The development of workplace travel plans

Workplace travel plans were conceived as a way to "green" commuter travel by reducing single occupancy vehicle use and encouraging more sustainable modes. This paper will demonstrate that the motivations that drove a travel plan to be implemented initially are unlikely to be those that sustain them now or in the future. Using Rogers' "Diffusion of Innovations" model, it will show that policy and guidance is too focussed on a travel plan's early stages and not enough on the maturing phase, with the result that travel plans are too narrow, concentrating on parking issues or a planning application. There is a danger that policies and the emerging British Standard, PAS 500 will be built around this "Kindergarten" view of travel planning. Unless travel plans do get past these early stages, they are unlikely to yield the transport benefits that "Smarter Choices Changing the Way We Travel" indicated, nor offer the business benefits required to sustain them