Here’s a thing. In London and many other cities around the world it is perfectly normal (and often preferred) to use public transport. It is what you do and how best to get around. But sadly hop 90 miles South (East, West, North) and cars win. To be fair, infrastructures in rural communities often don’t allow for much use of public transport, unless you want to take all day 😉 but my inner mystic meg says this will all change, and driving will become a thing of the past. Remember the horse and cart? 😉

Undoubtedly there is work to be done; as businesses, communities, and local authorities but us humans are good at improving things and finding great new solutions. And with the help of AI too, it’s totally within our grasp.

To get us thinking, here’s a few ideas:

• Shuttle buses / taxis
  Venues that are not in walking distance to a train station could offer shuttle buses to pick up and drop off guests. These would be great branding opportunities for the venues too! An immediate few local ones I have in mind are: Limewood, Chewton Glen and Kimbridge Barns. All beautiful, but not in walking distance to a station.
• Partnerships with taxi companies
  Taxi companies were hit hard in the pandemic and there’s a known shortage of drivers. However, if businesses and venues created taxi partnerships (to and from stations or even people’s homes) this would create more demand, better investments (in the taxi industry) and attract taxi drivers back. Creating a circular economy.
• Water taxis
  I LOVE this idea. In the Central South we live very near water. Poole, Bournemouth, Southampton and Portsmouth are all located on the waterfront. Can you imagine how lovely it would be hoping on a water taxi nipping to a neighbouring city rather than getting stuck on the M27. Water taxis are not a new idea either, check out where they are in the world: To turn this into a reality there is a need for investment, joined up thinking, collaboration and a will to succeed. But we can achieve this.

For me there are three reasons why I big up public transport:

• Environment
• Productivity
• Energy

Equally investing in leasing or buying an electric car is not in my cash flow.

There are other great benefits of choosing not to drive all the time. If you enjoy the odd drink, why not enjoy a couple of glasses of wine & use public transport to get home. And if you don’t drink, why should you always have to be the one to drive; Not driving means we can all relax, read a book, listen to Podcast, catch up with emails or have a sleep. #lightbulbmoment #driverslesscarswillcome 😉.

Less driving will decrease road accidents too, which often occur when we are tired and stressed. Did you know there is an average 1,500 deaths a year from crashes. Eek! And over three hundred accidents a day. Lavis’s mystic meg has a vision that in many years times there will be six-year-olds saying, ‘did people really use to drive their own cars?’ #Whowouldhavebelievedit

And how does this all link to being the CEO of a Brand and Creative Consultancy (or any other job for that matter). It’ll bring more time to think, be savvy, produce excellent work, to relax and do things we love.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on travelling, how you think it will evolve and what, if anything, you are doing differently now to what you were years ago.