Travel plans: do they work?

Abstract

This paper reviews the evidence that travel plans have their intended effect, which is to reduce the number of employees commuting alone by car to their place of work. It first outlines the policy background for travel plans in the UK, and reasons for their implementation. It then presents a conceptual model of travel plan development, which is used to analyse the development of travel plans in a number of case studies. The paper then goes on to consider evidence of the scale of the adoption of travel plans by organisations in the UK, and then estimates their impact on levels of travel nationally. It then seeks to explain how take up and hence the effect of travel plans could be made more widespread. It concludes that there is clear evidence that travel plans have an effect at the site level, and potential for a system-wide effect. However, Government must be clear about its objectives for travel plans, if this potential is to be achieved.