Highways Agency

Safe roads, Reliable journeys, Informed travellers

Introduction

The Influencing Travel Behaviour programme is designed to promote sustainable travel and reduce congestion on England's 'strategic road network'. Through this the Agency aims to cut congestion by influencing travel behaviour, providing access to information to help people make *smarter travel choices and introducing demand management measures in areas prone to congestion.

Our strategy in taking this forward aims to balance the needs of people to travel with the available capacity of the road network. We aim to support the country's economic success whilst addressing environmental objectives.  Key to achieving this is to reduce the amount of traffic on the road, in particular, the demand for private car journeys.

Congestion

Traffic Congestion seriously affects our economy, quality of life and environment. The Highways Agency's plans to improve motorways and trunk roads will help to tackle congestion. However, road building alone will not solve the problem.

The Department for Transport's congestion target challenges us to make journeys more reliable on the strategic road network. The Influencing Travel Behaviour Programme has been identified as being able to contribute to meeting this target.

Promoting Sustainable Travel

To tackle the above, the Agency is currently implementing a programme of 'smarter choices', which constitutes a series of measures designed to promote sustainable travel alternatives, majoring on the delivery of Travel Plans. The issue of sustainable travel and transport is high on the Government's transport agenda, particularly after the Stern and Eddington reports on climate, the economy and transport's role in these crucial areas. Influenced by Stern and Eddington, DfT have published a document called 'Towards a Sustainable Transport System' (Oct 07).

Working in Partnership

Effective partnership working is critical to successful outcomes.  We proactively collaborate with a range of other organisations in implementing these measures on the network. These include Government Offices, Local Authorities, Regional Development Agencies, strategic partners and private sector companies. We are: -

• engaging with stakeholders such as Local Authorities, Regional Development Agencies and Government Offices and private sector stakeholders, to promote sustainable travel
• working in collaboration with key stakeholders such as the Association of Train Operating Companies, Campaign for Better Transport and the Association of Commuter Transport, with a view to promoting this programme as well as identifying particular areas of work, which would benefit from a partnership approach
• working with the business community to influence employers to achieve a real reduction in road use, including the HA highlighting the potential benefits to business of implementing Travel Plans; and
• supporting sustainable development by securing the use of travel plan initiatives as formal conditions within planning applications.  See the 'Spatial Planning and Sustainable Transport' page for more information on this.

Protecting our Environment

In addition to delivering congestion and time saving benefits, "smarter choices" initiatives offer environmental benefits. Reduced trips, improved traffic flow and less stop-start driving all reduce CO2 emissions, noise levels and improve air quality.  The Agency’s travel plan schemes are already delivering valuable carbon savings. The Barclaycard travel plan saved 425 Tonnes of carbon in 2006/7. The Grove Park area travel plan at Leicester is addressing an existing prioritised Air Quality Management Area (AQMA), where air quality levels already exceed EU limits.

Delivering Sustainable Development

The planning system and associated policies offer the Agency a huge opportunity to be a key enabler of sustainable development. We are proactively working in partnership with developers and planning authorities to ensure that new build does not adversely impact on our network and the importance we place upon this work cannot be underestimated.  More can be found on this area of work by viewing the 'Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development' page.

Objectives and Benefits of the Influencing Travel Behaviour Programme

Smarter choices initiatives are much less expensive and can be implemented more quickly than conventional road infrastructure improvement schemes.

Objectives	Benefit
"Promote sustainable transport choices and improve quality of life" (DfT Objective).	Greater public awareness and support achieved through local promotional work, web sites journey planning tools. Will measure some evidence of this through travel surveys.
To encourage use of sustainable modes.	Achieving modal shift away from Single Occupancy car trips to more sustainable alternatives. Measured through monitoring processes.
Promote health benefits of alternative travel and transport.	Health benefits from walking and cycling.
"To improve the environmental performance of transport" (DfT key task).	Positive influence on local air quality, AQMA and CO2 emissions. Some sites are in/near AQMAs.
Agency PSA target. Improve reliability through reduced congestion. "Improving current operation and capacity of transport networks" (DfT key task).	Positive impact upon Agency network performance via reduced congestion and delays in the peak hour. Positive impact on Local Authority network. Will contribute to realisation of LTP2 benefits and targets. Protect future performance of the strategic road network by mitigating trip increases associated with new developments and Growth Areas. Delivery of benefit to be monitored annually. Positive impact on Local Authority network. Will contribute to future LTP2 benefits.
Provide local economic benefits (spatial planning based travel plans).	Enables sustainable development. Allows locally important development that could not otherwise take place facilitating the creation of jobs to benefit local economy.

Monitoring

The Highways Agency has developed an outcome-focussed Travel Plan monitoring strategy.  This information is important to refine the approach and improve future Travel Plan performance. The process followed in our monitoring strategy is best illustrated by the diagram below:

The monitoring procedure has been broken down into six steps.  Whilst each step leads to another, the process is recurring.

1. Set Objectives
2. Conduct Baseline Survey
3. Set Targets and Indicators
4. Develop and Implement Travel Plan
5. Data Collection and Evaluation
6. Review ATP
   

'Locking In' Benefits

Car Sharing or High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes

At peak times, only vehicles carrying two or more people will be able to use certain lanes. The first trial of this initiative will be on the M606/M62 in Yorkshire.  More information can be found by following this link: M606/M62 in West Yorkshire.

Integrated Demand Management (IDM)

IDM is a programme of schemes and projects designed to reduce congestion on the trunk road network.  It involves using a mixture of:

• providing information to drivers so they can pre-plan their journeys
• the use of HOV lanes (see above)
• controlling access onto the network using traffic lights
• the use of technology such as the M42 Active Traffic Management project

Current Progress

By the end of March 2007, we had implemented a total of 11 Travel Plan schemes. In 2007/8 we have committed to an expanded programme of implementing 18 more, including internal Agency Travel Plan schemes. These schemes have promoted sustainable travel to 57,000 staff from 850 companies.  They include various types of travel plan.  In our current portfolio, residential, work place, growth area-related, freight and leisure travel plans are all featured.

Recognition

Through the ITB programme, the Agency was highly commended at the 2007 Travelwise Conference in Belfast, which was held in November.

Influencing Travel Behaviour Video

We have produced a short video, presented by John Stapleton, that explains a little more about how we are trying to reduce congestion by influencing travel behaviour.

Available formats	Low quality (Dial-up connections)	High quality (Broadband)
Quicktime You need Apple's QuickTime software	View (3.3MB)	View (10MB)
MPEG		View (9.2MB)

You can also view a text-only transcript of the video.

Return to the Keep Traffic Moving section of the web site.

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* 'Smarter travel choices' are techniques for influencing people's travel behaviour towards more sustainable options such as encouraging school, workplace and individualised travel planning. They also seek to improve public transport and promote services such as travel awareness campaigns, setting up websites for car share schemes, supporting car clubs and encouraging teleworking.

Travel Plan Schemes

Listed on the right-hand side of this page is a selection of the current Travel Plan schemes that the Highways Agency is working on.

These support the sustainable development and transport aims of the government and also help to meet the challenges laid down by Stern and Eddington.

We prioritise who to work with based on the number of employees working at a particular site, proximity to our network and existing traffic levels on the particular stretch of our network that is being impacted upon. 

The Agency has made a conscious effort to build a diverse programme of Travel Plan schemes and the differing types, with examples, are highlighted below.

