UWE Bristol conducted two-years of research to understand the factors that make Milton Keynes feel like a safe, convenient and comfortable place to cycle or ride a scooter on the journeys people want to make. 11 professionals with a working knowledge of the cycling environment were interviewed and 61 people who live, work, have a child at, or attend a local school took part in a qualitative sorting exercise.

A consistent view from citizens that took part was that tackling the anti-social use of fast illegal e-scooters and e-bikes on the cycling network would make Milton Keynes feel much safer for cycling and legally riding an e-scooter. Shared e-scooters and cycles are available to hire across the city, but participants said they need to be more widely available when and where people need them, and charging facilities are required for more people to be able to use private e-bikes. Milton Keynes Council have been a partner in the research project, and they have developed an e-scooter policy. Thames Valley Police procured e-bikes for officers in 2025 and have been proactive in addressing the issues around illegal e-scooter and e-bike use.

Milton Keynes is changing and the cycling network needs to be adapted to accommodate the emerging variety of micromobility options and evolve to accommodate the growing volume of cycles, cargo bikes and e-delivery vehicles of different shapes and sizes. The paper presents public views along with the response of the local authority and law enforcement agency.

Jonathan Flower, Senior Research Associate, University of West of England

Jonathan is a Transport Planner and researcher in Centre for Transport and Society. He is a board member for the Transport Planning Society, creating a link between academia and practice. He has been building experience in automated vehicles having coordinated and designed the Human Factors VENTURER trials. He has also worked on CAPRI (autonomous pods project) and an Innovate UK funded project known as MultiCAV (Multi connected and autonomous vehicle) in Oxfordshire.

His current work centres around street design and road safety, with a particular focus on crossing design and public transport safety, through projects with the Transport for London, Active Travel England, Road Safety Trust, National Institute of Health Research, High Volume Traffic and FCDO's Impact Fund. His other research interests include Safer Systems, micromobility and inclusive design. Jonathan also manages a large evaluation contract for the Department for Transport.

Jonathan previously worked in International Development where he developed approaches to programme monitoring and evaluation that were used globally in more than 2,000 programmes and 10,000 projects.​

Murray Woodburn, Head of Traffic and Transport, Milton Keynes Council

Bio to follow.