EPOMM Newsletter October 07

Dear reader, the summer is over, people have returned to their daily jobs. News reports on congestion and climate change raise the debate once again on what should be done to ease the problem. Doing nothing is simply not an option. Mobility management for companies helps employers and employees alike in saving costs, enhancing the quality of life, increasing customer and employee satisfaction. Along the way, it reduces congestion and CO2 emissions. This e-update's focus is on this form of MM. The call for papers for the ECOMM 2008 in London has opened - please have a look on their website. Download the submission form here, and the conference themes here. We would appreciate feedback on the e-update and the website; also feel free to forward it to other persons so they have the possibility to subscribe. If you do not want to receive the e-update any more, please unsubscribe. If the format of the e-update on your screen is not OK, please click here to see the full screen version.
Company mobility management (CMM)
	CMM often is the main focus of MM - as commuter travel is the main source of congestion - responsible for most of peak hour travel. And there is a high potential for behaviour change: a reduction of car travel through CMM of between 5 and 25% are realistic targets. EPOMM provides you with some key CMM projects from the EPOMM member countries and with useful links to more information. Have a look at some case studies on CMM A major project on CMM was "Toolbox for mobility management in companies". On the Toolbox website you find tools like a decision support system and a quick solution catalogue The Netherlands is one of the countries with most experience in CMM. A recent report shows the effect and lessons learned. Of the about 16 companies with 50 employees or more, 6% implemented CMM. The realised car use reduction per company was 8%. The most effective measures prove to be simple measures such as leasing bicycles, contracts with rail/bus operators, and a premium on car-pooling agreements. The UK has its own Association for Commuter Transport, directly addressing employers and employees. There are also a host of other initiatives, for example bicycle incentive schemes, car sharing, and even some on county level Some interesting presentations from the last ECOMM (Lund 2007) The art of selling sustainable travel to employers (SE) A successful example in a rather rural setting (Liechtenstein) Some good arguments for CMM in London A typical example for a city in France (Nantes) initiating CMM Teleworking on a large scale in the US and plans for teleworking in Sweden
Triggers for Mobility Management in companies (NL)
	Recent research in the Netherlands by ECORYS AVM shows there are several triggers for companies to start implementing mobility management. A distinction is made between operational management, societal responsibility reasons and external pressure influencing companies to uptake mobility management. In the Netherlands companies can rely on a growing number of mobility service providers. Mobility Mixx (info in Dutch only) offers companies a complete mobility service. With the Mobility Card, employees make use of train, OV-fiets (public transport and cycling) carpooling and P+R facilities. The system makes travel declarations redundant and employers get a monthly review of all mobility costs. Each employee receives a 'mobility budget' that they can use as they see fit. If an employee for example chooses to travel by train instead of the car, they gain money. National Bicycle Projects (Dutch only) is a commercial organization that sells bicycles to employers. This company makes use of a tax advantage for companies promoting biking to work. The service is free for companies and gives interesting advantages. Extra benefits for employers are a good health and diminishing absence due to illness of their employees. Already 2.000 companies have registered with National Bicycle Projects. Research shows a growth of bicycle use with 19%. Teleworking is one of the most popular services in The Netherlands. New ICT possibilities cause this service to keep on growing (facts and figures of e-working). The Dutch e-Work Foundation considers three types of teleworking, all having an impact on congestion: working at home one or more days a week avoiding peak hours: before traveling to the workplace, read emails and do some phone calls avoiding business trips by telephone conferencing or by video conferencing Euromobility (Dutch only) gives insight in a companies' total mobility costs. Companies often lack overview, because mobility is part of different budgets. If all costs like parking spaces and real estate (no flexible workplaces) are taken into account companies see opportunities to save money at times of moving or renovating. More information in English on the transition towards sustainable mobility can be found here. An example in English of the implementation of the National Bicycle Projects at the University of Groningen can be found here. Please contact Mr. Friso Metz for more information on Dutch Mobility Management measures for companies.