High Occupancy Vehicle Lanes - 'Locking in' the Benefits

The Agency is determined to investigate the degree to which priority lanes can complement adjacent 'smarter choices' initiatives to change travel behaviour.

This has a significant overlap with Integrated Demand Management (IDM).

Sustainable Development - Spatial Planning Solutions

At Blythe Valley, Solihull, and Howbury Park, Bexley, (see below, within 'Freight') the Highways Agency has worked with developers and planning authorities, to negotiate a travel plan, through the mechanism of a Section 106 agreement, as part of the planning consent. This will include regular monitoring and review of the Travel Plans' performance and the implementation of fallback measures, such as access control (or traffic management), to ensure the original outcome is achieved.  For more on this scheme, please follow the link on the right hand side of this page or visit: http://www.blythevalleypark.com/.

The Agency is working in similar ways on many other schemes to achieve sustainable development.

Freight Travel Plans

At Shellhaven, Thurrock, Howbury Park, Bexley and Port of Felixstowe, implementation of freight management travel plans have been agreed with the developers, with the aim of reducing vehicle movements to and from the site.  At Howbury, the Section 106 has been agreed.

Residential Travel Plans

At Ransome Road, Northampton, Eastern Quarry, Dartford and Northstowe, Cambridgeshire, the Agency is working to develop Travel Plan initiatives that will mitigate the impacts of residential developments on our network.

Growth Area Travel Plans

At Wellingborough East, A45, the Agency has worked with the developer and planning authority to negotiate a Section 106 agreement to lessen the impact on the Trunk Road network of this growth area.  This involved implementing access control measures to complement the Travel Plan.

Assisting Regeneration

At Cornwall College, the travel plan developed by the Highways Agency is supported by the Camborne-Pool-Redruth (CPR), Urban Regeneration Company (URC), planning authority and South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA).

Air Quality Management Areas (AQMA)

Part of the Agency's selection criteria for Travel Plan scheme selection takes into account AQMAs and evolving development plans. This supports the increasing government focus on reducing emissions and improving the environment. For instance, our scheme at Grove Park, Leicester will help to improve air quality along the section of the M1, J20-J21, which runs through a prioritised AQMA.

One of voluntary travel plans implemented in 2007/08, University of West of England, lies within a prioritised AQMA adjacent to the M32/M4 near Bristol. The implementation of this travel plan contributes towards the Agency's air quality improvement target.

'Trip Credits'

Even the most sustainable developments will, in most cases, generate new trips, despite the inclusion of a Travel Plan.  The Agency is pioneering an innovative approach to mitigate the impacts of new development called the "trip credit" approach. This involves 'carving out' capacity headroom from surrounding, existing developments to offset this new traffic. This is an alternative to substantial road improvements, especially where it is impractical to provide them. This approach relies on detailed negotiation with developers in formulating a delivery and compliance framework for rolling out travel plan initiatives over a wide area outside the development boundary. The 'trip credits' approach is being used at Ransome Road, Northampton, Northstowe, near Cambridge, Northbridge, Huntingdon and North Dunstable, Bedfordshire.

Leisure Travel Plans

In the early stages of development, the Agency is looking to work with the tourism/leisure industries with a view to implementing innovative visitor travel plans.

All of the Travel Plan schemes summarised above, required excellent partnership working with local authorities, developers and other private businesses.

Travel Plan Benefits Promotion

When working on voluntary schemes, we then approach developers and employers by highlighting benefits to both businesses and employees, such as:

• improved site access, fewer delays (this can be assessed locally by the HA through site specific studies)
• better staff timekeeping
• improved staff morale and thus retention (reduced recruitment and knowledge transfer costs) – a green employer may be more attractive
• health benefits linked to cycling and walking (TfL research)
• contribution to reduced environmental impact, including CO2 (act on CO2 campaign)
• cleaner air, improvements at AQMAs  (may not be able to put a measure on this)
• reduced fleet operating costs
• reduced parking management costs (including cost of dealing with overfull car parks, illegal parking elsewhere
• potential for reallocation of car parking space to a more sustainable and potentially more profitable (for the owner) use. - (earlier TfL work on parking space costs could shape approach to this)
• employer gains a sustainable image which will enhance its reputation (and potentially its business bottom line through free corporate promotion)

To support the above, the Agency has now developed a monitoring strategy for Travel Plans, which measures outcomes across a number of indicators ranging from changing people's attitudes, extent of shift to sustainable modes, "factory gate" trip rates and impact on the nearest HA network node. Robust outcome based monitoring strategies are uncommon in the travel plan industry. Most non-HA schemes are only measures based. The HA's approach is designed to determine the value that such schemes can offer in order to inform and shape the HA's future ITB programme.

Integrated Demand Management

The HA is preparing an overall 'management' strategy for M25 called Integrated Demand Management (IDM). This is an holistic approach based upon making best use of the existing roadspace and locking in the benefits of widening.

IDM takes a "corridor" approach, in which smarter choices measures are deployed over a wide area to support on-road demand management measures:

• Active Traffic Management (e.g. variable speed limits, lane management, hard shoulder running)
• Motorway Access Management (traffic lights on motorway slip roads)
• Priority Lanes, such as car sharing
• Traveller Information
• Incident Management
• Wide Area Traffic Management (where Agency and Local Highway Authority traffic management systems are integrated)

Bespoke IDM solutions are being developed to match the wide variation in conditions around the different parts of the M25.  Junction spacing, growth levels, type of traffic, alternative routes/models etc., all play a part together with the need to optimise use of roadspace and achieve best value.

Overview

Since our launch in 2004 we have been working on a programme to influence travel behaviour. This has led to a number of *smarter travel choice initiatives being set up. These include:

• contributing to the spatial planning and development control processes. Through collaborating with local authorities, these processes minimise the impact that new developments may have on your strategic road network;

• taking forward the Government's sustainable development agenda (balancing the increasing demand for travel against the government's goal of protecting the environment effectively and improving the quality of life for everyone - whether they are travelling or not).

• the implementation of workplace travel plans. To promote modal shift this may involve flexible working arrangements, journey planning and encouraging measures to 'stagger demand', allowing staff to leave work at different times, and where appropriate, aided by methods such as car sharing schemes and parking management systems;

• encouraging tourists to consider changing their travel choices;

• encouraging the use of bus and coach services;

• considering trials of hard shoulder running for coaches;

• introducing car-sharing lanes, encouraging people to share their cars where possible;

• contributing to improving awareness of public transport e.g. by providing better signs to public transport facilities and taking part in discussions about improving other areas of public transportation;

• supporting the benefits of healthier living that would arise from a decrease in pollution from traffic. We are concentrating on increasing the use of public transport, walking, cycling, car sharing/clubs, home-working etc by encouraging people to use on-line sites such as http://www.transportdirect.info/ for planning journeys; and

• identifying useful research, which has already been carried out, and examining how this can be used to support our aims and, where necessary, commissioning further research.

 

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* 'Smarter travel choices' are techniques for influencing people's travel behaviour towards more sustainable options such as encouraging school, workplace and individualised travel planning. They also seek to improve public transport and promote services such as travel awareness campaigns, setting up websites for car share schemes, supporting car clubs and encouraging teleworking.

