Environment and roads

Making business travel plans work

Computer company, Agilent Technologies, developed a green travel plan two years ago. They are based in a relatively remote location outside Edinburgh so car sharing is one of their most popular alternatives. But this combined with discounts on season tickets and improved cycle facilities means that the number of cars coming to the site has fallen from 71% to 65%, saving the staff about £100 a month each and the company about £27,000 a year in car parking maintenance.

This is one of the case studies in ‘Making Travel Plans Work’, a study of the effectiveness of more than 20 travel plans up and down the country in a variety of locations and industries. In nearly every case the companies showed a decrease of between 5% and 40% in car traffic to their sites.

The greater changes (more than 17% decrease in traffic to a site) appear to have two key requirements; incentives for change
and implementation of some level of parking restriction.

The report shows how to develop an effective travel plan and gives a guide to overcoming staff resistance to change. The researchers also looked at the costs of running a travel plan and found that while a plan will cost an average of £47 per employee a year, the cost of maintaining a car parking space is about £300 - £500 over the same period.

‘Making Travel Plans Work’ (code 02TA00337/a) is available at the Department for Transport website - use the link on the right hand side of this page to get there.