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Travel plans

Travel plans

A travel plan is a general term for a package of measures tailored to the needs of individual companies or organisations. They are aimed at promoting greener, cleaner travel choices and reducing reliance on the car. Most peak-time traffic is related to work and school. Commuters travelling to and from the workplace, and parents taking their children to and or collecting their children from school.

The impact of this traffic on the road system, public transport, and on other road users and the local community is massive. This is why travel plans are becoming increasingly important.

Travel plans can offer real benefits not only to the organisation and its employees, but also the community that surrounds it. It may help to relieve local parking or congestion problems or improve public transport connections across the area. It may also relieve stress on employees through reducing delays or providing the opportunity to cut their travel commitments by working from home on occasion.

Workplace travel plans

A workplace travel plan is a package of measures produced by employers to encourage staff to use alternatives to single-occupancy car-use. Such a plan for example, could include: car sharing schemes; a commitment to improve cycling facilities; a dedicated bus service or restricted car parking allocations. It might also promote flexible-working practices such as remote access and video conferencing.

It involves the development of a set of mechanisms and targets that together, can enable an organisation to reduce the impact of travel and transport on the environment. It can also bring a number of other benefits to your organisation as an employer and to staff.

Benefits for a company

• increased productivity from a healthier, motivated workforce
• potential cost savings
• reduced congestion
• reduced demand for parking and improved access

Benefits for staff

• cost and time savings
• improved health
• better quality of life

Benefits for the environment

• cleaner air
• lower noise levels
• a reduction in the country's contribution to global warming

Salisbury District Council has developed its own workplace travel plan for office staff based in Salisbury city centre.

• Salisbury District Council Workplace Travel Plan for Bourne Hill 2.0mb

For more information about setting up a travel plan at your workplace, you can contact Wiltshire County Council’s Travelwise Team by email at: travelwise@wiltshire.gov.uk or by telephone on 01225 713388.

School travel plans

A school travel plan (STP) is a package of measures designed to reduce the number of cars used to transport children to school. A target has been set to encourage all schools in Wiltshire to have a school travel plan in place by 2010. Wiltshire County Council is working closely with schools to increase levels of walking, cycling, car sharing and public transport use for school or college journeys and reducing reliance on car journeys. This will help:

• improve individual and community health
• the local environment by reducing air, noise and visual pollution
• tackle congestion - especially in the morning peak in the vicinity of schools
• to reduce accidents and danger on the journey to school

The first steps for schools and colleges is for them to assess requirements with surveys, then to develop a Travel Plan to outline the way that these issues and suggested actions are followed up and implemented.

A well thought out Travel Plan backed by senior management and governors at the school can help manage travel far more safely, effectively and efficiently and reduce the school gate congestion and complaints from the local community. It is important that the STP is a living, working document and kept up to date by regular monitoring and evaluation – the best way of ensuring this is to incorporate it into mainstream school policies, including School Development Plans. Ofsted are increasingly recognising good STP’s and progress in their reports, and STP. The existence of an active STP may in the future become an area formally assessed by Ofsted.

The STP should be readily available for all - especially all new parents. Many schools now produce a small user friendly guide for all parents, new and old, setting out how to come and go from the school. Rules are stated along the same lines for example as the school uniform policy.

Wiltshire County Council offer the following support to all Wiltshire learning establishments:

• School Travel Advisers with free support and advice
• Free curriculum information
• Free resources that can be offered as incentives to encourage sustainable travel
• Funding to help deliver travel plan objectives to increase sustainable travel
• A Travel Plan Template

Measures that can be implemented as part of a school travel plan include:

• 'Walking bus' routes to the school
• Changes to road designs – eg new crossings, physical traffic calming measures
• Creation of cycle routes and wider pavements up to the school entrance
• Improved cycle parking facilities at the school
• Pedestrian and cycle proficiency training
• Additional school crossing patrols
• Improvements to bus services to the school
• Encouraging parents to lift-share

For more information about setting up a school travel plan at your school, please contact the School Travel Plan Co-ordinator at Wiltshire County Council Travelwise on 01225 713483.