Spatial Planning and Sustainable Transport

Enabling Development through Sustainable Transport – the "Smarter Choices" agenda

The Highways Agency faces a huge challenge where new developments are likely to add a substantial amount of extra traffic onto its network, many parts of which already suffer from congestion.

The new spatial planning system signalled a major change in the relationship between transport networks and new developments. There is a far greater emphasis on demand management and not least upon "Smarter Choices" measures as a means of achieving it. This focus on managing demand to within the available capacity of the transport network is a major switch from the historical “predict and provide” approach of increasing capacity through provision of infrastructure improvements.

We are working to protect the network by ensuring developers minimise new trips as well as mitigating  the impacts of those trips, especially in growth points and areas.

Enabling Economic Growth whilst protecting future network performance

This challenge also presents a huge opportunity for us to help enable sustainable development:

• enabling job creation and local economic benefits to be realised
• furthering national economic prosperity and growth
• protecting the future performance of the Strategic Road Network (SRN)
• helping deliver reductions in CO2 emissions and wider environmental benefits

Planning Policy

Circular 2/2007 Planning and the Strategic Road Network

Department for Transport's Circular 02/2007, sets out how we will work in partnership with regional and local planning and transport authorities, public transport providers and developers to participate in all stages of the planning process to produce sound and deliverable strategies to ensure that developments are, in transport terms, as sustainable as possible.

The policy reinforces our approach to mitigating the transport impacts of development. We will seek to apply the following solutions iteratively:

• Impact avoidance through choice of sustainable location
• Impact minimisation through realistic Travel Plans
• Access management
• Capacity enhancements as last resort and only where compatible with suitable principles.

This approach is supported by a joint document, written by the Department for Transport and the Department for Communities and Local Government, called the Guidance on Transport Assessment.

This will assist stakeholders in determining whether an assessment may be required and, if so, what the level and scope of that assessment should be.

Planning Guidance

Planning Policy Guidance Note 13 (PPG13)

PPG13 explains the Government's principal policies relating to transport and planning. It ensures co-ordination between land use planning and transport. The aim of this is to reduce reliance on the private car, reduce the growth of motorised journeys and encourage the use of environmentally friendly transport.

Full details of the PPG13 are available on the Communities and Local Government web site.

PPG13 provides clear guidance for developers and to work in partnership with Local Planning Authorities "must submit plans for the development, implementation and maintenance of measures that will minimise the traffic generated by the development". PPG 13 also states that travel plans will have measurable outputs and set out arrangements for monitoring and enforcement.

Updated DfT guidance Using the planning process to secure travel plans (PDF) has been developed to reinforce the links with Regional Spatial Strategies and Local Development Frameworks. This also stresses importance of setting realistic targets, carrying out effective monitoring and enforcement. The document provides comprehensive advice with practical implementation.

Guidance on Transport Assessment has been developed and jointly issued by Department for Transport and Communities and Local Government.

Travel Plans

Travel Plans are much less expensive than traditional road infrastructure improvements, are more sustainable, reducing carbon impacts and improving air quality, and are far better value for money, typically 10 times better!

Although many contain similar elements, there is no such thing as a standard travel plan.  Although their common aims are usually to minimise car trips, particularly single occupancy vehicles (SOV) and to maximise uptake of sustainable access to these locations,. The best approach is to agree what the travel plan aims to achieve (its "outcomes"), identify the issues and opportunities in each development site (its strategy) and then develop a tailor-made package of initiatives which will achieve this (its "measures"). 

Monitoring

It is vital that there is a process of ongoing review of travel plans’ performance to ensure that their intended outcomes are realised. This will involve regular monitoring of results and this will enable remedial actions to be carried out to keep the plans on track.

Locking in the Benefits

The policy and guidance allows us to introduce complementary measures such as traffic management/access control or other developer-funded measures to ensure the original travel plans targets are realised and protect the performance of the strategic road network.

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* 'Smarter travel choices' are techniques for influencing people's travel behaviour towards more sustainable options such as encouraging school, workplace and individualised travel planning. They also seek to improve public transport and promote services such as travel awareness campaigns, setting up websites for car share schemes, supporting car clubs and encouraging teleworking.

What is a Travel Plan?

A travel plan is a package of measures promoting greener, cleaner travel choices and reducing reliance on the car, and is tailored to the needs of individual sites.

Each plan is made up of mechanisms, initiatives and targets that together reduce the impact that transport has on the environment. As well as this the plan can bring added benefits such as cheaper travel options for employers and their staff.

Travel plans are dynamic and evolve over time, adapting to the changing circumstances of the organisation and the environment in which it works. The travel plan is not a one-off document to be produced and put on a shelf. Rather it is the start of a new and better way of living and working, an organic process changing with peoples' needs.

By developing travel plans, organisations will encourage staff and visitors to consider environmentally-friendly alternatives to driving alone.

To ensure success, travel plans should contain a mix of incentives and controls e.g. car-sharing, promoting the use of public transport, encouraging walking and cycling, restricting on-site car parking spaces and supporting alternative work practices which reduce the need to travel¹.

Personalised Travel Plans

In December 2002 the Department for Transport announced funding of £0.6m to support 14 pilot projects to demonstrate the effectiveness of personalised travel planning. These projects enabled organisations to target employees, students or other individuals who were interested in reducing car use, by providing suggestions and incentives for making their journeys in a more environmentally friendly and sustainable way.

If you want to find out more about Travel Plans, please view the document published by the DfT entitled "The Essential Guide to Travel Planning".

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1. Sourced from the link below. This manual is a 'one-stop' resource for organisations looking to develop their own travel plan. It provides information needed to help them through the process, contact details and sources for areas where you might require further information. It focuses on commuting and business travel elements of an organisation's travel, with other elements such as visitors, deliveries and fleet management referred to, but addressed in less detail. A Travel Plan Resources Pack for Employers.

Developing Travel Plans - A Summary

Travel Plans can cut an organisation's car use by up to 20%. Some of our own offices, for example, have made substantial reductions in car trips through travel plans that we have set up for our staff.

The development of a travel plan requires careful consideration of many aspects of a site and its workforce. There are, however, three basic steps to follow in developing an effective travel plans:

1. Ask questions about current travel

• How do staff get to work?
• How and why do they travel to meetings?

2. Develop a plan to manage travel

This could include:

• Car sharing;
• Car clubs;
• More use of buses and trains;
• Encouraging walking and cycling; and
• Video-conferencing to reduce business travel.

3. Review the benefits of the Travel Plan

Consider how the following have changed

• Better timekeeping through more reliable journeys;
• Happier and more motivated staff;
• Better health and fitness through more walking and cycling;
• Lower parking management costs;
• reduced air pollution and CO2 emissions; and
• Lower cost of travel for staff who share cars.

2005-2006 Travel Plan Site: The A45 Corridor: Northampton

Background

Northampton General Hospital and Barclaycard are major traffic generating sites off the congested A45 Barns Meadow Interchange in SW Northampton. Some 8,000 workers commute daily to these sites, many by single occupancy vehicle.

Problems/Opportunities

Our task here was to build on the travel plan work already done by these organisations. The aim was to produce an area travel plan to reduce traffic at the interchange whilst taking into account everyone's travel needs.

