Area Wide Travel Planning in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle

Amy Leather - Mott MacDonald & Liverpool and Sefton Chambers of Commerce & Michelle Cameron,Business Travel Advisor/Project Manager for LSTF

A case study from Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle that examines the extent to which area wide workplace travel planning contributes towards achieving wider strategic objectives and supports Neighbourhood Planning initiatives. Our presentation, which draws on extensive stakeholder engagement, will focus on how local communities can be empowered to take ownership of sustainable transport initiatives and how commercial opportunities can be provided to local suppliers to support growth and legacy beyond LSTF.

The ECO Stars Fleet Recognition Scheme

Ann Beddoes, ECO Stars Manager, Barnsley MBC

The ECO Stars Fleet Recognition Scheme provides a 'Win,Win' scheme for local authorities looking to tackle their Air Quality issues and fleet operators wanting to improve their operational and environmental performance.

ECO Stars launched in South Yorkshire in 2009 now has 100 members with 7,500+ vehicles. The scheme has  also been rolled out across 15 LAs in the UK and 3 municipalities in Europe

Smarter travel for Slough Trading Estate

Laura Wells, Senior Transport Planner, Atkins 

A case study of business engagement on Slough Trading Estate (STE), Europe’s largest trading estate in single ownership. Atkins, working on behalf of Slough Borough Council, have been engaging with SEGRO (landowners and managers of STE) along with key partners such as First Great Western, Liftshare, Cycling Instructor and Living Streets, to deliver a range of travel initiatives to employees on the estate including rail discounts, cycling initiatives, walking promotions and a car share network. The case study will highlight key achievements, lessons learnt and how the programme is being taken forward.

Adopting collaborative approaches in active travel interventions

James Adamson, Regional Development Manager and Neil Mitchell, Smarter Choices Manager, Sustrans

Adopting collaborative approaches in the design, funding and implementation of active travel interventions.

Using the Stockton Active Travel HUB as a specific case study, examine the additionality and co-benefits that this type of approach brought to the project. It will discuss the funding & policy levers that supported this type of approach and what levers present opportunities for similar types of collaboration in the immediate future. EU SIF funding provides an exciting opportunity for increased investment in active travel to address whole place low carbon solutions and social inclusion but to also support public health in achieving the targets identified within their Health and Wellbeing Strategies. However, it is only through effective collaboration between LEPs, LAs and Public Health Teams that this opportunity can be full realised.

Employer Perceptions of the Benefits of Sustainable Transport Initiatives

Caroline Bartle, Reseracher, University of the West of England

How do employers believe LSTF measures can benefit their business? This session reports on research with employers in the ‘North Fringe’ and Ports of Bristol. Caroline will report findings on how employers perceive that sustainable transport can improve staff satisfaction and retention, widen recruitment opportunities and indirectly reduce business costs.

Business Engagement – Keeping Businesses Moving

Sian Thomas & Jenny Corbett, Sustainable Travel Officers, Centro

Using the Smart Network, Smarter Choices experience with over 100 businesses across the West Midlands, find out how they have kept organisations engaged over 2 years. We will discuss local case studies, campaigns, and events and how we have been working with organisations to achieve interesting results. 

The BigHertsBigIdeas for Business

Stephen Lloyd Jones, Business Network Coordinator, Transport, Access and Safety, Hertfordshire County Council

The BigHertsBigIdeas for Business programme has effectively engaged and persuaded over 50 large employers in SW Hertfordshire to promote public transport, active travel, responsible car use and remote/flexible working to employees. Events, online interaction, discounts and advice have all been used to good effect and form a template for expansion into the rest of the county in 2015.

Go Smarter to work programme

Melanie Carls, Programme Manager, Go Smarter Tyne and Wear

Go Smarter to Work promotes sustainable transport across Tyne and Wear, and in particular around the A1 Western Bypass. This is being achieved through the delivery of four scheme packages:
• Improved infrastructure – bus priority, cycle and pedestrian routes on the Team Valley, and cycle parking at interchanges
• Improved travel information – real time passenger information and marketing
• Behaviour change measures through business engagement and smarter choices initiatives
• Travel support for jobseekers - low-cost scooter hire & jobseekers tickets

This session will focus mainly  on the business engagement elements.

Pledging to change behaviour in South Hampshire

Victoria Doyle, Marketing Manager, Solent Transport

Behaviour change theory tells us that if someone publicly declares they will do something, there’s a much greater chance they’ll actually do it. The Pledge campaign invites people to pledge a journey by walking, cycling or using public transport.  To date over half a million miles (and growing) have been pledged to travel sustainably.

