What is a Mobility Management Plan?
A mobility management plan (also referred to as a Green Commuter Plan, a Sustainable Mobility Plan and a Travel Plan) consists of a package of measures put in place by an organisation to encourage and support more sustainable travel patterns among staff, clients and other visitors. Such a plan usually concentrates on staff commuting patterns, but may also include business travel and indeed fleet management and freight issues. It can be developed for an individual work site or group of work sites within, for example, an office park or industrial estate.
The plan may take the form of a formally published document that outlines an organisation’s measures and targets. Alternatively, it may simply evolve over time as different initiatives are piloted. Depending on the circumstances of the organisation, either approach is appropriate.
Why Implement a Mobility Management Plan?
The obvious problem of congestion and the impacts it has on health and the environment can be partially addressed through encouraging people, where feasible, to use modes of transport other than the private car, even one day a week. Employers are well placed to do this and can benefit too. The context for the development of mobility management plans is developing rapidly in terms of planning legislation, planning policy guidance and local authority planning policies. Site-specific or area-wide mobility management plans are increasingly being viewed by planning authorities as an essential component of land use planning and transport demand management.
Equally, an increasing number of organisations are viewing mobility management as a means of improving accessibility to their site, improving their organisation’s image and making it easier to recruit and retain staff. Staff benefit from increased flexibility, reduced commuting costs and less stress.
The wider community benefits too, from reduced energy consumption, reduced congestion and overspill parking into adjacent residential areas, and also environmental improvements such as enhanced air quality and reduced noise.
Where to Start
From 1999 to 2001 Sustainable Energy Ireland (then Irish Energy Centre), Dublin Transportation Office and Kirklees Metropolitan Council in the UK participated as partners in the ‘Way to Go’ research project, funded under the EU’s SAVE II programme, which pilot tested various sustainable mobility measures in a range of public and private organisations.
Executive Summary of the “Way to Go” project (PDF)
Drawing on the experience of the pilot companies the project partners have now produced a guide entitled The Route to Sustainable Commuting: An Employer’s Guide to Mobility Management Plans, which is intended to assist companies who decide to look at ways of reducing staff dependency on the single occupancy private car for commuting. The guide also contains a CD Rom which facilitates calculation of the energy consumption and environmental impacts associated with current staff travel patterns, and reductions that could be realised by implementing measures for mobility management.
- The Route to Sustainable Commuting: An Employer’s Guide to Mobility Management Plans (PDF)
- Impacts Calculator
If all car drivers were to consider car sharing, cycling, taking the bus or train, or walking, even for one day a week, congestion would be reduced, stress decreased and the environment would be healthier.