Virtual walking…the future of journey planning?

A new online visual mapping tool has been developed by a start-up company in America*, to provide a tour of places from a pedestrian’s perspective.

An interesting concept, which builds on the idea being developed by Google Earth, but do these applications have a useful purpose, or are they just an interesting tool to play with?

Research** recently published by the RAC Foundation and the British Chambers of Commerce found that the uncertainty of journey end points, often leads business travellers to either drive the whole journey (increasingly with satnav as a companion) or hop in a taxi when they get to their destination on the train. This type of tool could certainly be used to help travellers familiarise themselves with the look and feel of a destination before they arrive, to the extent that less taxi and car journey’s are made. Some may say, what is wrong with a traditional map – nothing of course – but it would be interesting to see these tools used in a way, which helps enhance existing journeys. 

* Everyscape

** ‘Business Travel: Choice or necessity?’

Source: planetizen.com  

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THE CAR REMAINS THE NUMBER ONE CHOICE FOR UK BUSINESS TRAVELLERS

The majority of business travellers rely on the car as public transport is not ‘fit for purpose’, according to a major new study launched today (12) by the Royal Automobile Club Foundation and the British Chambers of Commerce. Despite this Britain’s small businesses are leading the way when it comes to greening business travel.

The study, “Business Travel: Choice or Necessity”, is the first study to focus, not on the journey to and from work, but on those journeys during the business day that are essential to the success of any enterprise.

Informed by surveys among Chamber of Commerce members and in-depth research in Greater Manchester, Hereford and Worcester, the study found that business travel is crucial to successful business operations, and, while it can be reduced, it cannot be eliminated without severe consequences for the UK’s economic competitiveness.

The problems associated with business travel urgently need to be addressed as:

• 86% of businesses find that road congestion affects their business locally, regionally and nationally.
• The average business traveller wastes eleven days a year stuck in congestion.
• As a nation we are travelling 20% further for business than we did 13 years ago.

The report calls for actions which tackle congestion whilst recognising the fact that the car remains the dominant means for business travel, offering privacy, flexibility, and a door-to-door service:-

• 94 % of Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) use the road for their business travel.
• 82% say the car is central to their business operations.
• 70 % say that public transport, in its present form, is not fit for purpose.

The study finds that even those businesses most committed to travelling for work are open to change. SMEs are taking a lead in finding innovative ways of tackling unnecessary travel. Over half of SMEs are already using technology to reduce their travel footprints. 50% use telephone conferencing, and 30% use Internet tools such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Instant Messaging.

One in five businesses have taken steps to increase their use of public transport, however, unreliability and unpredictable travel times are the main barriers to increased business use of buses and trains. Trains were considered a viable business travel option for certain journeys, but improvements, especially to the whole journey experience are required.

The report proposes a package of measures to tackle unnecessary business travel, and calls on national and local government to show more flexibility in supporting green business travel pioneers, instead of taking the rigid view that public transport is the solution for all travel needs. The report also calls for public transport improvements to tackle the barriers which are restricting business use of these modes by those business who would choose this mode if it better met their needs.

The RAC Foundation and the British Chambers of Commerce recommend the following framework for more sustainable business travel:-

Individuals should: consider how best to minimise the environmental and safety impacts of their journey’s. This might involve not travelling at all, using video-conferencing systems, making use of the train, choosing a car for with low emissions, route planning or practicing eco-driving.

• Businesses should: develop business travel policies, including incentives to switch to less-congesting modes such as walking, cycling and motorcycling.
• Rail transport operators should: improve their services by providing door-to-door rather than station-to-station services.
• Bus operators should: develop services more appropriate to business needs.
• Local government should: take the needs of business into account and ensure that the business travel plan process is inclusive of Small and Medium Enterprises.
• National government should: ensure that businesses at local and regional level are able to thrive while efficiently addressing environmental demands.

RAC Foundation/British Chambers of Commerce business travel fact-file finds that:

* The average business trip is 20.7 miles.
* The average time spent travelling for a business trip is 39 minutes.
* Business travel accounts for 22% of all personal mileage.
* A higher percentage of men than women travel of business.
* People living in the south-west followed by the south-east are involved in the most business travel. *
* People living in the north-east and London make the least business trips per yr.*
* 69% of all business travel is completed by car.
* 76% of business travellers will be travelling alone.
* 30% of businesses have 81-100% of their employees travelling for business.
* Same day travel within the UK is the most common form of business travel.
* Meetings with clients and company wide meetings are the cause of most business travel.
* 55% spend between 0-10% of their annual budget on business travel.
* 33% believe business expansion overseas is driving the increase in travel. 18% believe that expansion in the UK is the cause.
* A company which converts 100 meeting a month to wireless teleconferences can reduce their CO2 emissions by 720 million grams per year.
* By 2010 video and audio-conferencing is likely to cut business travel by 5%.
* Seventy percent of all company cars are allocated to ‘essential users’. 30% are allocated for ‘status reasons’.
* The average number of miles driven per company car in 2006 was 7,500. This is double the distance of those using their private cars for work.
* There are three million vans under 3.5 tonnes on UK roads in 2006.
*Van miles have risen by 50% in the past 12 years compared to a 19% increase for all traffic.

