Developing an effective travel plan: advice for Government Departments (summary)

Travel plans help reduce the impact of travel on the environment. They also make good business sense. Plans can cut congestion around a site, and save money on business travel. They may even help make the workforce healthier.

Plans can take a variety of forms to suit the particular site. But they all tend to include practical measures to reduce:

• car travel to work;
• car travel for business;
• the need for business travel; and
• the environmental impact of cars, lorries and vans when they have to be used.

We are encouraging businesses, schools, hospitals, local authorities and other major employers to adopt travel plans of their own. So the Government needs to show we are practising what we preach.

The White Paper A New Deal for Transport set a target for Government departments to have plans in place for all their headquarters buildings by March 1999, and for all other key buildings by March 2000. I am very pleased with progress so far and would like to thank all of those who have put in time and effort ensuring that we do our bit.

But producing plans is by no means the end of the process. Independent evaluation of the many plans produced to meet the March 1999 target highlights both successes and lessons to be learnt. We can now build on experience to improve existing plans and to develop effective new ones. To be successful, they need to be monitored and reviewed regularly.

This is a guide to best practice, which draws on the evaluation and the hard work departments have put in over the past year. It offers practical advice and ideas on how to approach issues and how to overcome problems. We hope real-life examples will make the task a little easier and the results more effective, both for departments co-ordinators and for other organisations who face similar issues, particularly those in the public sector.

If we can cut the congestion and pollution caused by too heavy a reliance on road transport, both the economy and the environment will benefit. Work travel is one of our most regular travel patterns, so changes here could have a really significant effect. It is for Government to give the lead and I hope this guide will help us to do so.

Keith Hill