Introducing Somo: Evidence-led active travel planning
Cities across the UK are investing in active travel at pace. New routes, new facilities, new pilots.
But too often, infrastructure is still planned using static datasets, assumptions, or generic guidance - with limited insight into how facilities perform once they’re installed.
Manufacturers don’t manage infrastructure.
And planners rarely get feedback on what actually works in the real world.
That gap is exactly why we’ve launched Somo Studios - or Somo for short.
Somo is a data-led research and guidance agency helping councils plan soft mobility infrastructure that actually gets used - powered by real-world insights from Spokesafe.
From planning to performance
Spokesafe works at the middle and end of a project’s lifecycle: operating secure cycle parking, supporting users, and tracking how infrastructure performs day to day.
Over the last five years, we’ve seen first-hand what happens when facilities are placed without demand modelling, when networks aren’t joined up, and when usage data isn’t available to inform future investment.
That operational experience - alongside hundreds of thousands of real journeys - has shaped Somo.
Where Spokesafe focuses on delivery and operations, Somo works upstream: helping partners make better decisions before money is spent.
Evidence-led active travel planning
Somo supports councils and delivery partners with practical, data-driven guidance across:
Location modelling
Demand forecasting
Network planning
Business case development
Operational strategy
Alongside commissioned work, Somo will also publish open guidance and research, with tools developed by the in-house team made available to partners wherever possible.
The aim is simple: help cities build the right infrastructure, in the right places, managed in the right way.
Not as many units as possible - just the ones that will be used.
Planning infrastructure that works
Too many facilities sit empty while demand grows just a few minutes away.
Good planning closes that gap.
By combining real operational data with thoughtful research and practical tools, Somo exists to support better outcomes for councils, operators and cyclists alike.
Because active travel doesn’t succeed on infrastructure alone - it succeeds when that infrastructure is planned with evidence, delivered with care, and designed around how people actually move.
Visit Somo's website, and our first round of tools, here.