Highways Agency

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.

* '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.