Our approach involved working in partnership with Northamptonshire County Council, transport operating companies in the locality, as well as the Hospital & Barclaycard to deliver common objectives. Work to date has included:

• Developing good working relationships with individual site travel plan co-ordinators;
• Commissioning a travel plan opportunities report. This highlighted the potential to cut 936 trips in the peak hour at the Barns Meadow interchange;
• Working with travel plan co-ordinators, prioritising those travel plan measures most likely to deliver the desired outcome;
• The collection and analysis of mapped postcode data from the Hospital and Barclaycard, as a prelude to informing their travel plans; and
• The development of the plans.

Measures introduced at Barclaycard involved:

• Rigourous marketing and publicity events;
• Intranet promotion to communicate jouney plan facilities, promotions, discounts, staff travel surveys, suggestion/comment forms and details of benefits of sustainable travel for the individual;
• A car park management system;
• Car sharing initiatives; and
• Personalised journey planning techniques.

At Northampton Hospital, publicity events have also taken place. Measures to be implemented in April 2006 include:

• The promotion and implementation of a car sharing scheme (e.g. on car share posters);
• An imaginative scheme to encourage staff to surrender their parking permits in favour of free access to pool bikes;
• Packages designed to encourage greater walking & cycling;
• The promotion of all transport modes via the Hospital's travel plan website; and the distribution of travel guides and personalised journey planning (MAST).

Next Steps

In the longer term, the area travel plan will be open to involvement from other local companies and organisations (recruited via the Northamptonshire Travel Forum). This will inform the case for future sustainable transport projects. Separately, we are assessing the feasibility of introducing a dedicated HOV lane at the Interchange to promote the uptake of car sharing and bus usage.

Timescales

We will be monitoring the impact of our travel plan work over the following months in tandem with progressing the HOV initiative, and intend to carry out a further travel survey in 2006/07 to investigate whether the travel plan has delivered a reduction in car-based journeys.

2005-2006 Travel Plan Site: The Mall, Cribbs Causeway - M5, J17, Bristol

 Background

The Mall is a large retail complex of around 135 stores and 17 refreshment outlets. It is run by an on site management company employing about 4,000 staff.

Many commute to work alone in their cars, some travelling through the increasingly congested junction 17 on the M5.

Problems/Opportunities

The Mall posed a challenge in developing a travel plan as there has been little research in the 'retail' sector. The "out of town" nature of the development makes dependency on the car more widespread. Our approach was to convince people of the social, economic and environmental benefits of implementing a travel plan. By approaching the problem in this way we have made significant progress. Notably:

• Through drafting a compelling business case to management of the site to adopt a travel plan (based in part on reduced staff car parking improving customer access);
• Facilitating the appointment of a travel plan co-ordinator and steering group;
• Commissioning a travel plan report, providing information on the local transport infrastructure;
• Working closely with the local authority (South Gloucestershire DistrictCouncil) to identify and assess complementary *smarter travel choices; and
• By drawing up the promotion, distribution and collection of a staff travel survey.

Furthermore, through analysing the travel survey responses:

• A car sharing scheme has now been launched (Incentives used such as vouchers and financial rewards)
• Cycling and increased public transport has been promoted amongst targeted groups by way of travel plan bulletins to all retail outlets, summary leaflets, posters, presentations, exhibitions and focus group discussions. Car share bays have also been designated.
• Regular meetings of the Mall's steering group continue to ensure we maintain momentum.
• A 'Tea for Two' car sharing event and Green Commuter Club meetings have been held and the organisation and promotion of an 'Active 4 Life' event have taken place.
• Commitment has been given to provide cycle parking facilities in line with demand; build dedicated shower and changing facilities on site; provide priority spaces for car sharers.
• Bus service improvements through the local transport plan.

Next stages

Now that measures are in place we will continue marketing and raising awareness of the travel plan. We will be monitoring staff modal shift trends to get a feel for how the various initiatives are progressing. We continue to offer support where needed.

Monitoring

We plan to undertake a further travel survey in 2006/07 to investigate whether the implementation of the Travel Plan has successfully demonstrated trip savings.

 

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* 'Smarter travel choices' are techniques for influencing people's travel behaviour towards more sustainable options such as encouraging school, workplace and individualised travel planning. They also seek to improve public transport and marketing services such as travel awareness campaigns, setting up websites for car share schemes, supporting car clubs and encouraging teleworking.

2005-2006 Travel Plan Site: Solent Business Park / Whiteley Village: M27 Junction 9, Hampshire

Background

This area is a mixed development, including over 60 employers, a retail outlet village, a superstore, and several hundred dwellings. There are approximately 3,500 employees on Solent Business Park which forms a large part of the site.

Problem/Opportunities

The site currently has only two road accesses. The main access is via M27 junction 9, the second is a heavily traffic-calmed minor residential road. Junction 9 is heavily congested at peak times with severe queuing onto/off the M27.

The Whiteley Business Forum approached us for help in relieving congestion through highway improvements. The Forum enthusiastically welcomed our proposals to develop an Area Travel Plan and helped introduce travel plans to individual companies.

Hampshire County Council are developing schemes for improved cycleways and a bus-only access into the site. This will allow, for the first time, a high quality bus service into the site, and greatly improve current shuttle services to and from Swanwick rail station (run by business on site).

We developed a partnership with Hampshire County Council, and the Whiteley Business Forum to progress this work.

A community web-site has been developed for Whiteley to support the implementation of the travel plan. This initiative went live in November 2005 and recently won an innovation award from the Association of Commuter Transport. The Whiteley-wide car sharing service is now available via this website.

The Whiteley Business Forum have now taken on the lead role on site and have identified champions to help take the process forward.

A significant number of the relevant employers volunteered staff postcode data to enable trip mapping and Hampshire County Council funded benchmark surveys on site. These were supplemented by HA funded surveys at M27 Junction 9.

Next steps

Hampshire County Council and the Forum have agreed to jointly fund an area travel plan coordinator for the first 2 years. The coordinator is expected to be in post by April 2006.

Travel data is being constantly supplemented/updated with staff travel survey responses via the Whiteley Area Travel Plan website. Several hundred completed surveys have already been submitted, allowing the basic mapping previously produced to be tailored to individual companies and staff travel modes.

Timescales

Hampshire's new bus link scheme is expected to be completed by summer 2006 and new timetables are now being developed in discussion with bus companies to exploit the link's potential. The new Area Travel Plan Co-ordinator will undertake extensive promotional work on the run up to the link's opening and beyond.

Monitoring

We are planning to conduct a further travel survey in 2006/07 along with traffic monitoring to measure the impacts of the travel plan in terms of trip savings.

2006-2007 Travel Plan Site: Team Valley - A1 Gateshead

Background

Approximately 700 different businesses, employing 17,000 staff, are housed on the Team Valley estate, owned by UK Lands. The Highways Agency started work on developing and Area Travel Plan in 2005.

The estate is close to the A1, the primary north/south route in the North East, providing a direct link locally to the south-western parts of Newcastle and Gateshead and also the rest of the country.

The section of the A1 adjacent to Team Valley is a dual-carriageway trunk road carrying around 86,500 vehicles per day, a high proportion of which are Heavy Goods Vehicles. Congestion here is particularly severe, with the most recent Traffic Monitoring Report highlighting peak period stress factors of up to 1.32.  During the peak periods, more than 5000 vehicles travel to or from Team Valley, with many of those vehicles travelling via the A1. Development on Team Valley is a further issue with the high level of congestion on the A1 presenting significant challenges.

