August 2010

Travel Plans Newsletter - Issue 8

As we move towards September and the majority of staff return from their summer holidays it is a great time to renew promotion of alternative modes of transport. In this month's newsletter you will find advice and offers on cycling, walking, smarter driving and car sharing. The next month is also the perfect time to resurvey your staff with the support of the SWELTRAC team and our specialist software. If you would like more information on the resurvey process, please get in touch.
 

Discounts at bike stores

Transport for London is offering discounts at cycle stores across London. The stores providing discounts include Evans (various locations), Moore’s Cycles (Twickenham, Teddington and Isleworth), Action Bikes (Wimbledon, Sheen, Whitton, Embankment and Victoria) and Putney Cycles (Putney). You can also receive 50% off of London Cycling Campaign membership, which includes free third party insurance amongst other benefits. Request your discount vouchers here.
 

Walkit.com widgets

Got a 'how to find us' section of your website? Running an event and want to help people get there on foot? Walkit.com has the answer! You can now create widgets for your website to help visitors plan their walking route to your site. These are easily generated (we have managed to add one to our site) and can be tailored to direct to your location as default. For more information, please visit walkit.com.
 

NHS Travel Plan Network

On Monday 2nd August NHS and Borough representatives gathered together at City Hall to discuss the engagement and partnership between the NHS and local authorities. In light of upcoming changes to the NHS, including GP commissioning, various opportunities were highlighted such as a wider community approach in helping residents to become healthier as well as coordination of some transport services.
SWELTRAC has been helping to run the South West London NHS Travel Plan Network since its establishment in 2005. We are continuing to work  with local NHS trusts to improve access to their sites for staff and visitors. A full article about the network can be found on our news page.
 

Free Smarter Driving Events with the Energy Saving Trust

The Energy Saving Trust aim to reduce CO₂ emissions by helping people to use energy more efficiently, conserve water, reduce waste and choose greener ways to travel at home and at work. The Energy Saving Trust advice centre for London is currently offering businesses in the area the chance to run a FREE employee engagement event worth £1,000! The EST will attend your offices for a day providing an impartial advice service for your employees. Last year the London EST spoke to over 100,000 people in London. This and other activities gives the EST advice centre a unique level of insight into consumer needs, aspirations and behaviour around sustainable transport and energy-saving activities.

Your event will include:

- Smarter Driving Simulator
- Competition with Sat Nav incentive
- National Energy Action trained advisors

For further information on how your organisation can benefit from an event, please contact Nick.

*Events are free on the completion of Travel Energy Checks (TECs). Staff/students/visitors will receive a personalised transport energy report upon completion of their TEC and will be entered into a prize draw to win M&S vouchers or a Sat Nav.
 

Special Feature: Car Sharing

We would like to encourage all of our partner organisations to consider car sharing as an alternative to driving alone. There are a number of benefits to be gained from sharing your car including:

- Cost savings (instantly save 50% on your fuel costs)
- Reduce CO₂ emissions
- Reduce local congestion
- Reduce the demand for car parking
- Make the journey to work more enjoyable

One of the biggest obstacles that people face when they decide to car share is trying to find a partner with similar work/travel patterns. Liftshare is an online network that matches people with similar journeys so they can travel together, and it is free to register! You are also able to share walking, cycling and taxi journeys.

Another way of getting involved is to set up a private car-sharing group for your company, community or organisation. Liftshare for Business has helped hundreds of organisations and communities in the UK to set up their own online journey-matching tools to encourage car-sharing and more sustainable mobility within their organisations. SWELTRAC has recently set up a private Liftshare scheme for the Teddington Travel to Work Network. This allows staff from member organisations to log journeys and search for car share partners from within their own organisation, other network organisations and finally in the wider Liftshare member base. Information on the Teddington car share scheme can be found here.

Finally, we have created a guide to car share promotion. In addition to marketing advice, the guide provides details on complimentary measures such as priority car parking and a guaranteed ride home service. This was produced for the Teddington network but most of the ideas and initiatives are applicable across all organisations. The guide can be downloaded here.