WestTrans - Planning Transport Together
West London Partnership
 
Measures - Reducing the Need to Travel


QUICK WINS:

  • Identify staff whose work would be particularly suitable for homeworking and who would be willing to try it

  • Monitor the use of tele-conferencing or video-conferencing and calculate the number of miles and time saved by having a log book available.

What can an organisation do to reduce the need to travel?

 

Tele-working

With improvements in IT, employees work away from the organisation's workplace, either at home or at a satellite office.  Tele-working can bring a number of benefits including: increased productivity due to fewer distractions; a reduced need to travel; and environmental benefits - working from home just one day a fortnight will reduce an employee's commuting trips by 10%.

 

Tele-conferencing

Tele-conferencing means communicating with other people using video and/ or audio-conferencing facilities. Video-conferencing allows business meetings to be conducted by telephone line, with participants and documents viewed on-screen.  These provide alternatives to driving long distances to meetings, saving both time and money and increasing the productivity of staff.

 

Flexi-time

Flexi-time is a system whereby staff are required to undertake 'core hours' but have flexibility at either end of the working day for the times that they choose to start and finish.  This enables staff journeys to and from work to fit around public transport timetables and avoids the need for all staff to travel during the peak hours, thereby helping to alleviate congestion.

 

Compressed working week

A compressed working week allows staff to take, for example, one day per fortnight or one day per week off if they work the required hours in advance.

 

On-site facilities

If the organisation (or partnerships of organisations) is sufficiently large, provision of on-site leisure and creche facilities could be considered.  This will help to cut down the numbers of trips staff make before and after work and at lunchtime. It may also reduce the need to drive to work at all.


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