Problem/Opportunities

Eleven bus routes serve Team Valley. Nine of these operate throughout the day. Supporting Public Transport infrastructure on site is in need of some improvement and reasons such as service availability times and long distances to reach bus stops discourages some employees from considering buses.

Pedestrians must cross a busy main road to gain access to Team Valley. Currently there is only one pelican crossing on Kingsway, the main road through the site, where the speed limit is 40mph. On street parking away from Kingsway severely restricts traffic movements and prevents buses from permeating the site. There are no cycle lanes within the Team Valley Estate, although some businesses are now providing cycle parking.

Only 3% of the existing businesses had Travel Plans in 2005 and no co-ordinator existed to promote and manage travel planning activity across the site.

Travel Patterns

Our survey of some 8000 employees suggests that 67% of Team Valley staff drive to work alone, with a further 10% carrying passengers. Some 63% of car drivers take fewer than 30
minutes to get to work, with convenience cited as the primary reason for driving. Staff appear to have a poor perception of bus travel, some 70% suggest this to be the case and only 12% of employees travel to work by bus.

Fewer than 2% of staff travel on foot or by bicycle. More than two-fifths of respondents identified improvements to bus facilities and provision as their priority with more flexible working cited by at least a fifth. Car sharing was also identified by 10% as a priority for improvement.

Targets

A number of targets to increase take up of travel plans and improve availability of alternative travel choices have been developed which collectively aim to achieve, by December 2008:

1. A reduction in single occupancy vehicle trips on and off the site by 11% during peak hours
2. Increase car sharing by 4%
3. Increase Public Transport use by 7%
4. Increase measured levels of walking and cycling

Measures:

A Travel Plan Framework has been produced for the site, to encourage both Team Valley businesses and other local stakeholders to focus on influencing travel behaviour and reduce the numbers travelling to work by car on Team Valley. The following tasks were completed:

• A comprehensive audit of transport infrastructure and facilities was carried out;
• Surveys of employers and employees were carried out, with responses from more than 100 companies and almost 1200 employees;
• A consultation meeting was held with a number of stakeholders and Team Valley businesses; and
• The Team Valley Travel Plan Framework was finalised and launched publicly in May 2006.

Following the launch of the Travel Plan Framework, a branding exercise has been completed and a website has been developed to provide information and support to encourage individuals to choose more sustainable modes of travel. The site includes a car share matching service and a journey planner.  The site also provides guidance to businesses on producing travel plans.

You can visit the site at: www.accessteamvalley.co.uk

The website was introduced to stakeholders and businesses in on 28th March 2007, with the full public launch taking place at a number of roadshows during the week commencing 7th May 2007.

Benefits:

The Travel Plan Framework has encouraged a joined up approach to transport issues across the estate demonstrated by:

• Commitment from Gateshead Council to improve facilities at Team Valley;
• Engagement by Team Valley businesses with travel planning through within the Travel Plan Stakeholder Group, supported by the Chamber of Commerce;
• High level discussions on future public transport provision for the area
• A joint commitment by Gateshead Council, UK Lands and ONE North East (Regional Development Agency) to provide funding for the recruitment of a Travel Plan Coordinator

Next steps

Mid-term monitoring will take place on the Team Valley Trading Estate during October 2007 and will include a snap shot survey of employees on the site as well as traffic counts and face to face interviews.

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* 'Smarter travel choices' are techniques for influencing people's travel behaviour towards more sustainable options such as encouraging school, workplace and individualised travel planning. They also seek to improve public transport and marketing services such as travel awareness campaigns, setting up websites for car share schemes, supporting car clubs and encouraging teleworking.

2006-2007 Travel Plan Site: Fifth Avenue Business Park - A1 Gateshead

Background

Fifth Avenue Business Park was identified for the development of an Area Travel Plan as part of the Highways Agency Team Valley Area Travel Plan. Work started in April 2005, in partnership with Gateshead Council, Nexus (the passenger transport executive), One NorthEast (the Regional Development Agency) and UK Lands (Land Owner).

Fifth Avenue offered an opportunity to develop initiatives in a clearly identified area within the Team Valley which could inform the use of a variety of smarter choice techniques in other areas. Part of the challenge on this site was to demonstrate how journeys to and from the site could be reduced to allow new development to take place on one of the few green field development areas within Team Valley

Fifth Avenue and Team valley are located adjacent to the A1 Gateshead Western Bypass which is a heavily congested stretch of the Strategic Road Network. Travel Planning activity is just one of the demand management techniques being developed by the Highways Agency to release capacity in this area and bring the associated economic and social benefits across the region.

The Fifth Avenue Business Park is occupied by 15 businesses employing just under 2000 people in primarily office based employment. The Trading Estate, originally completed in 1938, houses approximately 700 different businesses, employing 17,000 staff in a range of activities from manufacturing through to further education, retail, leisure and business headquarters. Fifth Avenue Business Park forms part of the more recent development on the Trading Estate and has been designed to have its own identity and appearance.

The estate is close to the A1, the primary north/south route in the North East, providing a direct link locally to the south-western parts of Newcastle and Gateshead and also the rest of the country.

The section of the A1 adjacent to Team Valley is a dual-carriageway trunk road carrying around 86,500 vehicles per day, a high proportion of which are Heavy Goods Vehicles. Congestion here is particularly severe, with the most recent Traffic Monitoring Report highlighting peak period stress factors of up to 1.32.  During the peak periods, more than 5000 vehicles travel to or from Team Valley, with many of those vehicles travelling via the A1.  Development on Team Valley is a further issue with the high level of congestion on the A1 presenting significant challenges.

Problems/Opportunities

A steering group was set up to investigate and discuss the issues facing the Business Park. The use of cars to access the site was slightly higher than for other employees within Team Valley, though later staff surveys showed peoples reasons, both real and perceived, to be broadly similar. The workforce, however, has a much more office based nature, with a far wider availability of on-line communication. This would allow greater potential for ongoing promotions and information tools.

The Steering Group identified the following key issues:

• Buses do not pick up near the Fifth Avenue offices in the evening peak, which deters people from using them;
• The walk to the bus stops is perceived to be unsafe with for example overhanging trees and no lighting, resulting in people being frightened to walk to get the bus;
• Problems due to internal signing in Team Valley;
• On street parking is an issue, with insufficient parking off-street leading staff to park on Kingsway, which results in access to companies being obstructed;
• Satellite navigation systems can send cars to wrong destination for some Fifth Avenue postcodes;
• Employees’ cars are needed for business purposes during the day;
• Uncertainty about the LinkUp bus service and whether this can be used by employees on Fifth Avenue;
• A lack of knowledge of who the correct authority is to report problems to for a variety of issues;
• Issues of accessing the site by bicycle, particularly at the busy A1 junction;
• The need for more publicity of the initiatives and information for employees on what is happening in Team Valley and Fifth Avenue with the Area Travel Plans.

Travel Patterns

Staff and employer surveys were undertaken during October 2005 and traffic counts were undertaken during November, 2005.

The Traffic counts revealed that c. 200 vehicles enter and leave Fifth Avenue during the morning and evening peak hours. However, it should be noted that staff surveys and the discussions within the Steering Group revealed that a considerable amount of on street parking was taking place on Team Valley, away from the Business Park, due to limited off-street parking.

The Staff Survey, returned by some 23% of employees, showed that over 80% of employees arrive by car, with 68% travelling alone in their vehicles. Nearly half of the staff on Fifth Avenue live within 5 miles of the site with 83% of these staff arriving alone in their cars.

