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Travel Plans for Housing Developments

Travel Plans for Housing Developments

In recent years the number of vehicles using our roads has been increasing, of particular concern is the number of single occupancy trips i.e. cars with only one person in them. This is leading to increased congestion, noise, air pollution and community severance. In order to address this problem Clackmannanshire Council is promoting the use of travel plans.

In a society over-dependent on the car for both long and short journeys, a travel plan is essentially a package of measures aimed at increasing choice whilst reducing reliance on the private car in favour of alternative sustainable modes. The role of a travel plan is to promote travel choice by increasing the awareness and relative advantage of transport alternatives to the car, particularly walking, cycling and public transport.

For new residential developments, travel plans can be used to set out measures which may be an incentive for house purchasers to chose a particular development or to use non-car modes for certain journeys. In many cases house purchasers are new to an area and are not aware of the local facilities and services available.

The requirements for each travel plan will depend on the proposals and the location,and will be at the discretion of the Council. Good practice advice for developing travel plans is available to download from the publications and documents section below.

A travel plan for a residential development should include the following:

• Safer routes to schools
• Walking and cycling routes to local facilities i.e. health services, post office, shops, library
• Location of facilities available on site i.e. post box, play parks, recreational paths
• Access to public transport i.e. closest bus stop and service information, closest rail station and facilities available (car/cycle parking)
• Cycle paths through development and linkages to other paths
• Walking routes through the development

Good design of the site at the master-planning stage can positively influence how people travel. The following are examples of design measures that encourage walking, cycling and public transport use:

• Large developments should try to design the internal road layout in order to allow service buses to access the site without the need for turning
• Adequate off street parking allows residents to safely park the car at home during the day and use alternative modes to travel to work and for leisure.
• The provision of visitor parking using lay-bys can encourage car sharing and makes streets safer as it can eliminate long rows of parked vehicles which are a road safety concern for young children

It is generally accepted that a pedestrian will walk for approximately 20 minutes and cyclists will travel between 30 and 40 minutes to access jobs and services. To have a site considered highly accessible then the following criteria requires to be met:

• 400m distance to bus stop
• 800m distance to railway station
• 1600m distance to local facilities

Unlike other travel plans, it is not appropriate to set modal share targets or review and revise the original plan in housing developments. It is therefore critical that travel plans for residential developments are made available to all purchasers and are updated as the development progresses. This maximises the potential to create a sustainable development for the benefit of the whole community.