PTP in a New Town

John Nichol, LSTF Programme Manager and Lesley McAllister, Principal Travel Planner, Transport for Warrington 

The Warrington Personalised Travel Planning project (PTP) employed Aecom transport consultancy to contact over 12,000 households within the Warrington Sustainable Travel Triangle project area. The latter also involved improvements to the cycling and walking network, bus and rail travel, and a Borough wide 20 mph project. Early indications are that tailoring potential travel options to people’s individual needs, in conjunction with the carrot of improved sustainable transport measures, increases the likelihood of a positive change in travel behaviour. 

Travel Choices for City Connect

Ginny Leonard & Pete Zanzotera, Steer Davies Gleave

The role of partners, stakeholders and ambassadors in Travel Choice was developed in the formation of the WYCA Travel Choices Board. Increasingly in a big data society there are a significant number of informed people who can do our job for us in communicating travel choice. However, we have to understand how to get the best from the people involved in programmes. The CityConnect project in Leeds and Bradford shows the practical ways that a project utilise them in consultation, engagement and ultimately implementing a programme.
 

Leicester Sustainable Travel Challenge project

Hannah May, Transport Development Officer, Leicester City Council

The presentation will outline our LeicesterShire Sustainable Travel Challenge project, which is an online tool that motivates participants, through challenges and rewards, to make more journeys in a sustainable way and consequently reduce their single occupancy car journeys.  Participants log their journeys made on foot, by bike, bus, train or car share for which they are awarded StravelPoints.  These points are awarded on a scale depending on the level of activity of the mode of travel.  When sufficient points have been accumulated they can be exchanged for discounts with retailers.   Unique to our project is that we have recruited local retailers to offer rewards that are exclusive to LeicesterShireSTC, in addition to the national offers on the platform, with the aim of generating activity in the local economy.

Thinktravel 2015/16: The Rugby World Cup as a stimulus for changing travel behaviour

Rachel Evans, Atkins & Richard Cornell – LSTF Programme Manager, Gloucestershire County Council  

Gloucestershire County Council (GCC) and Atkins have been working together to successfully deliver the Thinktravel project since 2012, with many successes and challenges. Harnessing the influence and match funding of partners, including the International Rugby Board (IRB) and private sector businesses through the Gloucestershire LEP was at the heart of the successful LSTF 2015/16 award. The 2015/16 Thinktravel project centres upon the travel behavioural change stimulus from Gloucester being a host city for the Rugby World Cup 2015 (RWC) and also being awarded Heart City status. These two high profile events will allow us to maximise the impact of Thinktravel by bringing a real focus on physical activity and active travel to Gloucestershire’s residents, visitors and business community. We will also collaborate with our rail and bus partners to deliver sustainable transport hubs at public transport interchanges, the legacy of which will extend beyond the RWC. Our speed learning session will share proposals on how sustainable transport can be at the heart of events management and an opportunity to leave a sustainable legacy with businesses, leisure providers, communities and public transport interchanges - ensuring goals are achieved both on and off the rugby field! 

Solar innvovation in the West Midlands

Thomas Skidmore, Senior Project Manager, Centro

Centro are delivering an innovative solar programme that has investigated various ways of harnessing solar energy to deliver passenger information. This has included the first ever solar epaper unit, a solar bus shelter feed-in tariff (generating an ongoing revenue stream), and three solar RTI in-shelter prototypes. The objective has been to reduce carbon emissions and reduce the cost of delivering information in hard to reach places. This session will discuss the learning and findings from the programme so far.

Promoting active travel in the Community

Celia Davis, Community Active Travel Officer, Sustrans & Janine McCretton, LTSF Community Engagement and Schools Manager, Bristol City Council

Grant funding in Bristol has enabled the delivery of 72 community projects to promote active travel. With two officers in post the reach, impact and legacy of the projects has been enhanced, and an exciting new model of community engagement in sustainable travel has been developed.

The Community Hubs Programme in Nottingham

Andy Parkinson, TravelRight Project Manager, Nottingham City Council & Clare Collins, Neighbourhood Smarter Travel Officer, South Nottingham, Sustrans

Nottingham has five Community Travel Hubs run by TravelRight and Sustrans. These provide a community approach to travel behaviour change, offering an innovative and locally responsive programme of local sustainable travel events, activities and services along with skills development and volunteering opportunities. Hear from two of our Hub Co-ordinators how they have built a local identity and community trust and are now making a real difference to travel behaviour and access to opportunities.

Safer Mobility for Elderly Road Users

Sue Goss, Senior Transport Planner, Southend Borough Council

The Health Benefits of Behaviour Change in Southend  SaMERU (Safer Mobility for Elderly Road Users)

Understanding highway users enables relevant behaviour change opportunities to be offered to different age groups.  The SaMERU (Safer Mobility for Elder Road Users) European project brought together academics and practitioners to assess the relevant actions for Local Authorities to enable safe and active travel for this growing age group.  Southend has been piloting travel training for older residents.

