According to the CBI, traffic delays cost the country around £20 billion a year. In addition, the proportion of employees travelling to work by car in the UK is increasing - in 2001, 70% of those people working usually travelled to work by car, compared to 68% in 1993. In constrast to this, across the country, levels of walking and bus trips to work are decreasing.
What can business do?
Businesses can play an important role in the promotion of sustainable travel alternatives to employees.
A Travel for Work Plan (or travel plan) is a package of measures aimed to encourage staff to travel to work using more sustainable methods of transport. In Cambridgeshire, there is a important emphasis on the role that Travel for Work Plans can play in achieving the County's transport objectives.
The Cambridgeshire Travel for Work Partnership works with a number of local employers in promoting the development of Travel for Work Plans and, within these, a number of initiatives to encourage sustainable transport.
Cambridgeshire County Council is just one of a number of organisations and businesses that have set up their own Travel for Work Plan to improve travel choice for employees and to reduce the dependency on single occupancy car use. Individual plans are made for each site covering commuting, visitors and business travel.
Further information
- For more information on local Travel for Work Plans, visit the Cambridgeshire Travel for Work Partnership website.
- See the Department for Transport website for further details of business travel plans in general.
- See the "Travel Plan Resource Pack for Employers" (available on the Department for Transport website).