Edmund King, Executive Director of the Royal Automobile Club Foundation said;

“While business travel can be reduced and made greener through smarter vehicle and mode choice, it cannot be done away with entirely. The “briefcase traveller” still requires the opportunity to build relationships through face-to-face meetings and the skilled tradesman must physically travel to get the job done. The car has an important role to play and this must not be forgotten.”

“Government support and encouragement is needed, but businesses must be left in the driving seat to decide what their transport needs are and how best they can be balanced against environmental obligations and operational business needs.”

David Frost, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce said;

“The reality is that for many businesses there is no option but to use the car. If this is ever to change then new technologies such as videoconferencing must be harnessed and public transport become a reliable, high quality experience instead of the poor alternative it often is.”

For a full copy of the report please visit www.racfoundation.org

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Small businesses opt for wired working to reduce their business travel

Over half of all small businesses have opted for wired working on the virtual superhighway to reduce their business travel according to the Royal Automobile Club Foundation’s Research Development Manager, speaking at the ITSUK Smarter Moving Conference today. IT solutions are preferred to car-sharing and public transport as the best way to cut business miles among Britain’s small businesses.

The figures come from the conference paper “IT and Business Travel: Environmental and Business Benefits”, which has been developed from the forthcoming Royal Automobile Club Foundation and British Chambers of Commerce report “Business Travel: Choice or Necessity”*. Elizabeth Dainton will say that “virtual mobility,” when combined with sustainable transport measures, can bring lasting environmental and business benefits, particularly for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

IT applications are twice as popular with SMEs seeking to reduce business travel as car-sharing or other automotive policies:-

* 50% use telephone conferencing

* 30% use Instant Messaging and voice over Internet protocol (VOIP)

* 15% use Videoconferencing and

* 13% use online collaboration site e.g. wikis, blogs

Whereas;

* 19% use car-sharing

* 10% have made changes to company car policies

* 4% use car-pooling

Adopting IT solutions to reduce or substitute for business travel has a triple benefit for the bottom line, reducing costs, increasing productivity and helping to meet health and safety requirements. The specific benefits include:

*Reduced fleet costs

*Reduced mileage, parking and public transport payments for business travel

*Reduced time wasted sitting in congestion

*Increased worker productivity due to increased time in the office

*Improved company image

*Increased business opportunities as ‘green’ credentials can be used to win contracts

*Demonstrable compliance with Corporate and Social Responsibility Requirements

*Meeting Health and Safety requirements for road safety

Technology solutions generally, and telephone conferencing in particular, are regarded by businesses as having the greatest potential for reducing travel by car in future, but the car will remain important for business travel as it offers privacy, flexibility, and a door-to-door service.

Elizabeth Dainton, Research Development Manager at the Royal Automobile Club Foundation said:

” Greening a business is often thought to be at odds with providing a business benefit, but our research demonstrates that technology solutions can help SME’s realise both the environmental and business benefits of the virtual super-highway.”

“Business travel decisions are driven by reliability, travel time and ease of travel considerations. To achieve greater market share IT systems must help address these concerns.”

Gareth Elliott, Policy Advisor at the British Chambers of Commerce said:

“Our members are clearly demonstrating leadership when it comes to using technology to reduce the costs associated with travel. Businesses are keen to maintain a level of face-to-face contact, but there is great optimism for the future role of IT systems”.

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To ESC or not to ESC: There should be no question

Electronic Stability Control (ESC) are three words which could save your life, and we should all be aware of what this technology can do and whether it is available in our new car of choice.

I was fortunate enough to attend a demonstration day at Rockingham Speedway this week, to experience ESC first hand. All attendees were driven in a car and a van on a skid pan with and without active ESC and the difference was startling.  The science behind the technology is that the car automatically brakes the car’s four wheels individually when it identifies that the car is about to go into a skid. It is not the same as ABS, which has been around for many years. It does much more and is very well explained by Bosch (the technology’s designers) and the Choose ESC campaign, both of which are well worth a look.

