Bath & North East Somerset Council

Travel Plans

A travel plan is a general term for a package of measures tailored to the needs of individual sites and aimed at promoting greener, cleaner travel choices and reducing reliance on the car.
It involves the development of a set of mechanisms, initiatives and targets that together can enable your organisation to reduce the impact of travel and transport on the environment, whilst also bringing a number of other benefits to your organisation as an employer and to staff.

It is now generally accepted that the number of journeys and the distance regularly travelled in cars should be reduced.
The impact of chemical and noise pollution not only effects the environment but also the health of everyone in general.
Individuals are increasingly aware that they can not choose to use public transport because the services do not exist, or they do not know if, when or where services run, and they do not want to walk or cycle because of the amount of traffic on the roads or because there is nowhere for them to park securely or change out of wet clothes when they get there.
Travel plans are one way that government, local authorities, hospital, businesses and schools are working to try to address these concerns.

A travel plan is not a one-off event to be undertaken and completed, nor is it a document to be produced and put on a shelf. It is the start of a new and better way of living and working, a process of evolution, not revolution.
Development of a travel plan for your organisation will help to encourage staff, and others visiting your site(s), to use more environmentally-friendly alternatives than driving alone, at least for some of their journeys.
It should contain a mix of incentives and disincentives to be successful e.g. car-sharing, promoting more use of public transport, encouraging walking and cycling, restricting on-site car parking spaces and supporting alternative work practices which reduce the need to travel.
A travel plan resource pack for employers". DfT, 2000. Department for Transport

A travel plan is a dynamic process which will grow and develop over time, and one which will be adapted to suit the changing circumstances and needs of the employer.
The travel plan should set out:
how the design of the site at the time of occupation will encourage a mix of travel modes;
how proposed future mode choice measures will be phased-in; and
how targets will be set, monitored and reported to the local authority.
A travel plan should include measures, which address the travel of commuters, business travel, deliveries, visitors and customers.

Bath and North East Somerset Council will always encourage any new development to include a Travel Plan, appropriate to the size of the development, as part of the planning permission.