Demonstrating localised workplace travel planning in Limerick City

peer-reviewedAs 'Ireland's Smarter Travel Demonstration City' Limerick is charged with piloting ways to convince its citizens to move around their city in a more sustainable way, in particular to walk, cycle and use public transport more. The Limerick Smarter Travel (LST) project is funded by the Department of Transport with EU support and implemented by a multidisciplinary team of University of Limerick (UL) researchers and Limerick Local Authority staff [Cullinane and Cosgrove 2013]. Travel is an integral part of everyday life, which allows people to meet their needs by providing access to work, services and social gatherings. Commuting to work by car makes up a large proportion of all car traffic, particularly during the morning and evening peak periods in Limerick City. Consequently, workplace travel planning forms an integral part of the LST project. Workplace travel plans are behaviour change packages that are a tried and tested means of achieving mode shift away from the single-occupancy car. In the early 1990s, the idea of workplace travel planning began to gain ground in Britain, based on successful experience in the Netherlands and the US. Research shows that workplace travel plans can reduce car use by between 10-24% [Cairns et al 2004]. However, achieving behaviour change, in relation to travel in particular, and coming to an understanding of how best to achieve it, is an extremely difficult task considering the vast range of factors that can influence behaviour. LST collaborates with the National Transport Authority (NTA) through their already well established Smarter Travel Workplace programme, to implement the LST Workplace and Campus Travel Planning Programme. Limerick’s Local Authority is also involved in both developing their own travel plan, and encouraging other employers to develop their own, site-specific travel plans. Policy makers should consider localised measures to encourage sustainable transport, in particular walking and cycling in urban areas. However, the intrinsic, psychological motivations of car use are not well understood by policy makers. Therefore, non-deliberate choices by motorists make it extremely difficult to influence travel behaviour change. Policy strategies aimed at reducing car use should take these intrinsic motives for car use into account. This paper describes the development and implementation of a comprehensive Workplace and Campus Travel Planning Programme in Limerick City. This paper highlights the importance of integrating transport and planning objectives. This paper describes how the LST project is supporting the development of a travel planning culture by leveraging the planning system at both the level of the Local Authority and the applicant, in order to meet social, environmental and economic objectives for Limerick City