Sue Philbin (Flow Transportation Specialists)

"Implementing Travel Plans to Achieve Results – Putting Theory into Practice."


Sue will present a paper in response to Laura Hirst’s Paper regarding the Challenges of setting travel plan targets and enforcing the travel plan. To put this in context, whilst working for a local authority in the UK Laura initiated robust travel plan monitoring and enforcement measures which she implemented through the planning process. In essence, if developers wished to develop a piece of land they had to comply with the planning regulations (conditions) in order to gain the necessary planning permission and thus be allowed to build. As part of the planning regulations developments over a certain size required the implementation of a travel plan but it was not merely good enough to produce a ‘paper’ travel plan they had to produce a travel plan with ‘teeth’. This meant that achievable targets had to be put in place along with a monitoring strategy which tested whether or not those targets were being met. If they were not met then the enforcement strategy was initiated.

In the case study that Sue will describe, a mixed residential development of over 400 units (from one bedroom flats to 4 bedroom town houses and including social housing) had obtained planning permission on the condition that a travel plan was put in place with quite distinct targets. Sue was employed by the developer to ‘make the travel plan happen’. If the travel plan measures were not successful in reducing trip rates to the development then the travel plan ‘teeth’ would ‘bite’ and the developer would be ‘fined’ by the local planning authority. The revenue raised in this manner would then be hypothecated to be used for increasing patronage of passenger transport and other sustainable transport modes in an attempt to achieve the trip reduction targets.