The Department for Transport’s long-awaited national transport strategy, Better Connected: A Strategy for Integrated Transport, sets out a clear long-term ambition for transport in England: a system that is more affordable, accessible, reliable and better integrated for the people and places it serves.

It represents a key moment for both local and strategic authorities and how they can support integrated transport through high-quality data and sustained behaviour-change approaches that can reduce congestion, air pollution and the inefficiency of driving alone.

Integrated Transport: The Local Challenge

For many councils, transport providers and employers, the priorities outlined in Better Connected will feel familiar. Reducing congestion, improving connectivity, cutting emissions and widening access to employment have shaped (and held back) local transport planning for years.

From our perspective at Mobilityways, the strategy reflects a growing recognition that transport challenges cannot be solved through infrastructure investment alone. Changing how people travel is fundamentally a behaviour-change challenge, particularly when commuting patterns regularly cross local authority boundaries and connect towns, cities and rural communities.

That national direction matters because decisions made in one area can have significant impacts elsewhere, particularly when it comes to growth, congestion, air quality and access to employment.

Reducing congestion

Better Connected also places renewed emphasis on reducing private vehicle use, particularly single-occupancy journeys. That reflects a growing reality facing councils and strategic authorities across the country: congestion is placing increasing pressure on local economies, public health and transport infrastructure at the same time as authorities manage constrained budgets and ambitious net zero commitments.

The benefits of reducing congestion extend well beyond journey times. Fewer vehicles on the road can improve air quality, lower transport emissions, reduce pressure on parking infrastructure and create safer, healthier communities.

The strategy rightly focuses on investment in transport infrastructure to support more walking, cycling, public transport and shared travel.

Infrastructure alone rarely changes commuting behaviour at scale.

A response to the cost of living crisis

For many people, driving alone remains the most familiar, flexible and reliable option, particularly where alternatives feel less practical within the realities of daily life. Successful transport strategies therefore depend on combining infrastructure with sustained engagement, high-quality data and practical support that helps people adopt different travel habits with confidence.

This is particularly important when considering the role commuting plays in both transport emissions and household finances. Cost of living pressures, driven by fuel costs, continue to affect communities across the country, and commuting remains a major weekly expense for many households.

As a result, measures that reduce fuel use and provide lower-cost commuting options can deliver immediate practical benefits alongside longer-term environmental gains.

How we can help

At Mobilityways, our work with employers and public sector organisations, including combined authorities, consistently shows that many commuting journeys could realistically be shared where councils and employers provide the right support, visibility and incentives.

Carpooling is often overlooked within wider transport discussions despite already playing an important role in the UK commuting landscape. Reducing single-occupancy travel can help cut congestion, lower commuter costs and reduce emissions without requiring major new infrastructure investment.

Experience across both public and private sector organisations consistently shows that outcomes depend on more than technology alone. Behaviour change happens when schemes are well designed, clearly communicated and supported over time.

Using data smarter

Data also has a critical role to play in making local transport strategies more effective. Better Connected sits alongside the Department for Transport’s recently published Transport Data Action Plan, including commitments around improved data sharing and the development of a Transport Data Marketplace.

For combined authorities working to improve air quality and reduce congestion, this is particularly significant. Better access to transport and commuter data has an increasingly important role to play in supporting evidence-led clean air strategies and helping authorities understand where interventions are likely to have the greatest impact.

This aligns closely with the priorities being addressed through UK100’s Clean Air Network, where combined authorities are increasingly focused on the relationship between transport, public health, emissions reduction and access to employment.

Evidence-Led Planning

For local authorities, better access to transport and commuting data creates significant opportunities to understand travel demand more accurately and target investment more effectively.

That means moving beyond assumptions about how people travel and towards evidence-led planning based on real commuting patterns and realistic opportunities for change.

Understanding where people travel from, which sustainable alternatives are genuinely viable, and where interventions are successfully reducing single-occupancy journeys allows councils to make far better-informed decisions. It also helps demonstrate whether investment is delivering measurable outcomes around congestion, emissions reduction and access to services.

Working together

The challenge now is turning national ambition into practical local delivery.

That means helping residents access affordable and realistic alternatives to driving alone. It means using better data to guide investment and measure impact. And it means recognising that transport strategies ultimately succeed when people choose to use the alternatives being provided.

Better Connected sets an important direction for the future of transport in England. The opportunity now is ensuring local authorities are equipped not only to plan for change, but to deliver it in ways that support communities, reduce commuter emissions and respond to the continued pressures facing households and transport networks alike.

Achieving that will require a combination of infrastructure investment, high-quality data and sustained behaviour-change support. Authorities that successfully connect those elements will be far better placed to deliver transport systems that people can realistically and confidently choose to use.

We at Mobilityways are proud to be working with UK100 to address these challenges and deliver practical solutions, if you haven’t already now is the perfect time to start a conversation with us about doing this together.

To get in touch, contact me at graeme@mobilityways.com.