The York Bike Belles community

David Short, LSTF Programme Manager, City of York and Sheridan Piggott, Sustrans Smarter Choices Coordinator, Yorkshire and the Humber

The York Bike Belles community is an innovative scheme delivered by Sustrans that is successfully encouraging more women to cycle in York. Currently female participation in cycling is under represented by a ration of 1 female to 3 male cyclists. York Bike Belles has created an inclusive, friendly community that supports women through their journey into cycling. Fun, social activities, promotion of  a ‘cycling lifestyle’ and support by other women cyclists are at the heart of the programme. The scheme has been proven to build confidence, a key barrier for women, and ultimately results in more women cycling as an everyday form of transport. 

CycleBoost

Angela Walker, Project Manager, Heeley Development Trust/Recycle Bikes 

Sheffield CycleBoost removes the barriers that prevent people from cycling, providing Sheffield’s residents and workers access to a bike and the skills to commute with confidence. Since 2010 CycleBoost has inspired 3,000 people into cycling, with over 70% of participants cycling at least once a week after taking part.

The Hertfordshire Year of Cycling

Trevor Mason, Safe and Sustainable Journeys Manager, Hertfordshire County Council

The Hertfordshire Year of Cycling brings together the County Council’s Environment and Public Health departments, with the aim of getting more people to cycle. The campaign embraces sustainable transport and health benefits, and includes promotion of leisure and sporting activities. The programme includes health referrals, cycling in the school curriculum, annual town-centre events and cycle-friendly businesses. 

Establishing Cycle Hire in the City of Bath

Colin Rees, LSTF Project Manager, Bath and North East Somerset Council

Cycle Hire in Bath – ‘NextBike in Bath’

A two year cycle hire demonstration commenced in Bath in September 2011, the number of hires during this initial project was disappointing; however the University of the West of England carried out a comprehensive evaluation of the scheme and many valuable lessons were learned.

These lessons were used to produce the specification for a new scheme, which was launched in partnership with cycle hire operator Nextbike in June 2014. To date the number of hires per month has significantly exceeded the demonstration project and we are on target to meet our aim of operating a financially self-supporting cycle hire operation in Bath. 

Beat the Street Thurrock

Adrian Barritt, Travel Thurrock Project Manager, Thurrock Council

The session will provide insight into the practical application of how transport and public health agendas have been aligned and delivered on a local scale. It will detail the different aspects of the collaboration and will primarily use the success of the Beat the Street Thurrock project to provide an example of the effectiveness of the partnership. Beat the Street Thurrock was an innovative and fun solution to encourage Thurrock to become more active and healthier and is one of most successful active participation projects in the country. 

The Affordability Project

Christine Murphy, Partnership officer, Merseytravel

Merseytravel’s Young Peoples Affordability of Transport project helps pupils that cannot afford to attend school due to the cost of transport. The project provides them with a term time travel pass or a bicycle and cycle training to help them attend school. The aim of the project is to encourage schools to continue to support pupils in this position by using their pupil premium to fund travel support in future.

WorkWise - Free Travel Inititiative for Jobseekers

Jobeda Shahed, WorkWise Team Leader, Centro

WorkWise - How free travel tickets and support has helped more than 10,000 jobseekers in their search for work.

WorkWise has grown from a small localised project to now supporting jobseekers across the whole of the West Midlands. The project provides 1 day tickets for interviews and upto 2 months of free travel when moving into employment.  Three-year project targets were exceeded in two years, highlighting the value and demand for the project.

Let’s Get to Work

Julian Ashworth Travel Choices Business Engagement Manager Transport for Greater Manchester

Transport for Greater Manchester is spearheading an ambitious £59.8million LSTF programme to link communities with employment opportunities, and encourage sustainable commuting and business travel.

Learn about programme successes; the journey from bid to delivery; 2015-16 funding and the transition to business as usual; how the programme links to Greater Manchester’s Growth Deal and future transport plans.

Pathways to Work

Thomas Evans – LSTF Officer, Gloucestershire County Council  & Sarah Fish, Atkins

Pathways to Work

A key element of Gloucestershire’s Thinktravel programme is the promotion of economic development through access to sustainable transport. We will explore the social, societal and economic benefits achieved through the access to opportunities programme, helping local people suffering from long term unemployment return to work.

Community Based Personalised Travel Planning  

Lucy Low, Smarter Travel Officer, Cheshire West & Chester Council 

An innovative project which has resulted from the desire to expand our successful workplace based personalised travel planning project to members of the community. The project will be delivered to the working age population, and be both health focussed and aim to expand people’s travel horizons to work and training. Individuals will be engaged with through Job Centre Plus, Healthy Living Centres (fortnightly travel surgeries) and targeted residential interaction (areas where unemployment and health deprivation is high).  Survey will capture existing travel behaviour and physical activity levels and tailored information will be provided to assist the individual in healthier and greener travel to work or training.