An electric rickshaw operating in Liverpool.This project examines whether electric rickshaws could offer a practical, low-carbon answer to the first- and last-mile connectivity gap in rural Britain. Bringing together academics, a local authority officer and transport consultants, the study sets out to establish how well the mode fits the rural UK context and what would shape public willingness to use it.
The project team consists of three members drawn from across academia and local government. Yasir Ali, a Reader at Loughborough University, and Anna Charly of the University of Liverpool provide the academic perspective, working alongside Bernard Evans of Leicestershire County Council. The team is supported by FTVG mentors Oliver Stone-Houghton and Deni Krevesic, who bring real-world experience in transport and future mobility and offer practitioner insight throughout the study.
The team came together through a shared interest in supporting mobility in rural areas, which are often left behind in conventional transport planning. Each member contributes a distinct area of expertise, ensuring a comprehensive analysis of both the challenges and the opportunities facing rural mobility.
Around 10 million people in England live in rural areas. With public transport often limited and active travel infrastructure almost non-existent, many rural residents have little alternative but to rely on private cars. The consequences extend well beyond transport: for vulnerable residents in particular, restricted mobility translates directly into difficulty reaching essential services such as GP surgeries, hospitals, shops and employment.
Solving rural mobility is the issue that knits the team together, an important topic that has been overlooked for many years. Rather than assuming that conventional solutions can simply be scaled down to fit rural geographies, the project evaluates the suitability of a new mode: the electric rickshaw. The study will assess where the mode fits in the rural market and identify the factors that would influence whether residents actually choose to use it, producing recommendations grounded in that evidence.
The project adopts a two-stage framework of data collection and analysis. The first stage is a review of literature concerning new modes, with particular attention to studies of e-rickshaws in South Asia, where the mode is already prominent. This international evidence base offers a valuable starting point for understanding how the vehicles perform in practice and which conditions support their uptake.
Findings from the review will then inform the design of a survey to be circulated across a range of rural areas within the UK. The survey will target diverse demographics to ensure the sample is representative of rural communities rather than of any single group. The resulting data will undergo in-depth statistical analysis to establish the factors affecting intention to use e-rickshaws, forming the evidence base from which the team will devise its policy recommendations.
The project addresses the long-standing challenge of poor first- and last-mile connectivity in rural areas by uncovering the real behavioural and practical barriers that prevent residents from choosing greener travel modes. In doing so, it aims to provide the transport industry with robust evidence for designing affordable, low-carbon services suited to rural conditions.
For operators and policymakers alike, the actionable insights generated by the study are intended to support the delivery of more equitable rural mobility, helping to ensure that the communities most often overlooked in conventional planning are not left without viable, sustainable alternatives to the private car.