Once you have decided that you want to have ESC on your new vehicle, how do you go about it? This is where the figures are quite startling as many new cars in the UK are being sold with lower levels of safety equipment fitted as standard than cars sold in Latvia and Lithuania (See: RAC Foundation press release). Road crashes could be reduced by more than 20 per cent, especially in wet or icy conditions, by cars being fitted with Electronic Stability Control (ESC), yet just 55% of new cars sold it the UK fit ESC as standard as opposed to 76% in Denmark, and 65% in Latvia and Lithuania.

In the UK it is estimated that if 90% of cars were fitted with ESC it would save 400 lives and prevent 3,000 serious injuries each year (Thatcham). Europe wide it could save 4,000 lives and 100,000 serious accidents. So when buying a new car it is well worth giving some consideration to ESC. Many cars offer ESC as an optional extra, normally costing around £300, which may ultimately be a better choice than cosmetic extras such as alloy wheels or the latest sound system.

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Company car drivers found to be short sighted and confused

Many company car drivers are both short sighted and confused when it comes to eye tests and the new smoking laws. According to new research from Green Flag and Arval only one third of company car drivers have regular eye tests and a quarter are failing to get to grips with the new smoking ban.

Employees have a duty under the motor licence regulations to inform the Drivers Medical Group if their eyesight has deteriorated since their licence was issued and therefore not having regular eye tests at the prescribed two-year intervals could land drivers with a fine up to £1,000.

One quarter of company car drivers also admitted to being confused by new laws on smoking in company cars and one in seven drivers (16%) did not know that they were unable to smoke in their vehicle if it is used to carry colleagues. With the plethora of legislation and duty of care responsibilities bearing down on driving for work it is important that all drivers and companies are aware of their responsibilities when it comes to doing business out on the country’s roads.

Source: www.companycardriver.co.uk

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Ride to Work Day

Today is Ride to Work Day, part of National Motorcycle Week. I rode to work this morning from the Ace Cafe as one of the MCI’s Bike Squads. Riding to work is great, it gets the brain up and running better than any caffeine injection – you’ve got to be thinking three times faster than your wheels so that, like some sort of traffic grand master, you can predict what moves everyone else is going to make several plays in advance, in order not to be there when that taxi u-turns without warning into one of your many potential paths. So when you get to your desk, you’re already wide awake and ready for the day.

And as predicted by the RAC Foundation  last month, riding to work saved me 50% on my normal travel time – 30 mins instead of an hour by tube and bus.

But there’s a cloud on the horizon – the riding in part is great, but finding somewhere safe to leave 2 metres of Triumph remains a challenge. The popularity of motorcycling in London has soared since the introduction of the C-charge and the 7 July public transport bombings – but the number of spaces provided by the councils hasn’t kept pace. So unless you’re in with the lark, your chances of finding enough tarmac are slim:-

And the lack of space leads to an expectation that the next person along can shuffle your bike along a bit if they need to. Now, no-one touches my bike except me (and the volunteers who help me pick it up when I drop it – thanks, all!) so this particular piece of parking etiquette causes me great anxiety!

Westminster Council announced at the beginning of the year that they were giving thought to providing more motorcycle spaces. It would give 2-wheel commuting a big boost if they press ahead with redesignating some bays as a matter of urgency. And if the new spaces have built-in ground anchors, even better.

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Are long commutes eroding our social networks?

State-side, The Corporation for National and Community Service* is growing concerned about the decline in community cohesiveness in US cities; the knock-on effect of which is a plummeting number of volunteers. 

This emerging trend is part and parcel of commuter neighbourhoods where residents travel long distances to their workplace spending relatively short amounts of time at home and – even more so- out and about interacting with their local community.

Equally concerned about time- consuming commutes to the workplace, albeit for different reasons, is the organisation Workwise UK which campaigns for flexible working hours whereby workers can have the choice to travel outside rush hour or even to opt for home working.  The Workwise UK movement aims to reduce congestion, the environmental impact of the various transport networks and the health problems associated with current working practices (e.g. commuter stress).   

The Children’s Society inquiry** echoes this call for home working after their inquiry highlighted how long working days away from the home are putting family life ‘under threat’ and in particular causing children to become ‘lonely’.

The RAC Foundation; a supporting member of Workwise UK,  hopes that these new findings,  along with the growing body of evidence in this area, will help to emphasise the benefits of “smarter working” to managers across the UK.

 * www.planetizen.com 14th July 2007

** The Daily Mail 17th July 2007

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