With such a clear choice of car use, simply improving walking and cycle routes and facilities, or promotion of local bus services, was not considered likely to be successful. Although clearly important, the Steering Group decided to promote initiatives which would make the use of cars more efficient and acceptable.

Targets

A number of targets to encourage take up of travel plans and look at alternative ways to travel to Fifth Avenue by car as well as by more sustainable modes have been developed which collectively aim to achieve, by December 2008:

Objectives	Targets to be achieved by 2011
Reduce single occupancy car use	• Reduce number of people travelling alone by car to Fifth Avenue from 68% to 60% • Increase number of people car sharing to 15%
Improve traffic flow on Mainline (A1) around junction  A1/A692 and A1/Kingsway south interchange	• No increase in journey times on A1 in morning and evening peak
Increase use of sustainable modes to access Fifth Avenue	• Increase number of people accessing Fifth Avenue by public transport from 11% to 15% • Increase number of people accessing Fifth Avenue on foot from 2% to 3% • Increase number of people accessing Fifth Avenue by cycle from 0% to 2%
Raise awareness of ATP and sustainable modes	• Increase year on year number of people accessing Fifth Avenue information on Access Team Valley web site • Increase staff travel survey response rate from 23% to 50% • Increase the number of companies on Fifth Avenue with a company work place travel plan

Measures

Crucial to the success of any travel planning measures at this site is the appointment of a full time travel plan co-ordinator. In September 2007 UK Lands Estates, representing a partnership agreement between themselves, Gateshead Council and One NorthEast, advertised for a travel plan co-ordinator to be responsible for the roll out of travel planning measures across the whole of Team Valley Trading Estate. This travel plan co-ordinator will have responsibility for the travel planning measures operating on Fifth Avenue. It is hoped the co-ordinator will be in post by the end of December, 2007.

A number of actions and measures have been delivered, some as part of the overall Team Valley Travel Planning Activity, and some specific to Fifth Avenue Business Park. These are:

1. Creation of a bespoke car sharing web-site http://www.fifthavenuecarshare.com/
2. As part of the development of accessible travel information for Team Valley through the creation of http://www.accessteamvalley.co.uk/ incorporating web-pages and information specific to Fifth Avenue Business Park.
3. Completion of a Fifth Avenue Business Park Area Travel Plan to address the travel issues facing employers and employees on the site.
4. Public launch and promotion of the http://www.fifthavenuecarshare.com/ to businesses on Fifth Avenue Business Park on National Liftshare Day, 14 June, 2007.
5. Circulation of Newsletters to all business on Fifth Avenue Business Park to inform of ongoing activity and relevant campaigns.
6. Steering Group Meetings with representatives from Highways Agency, Gateshead Council, One NorthEast, UK Land Estates and business on Fifth Avenue.
7. As part of road shows held across Team Valley Trading Estate and adjacent to Fifth Avenue 23-25 May, 2007, every business on Fifth Avenue received a personal visit to promote the Fifth Avenue Car Share Scheme and the Access Team Valley Website. Selected goods to remind employees of these services and where they can be found were left at each set of premises.

Future Activity

Once the travel plan co-ordinator for Team Valley has been appointed, the day to day management of www.fifthavenuecarshare.com, www.accessteamvalley.co.uk and the organisation and support of steering group meetings will be handed over, however, in the meantime the Highways Agency remains committed to supporting and promoting these services.

As part of our long term commitment to support and monitoring of Area Travel Plans, we have undertaken to monitor the impact of the Area Travel Plan and any Measures introduced. Interim 'snap-shot' monitoring will normally take place within 12 months of completion of the Area Travel Plan or the introduction of a measure, with more detailed monitoring taking place within 24 months.

The interim monitoring for Fifth Avenue commenced on 1 October, 2007. A completed report is expected to be published by January, 2008.

For More Information

For more information, contact the Project Manager, Rachael Elliott, Influencing Travel Behaviour and Planning Manager, North East at: 

• rachael.elliott@highways.gsi.gov.uk

2007-2008 Travel Plan Site: Wellingborough East Development - A45

Here, the Agency devised a novel approach in securing a Travel Plan backed by S106 clauses to protect the strategic A45 from the impact of "growth area" development. Located on the eastern edge of Wellingborough, "WEAST" constituted an application for over 3,000 dwellings, 51 ha of employment development and tertiary infrastructure.

With a timetable for development stretching over 10 years, and traffic impacting on several junctions along the A45, the challenge for us was to secure a robust Travel Plan whilst not having ideal visibility in the rate, or magnitude, of traffic impact over the next decade. Working closely with the developer's consultant, we negotiated an "interim" Travel Plan to set the framework within which future site incumbents would be expected to operate. This included modal shift targets, the chronological roll out of specific measures, and the input into a specific site wide monitoring regime. Funding was secured for a full time Travel Plan Co-ordinator who would see the procedures through to their conclusion. Crucially, assessments were made as to the junctions most likely to be impacted upon. Junctions which might need to be signalised to regulate the flow of traffic outside the boundaries of that catered for in the Travel Plan.

A £2million bond was secured from the developer which the Agency would call on in the event Travel Plan targets were exceeded. This money would be channelled into delivering the appropriate "access control" infrastructure. In simple terms, this is an investment in signalisation.

All parties bought into this concept, which again was secured via planning condition and appropriate S106 clauses.

2007-2008 Travel Plan Site: Omega Business Park

The Omega site is located adjacent to M62 Junction 8. It is a disused military base which is currently only partially developed.

Geography

The M62 connects the ports of Liverpool and Hull and is part of the Trans European Road Network linking Ireland with mainland Europe.  It is also the backbone of the Northern Way Growth Strategy, connecting the main regeneration and development centres of Merseyside, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire with Warrington. As such, it is a key communication link in the economic renaissance of the North of England, driving both the Northern Way and the Merseyside Objective 1 regeneration initiative.

History

In 1987, the Secretary of State for the Environment granted the Omega site consent for 232.4 Ha of employment land for office, industrial processes and research and development uses.  The proposals were intended to accommodate international firms who were looking for substantial sites and this type of development would attract between 6 - 10,000 jobs.  In order to facilitate this development the Highways Agency in conjunction with the Commission for New Towns (later English Partnerships) constructed a new junction 8 on the M62 with dual 4 widening between junctions 8 & 9.
  
Since that time, no major international firms have been attracted to the site and a new master plan has been drawn up.  The master plan proposals potentially cover an area of 350 Ha and propose up to 7 million square  feet of mixed use office, warehousing and manufacturing together with leisure facilities.

HA and Developer working in Partnership within the Planning Process

A planning application for the new master plan was submitted in 2003 but Highways Agency's own independent work has shown that the Omega site has the potential to generate an additional 6000 vehicles on the M62 at junction 8.  The proposals could also generate significant additional traffic on M6 Junctions 20 to 21a. The design capacity would be exceeded over much of the network, with sections of the M6, M62 and M56 exceeding their practical capacities for safe and efficient operation, if not constrained or managed.
 
