Travel Plans are ways of promoting more sustainable travel to, from and for work, school or leisure - they are very flexible, and can even be produced for use at a personal level of detail. They are typically a package of measures tailored to meet the needs of an individual business, site or community with the aim of promoting cleaner, 'greener' travel choices, in order to improve access to opportunity and to reduce reliance on the car. Everyone benefits.
Havant Borough Council's Workplace Travel Plan for the Civic Offices (Public Service Village phase 1), Southmoor Depot and Beachlands has now been adopted.
Jump to: Travel Plans for Individuals>>
Is it compulsory to have a Travel Plan?
How can a Travel Plan help me as an employer?
What can I do as an employer?
Why should I consider a Travel Plan?
Where do I start?
Where can I get help with my Travel Plan?
How much will it cost me to set up a Travel Plan?
Can I stop thinking about the Travel Plan once I've finished it?
What is the business case for a Travel Plan?
My organisation is too small to have a Travel Plan
It is not usually compulsory to have a travel plan, they are usually voluntary - but having a travel plan will bring many additional benefits.
Businesses that are developing new sites, changing or expanding a current site may need to produce a Travel Plan in order to comply with planning guidelines - PPG 13 or Section 106 Agreements.
As an employer you have a role to play by introducing and encouraging measures to your staff.
Some suggestions are:
Transport problems in the UK have an effect on everyone:
Before you start implementing any measures you need to:
Only then will you be able to launch your Travel Plan. Once launched someone will need to be responsible for its ongoing promotion and a point of contact.
It may seem a daunting task to set up a Travel Plan but remember that you are not alone.
Most local authorities have a Travel Plan Officer (or equivalent - designations vary) who will be able to offer you advice and guidance. For Havant employers, please contact the Transport Engineer on 023 9244 6210 for an informal discussion about how you can make your Plan effective and ensure it generates real and sustainable results.
Free help is available from the Environment and Energy Helpline on 0800 585794 or www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/sustainable/travelplans. This is site specific advice, a free government funded service, to help you develop an effective travel plan for your business, school or organisation. You can get up to five days free advice to help you overcome the problems you face in getting your travel plan up and running.
Havant Council's own Travel Plan is available for reference, although of course each Plan needs to reflect individiual circumstances of the locatlity and organisation.
It is difficult to say how much it will cost, but many of the measures that you implement will eventually help you make savings.
One widely used example is that of the cost of car parking spaces. The total cost of maintaining and / or renting a car parking space could be anything from £30 to £3000 a year. Car parking spaces that become no longer required due to an effective travel plan could be put to a more profitable use.
More effective use of staff time, more effective fleet management, and policies on business mileage could produce significant cost savings for your business.
Income from car parking charges could be used for related use - a Travel Plan Co-ordinators's salary, a workbus, or cycle parking.
No! A travel plan is a living document, and your organisation will need to review it regularly in order to keep on making improvements and to ensure that you are meeting the targets that you have set yourself.
You may find that some of the measures you have taken may not have the expected results and you need to find alternatives. On the other hand your situation may change or your organisation may have noted areas for improvements.
You may be so successful that you may wish to set yourself higher targets. You will constantly need to market your Travel Plan in order to remind current staff and inform new employees.
A Travel Plan may be seen to be simply an environmental tool but it is likely to have wider benefits.
There may be cost savings from new working practices (flexible hours, 9 day fortnights, teleworking, homeworking), or business travel guidelines. An effective travel plan will help to meet existing requirements for example environmental management, quality assurance. A Travel Plan could be a co-ordinating business tool - looking for savings across the organisation rather than in separate cost centres.
No organisation is too small to make simple changes - for example, the provision of cycle parking, changing facilities, and most basic of all the easy availability of public transport information.
On a larger scale joining with others, your neighbours or the local business park, will help you to deal with your site problems.
How can a Travel Plan help me as an individual?
What can I do as an individual?
Where do I get information about public transport?
Are Travel Plans anti-car?
I need my car for work
Travelling to and from work other than as a driver can reduce stress.
Walking (from the bus stop, train station, home) or cycling to work can improve your levels of fitness, health and reduce the risk of heart disease.
Car sharing or buying season tickets can save you money.
Using the train or bus gives you extra thinking / meeting time, and can be less stressful than driving.
Travelling in with others could help you to meet your work colleagues
Think about your travel choice:-
Consider making a change once a week to start with - breaking the habit is the first and hardest step.
There is a great amount of information available via the internet, telephone lines and local bus and cycle route maps. There is also a selection of comprehensive journey planning web sites elsewhere on this site >>.
Travel Plans are not anti-car, but they do emphasise the travel choices that are available and offer practical measures on how to make them more attractive to everyone. There will be a number of instances when it is more practicable to use a car.
In areas where car ownership is low it is important that alternatives to the car are widely available, in order to assist the local economy, make employment opportunities available, and combat social exclusion for example.
In this instance you may consider the following: