Personalised travel plans in the workplace: a case study

Bartle, Caroline; Avineri, Erel

Abstract

© 2014, Thomas Telford Services Ltd.All Rights Reserved. Workplaces are facing the challenge of sustainable auditing and reducing land dedicated to car parking. Personalised travel planning enables employees to evaluate the full range of alternatives to the car for their journey to work. However, the uptake and effectiveness of such a service may be strongly influenced by the social and organizational context of individual workplaces. This paper draws out findings on the importance of social context from a case study of user involvement in the development of an innovative, web-based tool to generate personalised travel plans. Interviews were held with the innovators, with travel coordinators and with users of the tool in three pilot organisations. Travel coordinators saw the personalised travel planning tool from the perspective of a corporate strategy to reduce carbon dioxide emissions – in some cases as a ‘carrot’ to balance the ‘stick’ of higher parking charges. Among some employees, this made it a focal point for dissatisfaction with employers’ wider transport measures. However, staff involved in change management saw it as an effective way of informing employees, often promoting its diffusion within workplace practice. The findings offer a number of good practice points to designers of innovative transport tools and organisations interested in taking them up.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2014
• Deposit Date: Sep 4, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 20, 2016
• Journal: Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers: Municipal Engineer
• Print ISSN: 0965-0903
• Electronic ISSN: 1751-7699
• Publisher: Thomas Telford
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 167
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 183-190
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1680/muen.13.00024
• Keywords: transport planning, information technology, social impact
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/822277
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1680/muen.13.00024
• Related Public URLs: http://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/content/serial/cien
• Additional Information: Additional Information : Available online 21 January 2014. (http://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/content/journals) Permission is granted by ICE Publishing to print one copy for personal use. Any other use of these PDF files is subject to reprint fees.
• Contract Date: Sep 20, 2016