Highways Agency

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.

* '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.