Working with the Omega Partnership, the Highways Agency has assisted in the development of a phased, travel plan led, approach to development, with trip generation being monitored and enforced as the site is constructed. A travel plan co-ordinator is to be appointed, supported by a Travel Plan Steering Group of which the Highways Agency is an active member. The phased approach to this development and associated travel planning measures, as well as revenue to support travel plan initaitives, and fall-back solutions if trip generation targets are exceeded, are bound up in a Section 106 Agreement. The Highways Agency has also worked with the Omega Partnership to develop a Memorandum of Understanding to ensure our involvement in the successful and sustainable development of this site.

The Omega Partnership comprises English Partnerships, Miller developments, NWDA and Warrington Borough Council.  They plan to oversee the site's development as a high quality business park over the next twenty years.

2007-2008 Travel Plan Site: Blythe Valley Business Park

Blythe Valley Business Park stands in the heart of England and at the centre of the UK's communications network at Junction 4 of the M42. The planning application involved a substantial expansion of flagship office and high tech development. The challenge for the Highways Agency was to secure a Travel Plan which would preserve the integrity of the junction, whilst embracing the development aspirations of both the developer and local aspirations.

The Highways Agency's approach was unique in this case as all travel plan measures, including their finance, were secured via an S106 agreement. The stringent monitoring regime and agreed access management strategy via exit onto the local A34 were also defining features. To further cement the Agency's position, a planning condition was directed to ensure the permission was redeemed via the travel plan: the Agency secured a seat on the steering group to ensure compliance with the planning obligation.

The case exemplified the wisdom of early engagement with stakeholders, and the benefits of ongoing dialogue with the planning and highway authorities (in this case Solihull MBC). A maximum traffic generation limit of 1,740 vehicles per hour exiting the site in peak hour illustrated the importance of target setting: the inclusion of specified corrective mechanisms and the ultimate sanction of access management providing the ultimate fail safe requirement.

Travel Plan Coordinator

A Travel Co-ordinator has been appointed to provide support and advice to all businesses and individuals at BVP.  Advice is available on a range of travel issues including: car-share promotion, travel management, season ticket sales and taxi contracts.

The Travel Co-ordinator works closely with all occupiers to try and encourage alternatives to the private car and to promote sustainable travel to and from the Park. They can also provide information on local accommodation, restaurants and shopping facilities.

2008-2009 Travel Plan Site: London Gateway (Shell Haven)

London Gateway (Shell Haven) Port and Logistics Park

London Gateway Port and Business Park is located at Shell Haven (formerly the site of the Shell Oil Refinery), Thurrock in the Thames Estuary.

The development comprises of:

• New 7 container berths with associated container freight handling facilities.
• Approximately 950,000 sq.m. (10 million sq.ft) of commercial and employment use. Overall the Port and Commercial Park development is likely to create 15,000 jobs within the development and in South Essex overall.  It is the largest single development in Europe.

Although the development is approximately 10 miles from the M25 Motorway, the development has a significant impact on Junction 30 where the M25 and A13 Trunk Road intersect. 

The impact of the development results in approximately 1,100 vehicles per hour (over the period 0600 to 1000) accessing the combined site. 

A significant proportion of these vehicle movements will pass through Junction 30 which currently is close to or at capacity at certain times of the day.

Prior to planning consent in May 2007 the main approach adopted has been to reduce traffic from the development as far as possible by means of a strong Travel Plan.  A summary of Travel Plan measures for the Port and Park developments is as follows:

• Establishment of a Vehicle Booking System for the container terminal - freight traffic generation is spread more evenly throughout the day with less peaking in demand, resulting in a flatter, hourly profile for HGV movements.
• Traffic flow targets throughout the day (and including the peak hour periods) to achieve a desired flat flow profile.
• Employee target distribution. This summarises the anticipated distribution of employee travel movements by reference to discrete local areas.
• A whole site Travel Plan co-ordinator for the Port and Park development, rather than individual site co-ordinators - a single focus for management of the Travel Plan.
• Travel Plan Committee on which the Highways Agency has a representation.
• Guaranteed ride home scheme and priority work place parking for car sharers.

Tourism

Tourists and people travelling for leisure purposes can also help themselves by making * 'Smarter travel choices' in their travel arrangements. For example :

• encouraging holidaymakers and visitors to attractions to use coaches and rail rather than cars;
• when making journeys by car, we advise holidaymakers to use the 'Transport Direct' journey planner website to help them to avoid peak congestion times;  
• working with Tourist Boards and Councils to provide travel information for tourists;
• to work with the industry on the implementation of leisure/tourism travel plans at specific attractions and destinations, with the aim of improving travel choices for visitors.

 

 

 

 

 

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* 'Smarter travel choices' are techniques for influencing people's travel behaviour towards more sustainable options such as encouraging school, workplace and individualised travel planning. They also seek to improve public transport and promote services such as travel awareness campaigns, setting up websites for car share schemes, supporting car clubs and encouraging teleworking.

Other Initiatives

Bus and Coach Services

Interest is growing in developing bus and coach networks where there are no rail links. We can help by giving priority to buses and coaches through some congested junctions and other busy areas. We've recently looked at a number of possible coach routes in the Thames Valley area. This work came out of the Government's 'multi-modal' studies into the different types of transport and infrastructure available.

Car Sharing lanes

We are building new lanes on our network to encourage people to share cars. At peak times, only vehicles carrying two or more people will be able to use the lanes. The first trials of this initiative will be on the M606/M62 in Yorkshire. More information can be found on the M606 - M62 Car Sharing Lane web page.

For more in depth information about car sharing please visit our car sharing web page.

Park and Rail

We are keen to install traffic signs at key locations on the road network to make people more aware of the location of railway stations and so encourage more people to use trains to avoid congestion.

To find out how effective signs can be in reducing congestion by encouraging more people to use public transport, we are carrying out a study into the impact of some park and rail signs at:

1. Chiltern Rail (M40); and
2. Thameslink (Luton M1 Parkway)

If the signs are shown to be successful, we will encourage their use at other suitable locations on the road network close to railway stations.

Non Motorised Users

Please visit our dedicated page in the Knowledge Centre Section of this web site for more information, initiatives and progress for non motorised users.

 

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*"The aim of the Government's Multi-Modal Studies was to investigate problems on or with all modes of transport and to seek solutions to those problems. The output from the Studies was a number of different options aimed at addressing the problems within the study area. Each option consisted of a transport plan, that is, a collection of quite specific and individual interventions. Analysis of options needed to be sufficiently detailed to ensure that robust decisions could be made. The results of the Studies have been or will be used by the Regional Planning Bodies in developing and reviewing Regional Transport Strategies."

Why do we need the ITB programme?

DfT Smarter Choices - Changing the way we travel - dated June 2005

This report describes the impact of a number of things we can do without building new roads. These could include: travel plans, helping people to plan their own journeys, travel awareness campaigns, car clubs and car sharing schemes; home working, teleconferencing and home shopping.

DfT LTP2 Guidance - dated 2004

The Transport Act 2000 requires most local transport authorities in England, outside London, to produce and implement a Local Transport Plan, taking account of guidelines issued by the Transport Secretary. This has set the agenda for the councils responsible for local roads to incorporate *smarter travel choices within their local transport plans.

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* 'Smarter travel choices' are techniques for influencing people's travel behaviour towards more sustainable options such as encouraging school, workplace and individualised travel planning. They also seek to improve public transport and marketing services such as travel awareness campaigns, setting up websites for car share schemes, supporting car clubs and encouraging teleworking.

If we do nothing?