Mobility Management for industrial areas (ES)
	With the European GESMOPOLI project the Government of Catalonia and the Regional Government of Barcelona wish to tackle the transport and mobility problems industrial areas are confronted with. The Cataluña Mobility Law from 2003 gave Catalan municipalities and companies the opportunity to focus on Mobility Management solutions. Increasing traffic congestions and continuously changing mobility needs are typical problems of industrial areas. Industry parks in the region of Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona are the subject of research in this project. On the website of Gesmopoli you can find the complete methodology of how the partners work with e.g. mobility managers and other Mobility Management measures to reach consensus on sustainable mobility and the stakeholders of the area. IDAE (the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving - www.idae.es) recently published a "Practical Guidebook to Elaborate and Establish Plans of Transport to the Workplace (PTT)" in the framework of the Energy Saving and Efficiency Action Plan (referred in previous e-News) for the Spanish Government. The (Spanish) pdf file can be downloaded on their site and here.
CERO and Stockholm Mobility (SE)
	With financial support from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the Stockholm Traffic administration, a policy assessment framework has been developed at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm (Robèrt, M.: A model for climate target-oriented planning and monitoring of corporate travel). The concept is named Climate and Economic Research in Organisations (CERO). It has been based on empirical data collected from three large Swedish companies (about 7000 employees). The CERO is a target-oriented framework for comprehensive and manageable corporate travel policies. Experiences so far show that the framework is applicable for companies in order to: Create policies that are robust as regards employee acceptance (i.e. policies that have a favourable market potential). Design target-oriented company policies for groups of employees with significantly higher emissions and travel distances e.g. distant residential locations, frequent air travellers, employees with access to company car benefits, etc. Open a market-oriented dialogue with actors regarding employee criteria for choosing more resource-efficient alternatives, such as provision of workplace shower/changing-room facilities for cyclists, better video conference facilities, flexible office solutions, lobbying public transport providers and local governments to provide public transport connections, cycle paths, safe and well-lit footpaths. At present time there is no extra information available on the CERO study, however two articles are in press as we speak. Here you can find information from a comparable study in Sweden on the assessment of long term effects of economic policy instruments on the transport system.
Get employees on their bike! (UK)
	Cycling England analysed the CO2 footprint of the 6.6 million employees who use cars or buses to travel less than five miles to work, as part of its campaign to promote Bike Week. In their calculations they found staggering figures that if these target commuters were to cycle during the five working days of Bike Week, they would save over 44,000 tonnes of CO2, pocketing around £61 million in the process through economising on fuel and fare costs. At the moment, 78 per cent of all commuters drive or are driven to work, generating a weekly CO2 footprint of more than 341,000 tonnes. 600,000 people in the UK already cycle to work, saving a weekly tally of almost 5,250 tonnes. More than 6.6 million people make work-based journeys of under five miles, and these short-distance commuters are the target for the UK Governments 'cycle to work scheme'. You can make the calculation for yourself on the calculator provided via this link. Employers and employees can get convinced to use the bike scheme to work via the websites 'bikeforall', Cycle to work scheme, implementation guidance. On Bicycle solutions you can find benefits of the 'cycle to work scheme'.
Broadening of the French aids for employees' HBW trips in order to facilitate the use of public transport
	Since 1982, in Paris and its surroundings, a compulsory contribution has reduced the price of employees' monthly public transport tickets to 50 %. In 1996, a law provided the framework for employees' mobility management thanks to the emergence of mobility plans. Since 2000, many Company Travel Plans (Plan de Déplacements d'Entreprises) in which employers, in coordination with transport authorities, reimburse a part of their employees' public transport tickets, have been carried out. Since the very end of 2006, incentive measures have been widened thanks to two new national provisions: Administrations have two years, from now on, to implement a mobility plan strategy. In addition, civil servants have their public transport tickets reimbursed to 50% (not exceeding 50 euros per month). A new system called "Transport Cheque" can be provided to employees depending on their employers' agreement. The cheque is pre-financed by employers (exonerated from social charges) to reduce their employees' HBW trips cost. The cheques can be used for public transport but also for cars, depending on circumstances, and, in that case, they cannot go up to 100 euros per year. Organisations such as CERTU and Ademe stimulate the development of PDE's in France.
Talked about…
	"Cycling is not possible here..." An often heard remark in many cities. To see what is possible, follow this fantastic link.