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Travel Plans Newsletter - Fifth Edition
Hello from the SWELTRAC Team and welcome to the May edition of our Travel Plans newsletter. Despite a particularly cold May so far, the current forecasts are for an increase in temperatures this week and maybe (fingers crossed) a hot summer. So now seems the perfect time to get that bike back out of the shed, dust it down and arrange one of our very popular FREE Dr Bike sessions at your workplace! Please contact Kevin for more details.
SWELTRAC’s objectives achieved
Over the last financial year, SWELTRAC’s Travel Plan Co-ordinators worked with workplaces across five boroughs (Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Sutton and Wandsworth) to help them implement workplace travel plans, with a vision of reducing congestion, improving local environments and promoting the uptake of healthy and sustainable travel in the workplace. We have helped to develop 67 voluntary travel plans over the year (2009/10) and an additional 61 organisations have been engaged at different stages.
In the current year we are committed to working with all the organisations that have fully developed a travel plan to help review their strategies, support with activities and monitor what impact this support has had on their staff travel, parking costs and environmental image.
London Cycle Challenge
June will see the launch of TfL’s London Cycle Challenge. It’s free to enter and is a great reason to hop on your bike. Registration is now open at tfl.gov.uk/cyclechallenge. SWELTRAC is offering all organisations in the region a FREE support pack to help you promote the challenge, which will include posters, leaflets, a cycle computer and advice on available support for your own cycling event including a free bike maintenance session! To receive one of these packs or to book a free Dr Bike session or Cycle Maintenance Course as part of the London Cycle Challenge, please contact Nick.
Walk to Work Week results
The recent Walk to Work Week (26-30 April) proved to be a huge success. During the week 21 of our partner organisations registered their miles online. In order to encourage staff to take part, SWELTRAC provided 26 organisations with posters, local walking guides and information leaflets. SWELTRAC organisations walked a total of 1391 miles. As a nation, over 10,000 people signed up online and collectively walked over 71,000 miles during the week.
We would like to congratulate LGC, who won our Walk to Work Week competition! LGC will now enjoy free breakfast catering for 20 people.
New Cycle parking facilities at Teddington Studios
The Pinewood Studios Group has recently installed a new cycle shelter for staff at Teddington Studios. This new facility provides secure, covered parking for 10 bikes and as the photo shows, it is already being extremely well used. The shelter was purchased and installed with help from SWELTRAC match funding and the Studios stated that they “are very grateful for [SWELTRAC’s] assistance with this project - many thanks.”
Streetcar and Zipcar are joining forces!
Streetcar, the UK’s largest Car Club, has recently been acquired by the world leader in this field, Zipcar. In the coming months, the companies will begin the process of shifting the Streetcar brand, parking locations, technology and operations to the Zipcar brand and platform. By the end of the year, Streetcar members should have access to more cars on more streets around London and access to the largest car club in North America, with cars in 12 major cities including New York, San Francisco, Toronto and Vancouver. Read the press release here.