The potential consequences of ever-increasing road traffic include:

• the costs to society and businesses of congestion;
• delays and unreliable journey times;
• increases in road accidents leading to casualties and delays;
• more pollution caused by emissions from vehicles, affecting health and quality of life;
• emissions of Carbon Dioxide, the main 'greenhouse gas' contributing to global warming;
• noise;
• negative effects on sensitive sites and areas; and
• poorer health as people do less exercise by relying more on the car.

To help us protect our health and the environment and to fight congestion and pollution, we need to promote good alternatives to car journeys made by people travelling on their own. *smarter travel choices have an important role to play in providing these alternatives.

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* 'Smarter travel choices' are techniques for influencing people's travel behaviour towards more sustainable options such as encouraging school, workplace and individualised travel planning. They also seek to improve public transport and marketing services such as travel awareness campaigns, setting up websites for car share schemes, supporting car clubs and encouraging teleworking.

Benefits

Thinking about travel in a new way

"...every £1 spent on well designed *soft measures (now known as *smarter travel choices) could bring about £10 of benefit in reduced congestion alone..." - 'Smarter Choices - changing the way we travel' (Report commissioned by Department for Transport)

*smarter travel choices are the 'when', 'why' and 'how' we travel. For example you will save time if you make a habit of travelling outside busy times, and you will save money if you make a habit of travelling with friends or colleagues and sharing fuel costs.

Influencing Traffic Behaviour is about 'smartening up' people's travel habits. It's part of the Highways Agency's work to improve journeys in every way it can.

Advantages may include:

• a reduction in demand for car parking and cost to employers for providing parking spaces for staff;
• travel plans can offer a cheaper, more sustainable alternative to a conventional road improvement scheme, and one which is quicker to introduce;
• environmental benefits such as reduced pollution, improved air quality, less noise and the reduced impact on other national and global environmental problems such as global warming;
• a positive image for companies who are involved in sustainable activities e.g. travel plans (see 'environmental benefits' example above);
• improved accessibility to and from the work site for employees, visitors and deliveries;
• improved fuel economy resulting from better traffic flow;
• the local community can enjoy reduced congestion and journey times, and /or improved public transport services, a saving in energy and reduced overspill parking in residential areas;
• reduced number of road accidents caused by congestion;
• potential cost and time savings for staff if they for example, share the use of a car. (Some organisations grant staff financial incentives e.g. by offering staff payment in return for giving up their car parking space);
• aids sustainable travel; and
• benefits to staff from increased productivity generated by a healthier, less stressed, more motivated workforce and a general improvement in quality of life.

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* 'Soft' measures (also known as 'Smarter travel choices' are techniques for influencing people's travel behaviour towards more sustainable options such as encouraging school, workplace and individualised travel planning. They also seek to improve public transport and promote services such as travel awareness campaigns, setting up websites for car share schemes, supporting car clubs and encouraging teleworking.

Did you know?/How you can help

1) Did you know? - general

We look after all-purpose trunk roads and most motorways. In 2002, our network made up around 2.4% of the total road length in England but carried around 35% of car journeys and 66% of heavy goods vehicle journeys.

Traffic is expected to grow by about 40% by 2025. By 2035, there could be nearly three times as much traffic as there was in 1980 - but there will be nothing like three times as much road capacity to handle it all.Unless we change the way we travel, traffic will grow too fast for England's roads. Everyone will pay the price of longer delays and road problems.

2) Did you know? - pollution

Today's travel habits are damaging our environment and affecting our health

The impacts of today's travel habits are wide-ranging on both the environment and our health. For example, the benefits from progress in the development of cleaner vehicles are being offset by the continuing growth in traffic. Emissions from cars and lorries of nitrogen oxides (NO and NO2) and fine particles (PM10) can contribute to health problems. Emissions of carbon dioxide contribute to climate change with wide-ranging environmental impacts as a result.

You may like to view further information about Climate Change by visiting the Climate Challenge web site or to make a difference, visit www.changeyourworld.org.uk.

Rio Earth Summit (1992)/ Kyoto Climate Change Conference (1997)

The Rio Earth Summit highlighted the international concern at levels of pollution arising from transport emissions and identified the need to take positive action to reduce these levels. This led to the setting up of 'Local Agenda 21' aimed at encouraging local actions to reduce impacts. International concerns for the environment were more recently highlighted in 1997 at the Kyoto Climate Change Conference, which led to the imposition of targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

3) Did you know? - Travel Plans

Within our 'smarter choices' remit, typically, 15-20% of reductions in journeys can be achieved when travel plans are implemented.

How you can help

For details on how you can drive *Smarter and help reduce CO2 emissions please visit the Act On CO2 website.

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* 'Smarter travel choices' are techniques for influencing people's travel behaviour towards more sustainable options such as encouraging school, workplace and individualised travel planning. They also seek to improve public transport and marketing services such as travel awareness campaigns, setting up websites for car share schemes, supporting car clubs and encouraging teleworking.

The ITB Process

View the Influencing Travel Behaviour Process Flowchart (16KB GIF Image)

Benefits

• Reduced CO2 emissions
• Improved safety
• Improved journey information
• More reliable journeys
• Improved public transport
• Improved staff morale
• Reduction in congestion related incidents
• Increase in people using different forms of transport
• Greater fuel economy
• Healthier lifestyle
• Reduction in the number of people making journeys with only one person in the car
• Better air quality
• Drivers have better journeys due to less congestion
• Reduced noise pollution for local people

Stakeholder Communications

We already talk regularly with our stakeholders. We do this through a range of communication channels to maintain our dialogue, but also to reinforce the message that we are involved in influencing travel behaviour because we believe it can play a key role in reducing congestion.

Some of our strategic partners include:

• Government Offices - deliver policy in the regions, implement cross cutting initiatives and advise Departments on successful strategies for introducing new measures;
• Local Highway Authorities - key stakeholders in the advancement of travel plan initiatives;
• Regional Development Agencies - their aim, through partnerships, is to improve regional infrastructure to support business competitiveness and regeneration;
• Department for Transport's Sustainable Travel Initiatives Branch - Sponsor of travel plans;
• National Travelwise Association - A network of local authorities, health authorities and public transport executives working to promote healthy and sustainable transport;
• Association for Commuter Transport - provides support to organisations needing to reduce the number of employees and visitors driving their cars onto site through the introduction of travel plans;
• Department of Trade and Industry and the Department for Transport - promoting teleworking;
• Sustrans - Sustainable transport charity working on practical projects to reduce journeys made by cars and the effects of congestion. Work includes safe routes to schools, safe routes to stations, green corridors, Travelsmart and personalised travel packages; and
• Passenger Transport Executives - provide services and facilities which the market does not provide in large conurbations.

Guidance and publications on Travel Plans

For further information or for questions concerning travel plans and other sustainable initiatives please email itb@highways.gsi.gov.uk.

There is a wide range of advice about introducing a travel plan for your company or your area. We've included a few below you might find useful:

• A Travel Plan Resources Pack for Employers - A travel plan resources pack for employers - best practice
• Transport Energy Guidance
• Guidance on the Assessment of Travel Plans  
• Developing an Effective Travel Plan
• HM Revenue & Customs Green Travel - This Inland Revenue leaflet explains how the tax and National Insurance systems can help employers set up travel plans.
• Travel Rates and Allowances - This Inland Revenue web page gives details of the approved mileage rates for cars, bicycles and motorcycles.
• Sustainable Transport