in Transport Wonderland

Here is what else I came across this week:

• ​Can driving automation make demand responsive transit viable? A strategic modeling approach.
• ​More roads? Infrastructure elasticities and requirements to reduce passenger transport energy demand​
• ​Breaking free—Reducing car reliance in Small and Medium-sized Cities​

Podcast

2025 Review and Predictions for 2026

This week on the Transport Leaders podcast, we reviewed 2025 for Autonomous Vehicles (AVs), Bikelash, and Road User Charging and made our predictions for 2026 in these areas.

You can watch it here or listen here.