Highways Agency

Understanding How We Travel To Work

In 1997, we commissioned a Travel Survey among all our staff working at our offices throughout the country.

The response to the Survey was a very encouraging 87%. We reviewed the staff responses to provide us with a valuable source of information to develop ideas for our "Green Travel Plan".

• nearly half of all staff take the car to work; most travel alone
• over a third of staff use public transport, most commonly when commuting to city centre offices
• a small number of staff cycle or walk to work
• car sharing and switching to public transport were considered as possible alternatives to driving to work but there were obstacles preventing this.

Following the survey we held a number of green travel workshops at our offices to ask staff for their views on: travel to work, travel on business, and travel avoidance. The workshops were well attended. Some of the comments were:

• "Car sharers should have priority parking spaces"
• "We should plan meetings more carefully to avoid unnecessary business travel"
• "The office is easily 'walkable' for lots of us"
• "My car is essential. I have to drop my children at nursery and at school on my way in"
• "Congestion and driving standards in the city make me very reluctant to cycle"
• "Public transport facilities for the disabled seem very limited."
• "Improving cycle storage, changing and washing facilities has made a real difference"