Modeshift STARS – Effective Travel Plans for the return to work and school – free for the first 100 sites – save £150

As schools and businesses begin to plan for the easing of lockdown, families and individuals will be starting to think about how they are going to travel whilst adhering to social distancing guidelines.

The current guidance for businesses is that if people cannot work from home and have to travel for work, they should first consider cycling, walking or driving to help ensure there is enough capacity for those who need to travel on public transport to do so safely. Meanwhile for schools, children, young people and parents are encouraged to walk or cycle where possible and avoid public transport at peak times. It is understood that the Government will shortly publish guidance on how to travel safely, which schools, parents and young people can refer to when planning their travel, particularly if public transport is required.

We recognise that with social distancing in place, planning the journey to work or school is going to be particularly complex for some. Therefore, it has never been more important to develop and deliver an effective Travel Plan in order to ensure that everyone can travel as safely, efficiently and actively as possible. A Travel Plan is a population wide strategy for travel behaviour change that can be applied to any setting. Traditionally, it includes a package of measures that aims to reduce single-occupancy car use to and from any given site in favour of increases in sustainable and active travel, but given restrictions on public transport, it is essential that focus is now on ensuring that those who can walk and cycle have the infrastructure, information and confidence to do so in order to reduce the demand on the public transport and road network.

Given this urgent requirement for effective Travel Plans, Modeshift have decided to make its STARS Business platform free (normally £150) for the first 100 businesses that register in June & July in order to assist in the development and implementation of a Travel Plan. The Modeshift STARS online Travel Plan toolkit provides a comprehensive Travel Plan tool that assists in creating, implementing and monitoring your Travel Plan. Furthermore, the scheme recognises and rewards excellence in the promotion of sustainable and active travel with the potential of national accreditation for those sites that go on to implement their Travel Plan.

To get registered on Modeshift STARS and start working on your own effective Travel Plan, business should complete the STARS Business ‘Contact Us’ form at – https://modeshiftstars.org/contact-us/stars-business/ – including EffectiveTravelPlan in the ‘Subject’ line.