3. Achieving the Green Travel Plan
Practical considerations
The purpose of our travel plan will be to promote sustainable and active travel options where practicable. Typically, effective but unpopular solutions such as parking restrictions and parking charges would be combined with popular but expensive solutions such as bus subsidies, to ensure that any negative impacts will be balanced by the benefits. [1]
Public Transport
Achieving green travel is much more complex in East Devon than it might be in cities where short distances facilitate walking and cycling options combined with reliable and frequent public transport choices. Many of our towns are not connected by rail and are served only infrequently by buses,
with distances often too great to be walked or cycled efficiently by most people. We therefore have to be realistic in terms of what can be achieved. To achieve our aims we must explore how to accommodate a range of travel options for staff and other users of our buildings.
Commuting allowance
Our present arrangements for staff who have been working for us since before 1 March 2012 provide for a negotiated 2½ year commuting subsidy based on 24p per additional commuting mile travelled. Any member of staff who would be eligible to claim this commuting subsidy may also claim the identical cash equivalent subsidy if they choose to use public transport options instead.
Solutions
We should actively promote the availability of safe walking and cycling routes to those staff who already live within a few miles of Blackdown House. We should also promote the availability of hourly rail services between Honiton and Exeter, Cranbrook and Axminster. We can certainly draw attention to bus travel options between Honiton and Sidmouth, Seaton and Colyton, Cranbrook and Ottery although we do need to acknowledge that some of these are significantly limited at present. Public transport between Exmouth and Honiton remains a challenge with the only viable options going via Exeter, leaving car sharing as the option most likely to succeed with these commuters.
Car Sharing
In order to encourage car sharing as an alternative to single user car journeys on the commute to Blackdown House we will be promoting the use of social media groups to join-up potential car sharers and we will dedicate car parking spaces at Blackdown House for the exclusive use of car share vehicles.
We will provide a total of 130 car parking spaces at Blackdown House. The travel plan proposes that this will include 7 disabled bays, 2 electric / hybrid car charging bays and 15 car sharing bays. Therefore a maximum of 115 bays (including dedicated disabled and ev charging) will be available
for single car users.
Aims
The Green Travel Plan aims to result in less traffic congestion, reduced emissions, better local air quality and more active people. We will achieve this through
- Discouraging single occupancy vehicle trips
- Increasing the proportion of walking, cycling, public transport and car sharing trips.
Objectives
To:
- Develop a transport assessment initially for our new site Blackdown House
- Promote travel solutions that respond to the local challenges and opportunities
- Raise awareness, understanding and accessibility of travel options, and local amenities, allowing for affordable access to services
- Encourage more sustainable transport of people and goods, to and around our sites
- Account for the travel needs of future occupants
- Reduce congestion and improve safety on the site and local roads
- Increase attractiveness of the site to potential users
Timetable for actions
The Travel Plan sets out to address feedback identified in the staff travel survey 2018.
The Plan covers two phases:
- to facilitate the move of part of the workforce into Blackdown House, and
- to work towards longer-term targets for the next five years