TRANSPORT SOLUTIONS SIMON BOURKE – HEALTHCARE SECTOR LEAD, THE RPS GROUP
Reducing community impact of hospital traffic
A travel plan is a package of measures aimed at promoting sustainable travel within an organisation, with an emphasis on reducing reliance on single occupancy vehicle use. The development of a well thought out travel plan alongside innovative car use, can significantly reduce the impact of hospital traffic on the surrounding community, reduce pressure on car parking, improve site safety and increase business efficiency.
Hospitals regularly experience higher demand for on site parking than the number of spaces they have available. The NHS Sustainable Development Unit estimates that the 1.3 million NHS staff, patients and visitors account for about five per cent of the traffic in England every day.1
It recognises that the sheer
volume of traffic not only slows people down, but also affects the environment, road safety and access times for the critically ill as well as encouraging more sedentary lifestyles and making up about one-fifth of the carbon footprint produced by the NHS. This affects members of the public
who are unable to park in a convenient place that is close to where they need to access care or may be visiting friends or family who are inpatients at the hospital. It also affects staff who cannot easily access their place of work or face high parking charges. An extreme example of
Propriety digital mapping and transport software was used to show that some local people didn’t need to drive to work.
Simon Bourke
Simon Bourke CEng, BSc (Hons), FIHEEM, FCIBSE, MIET, acts as healthcare sector lead for the RPS Group. He has a wide range of healthcare experience built up over 30 years in the construction industry. His role encompasses early day concept design and planning support, helping hospital trusts and private healthcare providers deliver their vision, detailed design, construction, handover and post occupancy.
IFHE DIGEST 2019
this was at the University Hospital of Wales where the car park was managed by an independent operator. Staff were allocated spaces, but finding a free space was often problematic, resulting in them using paid parking spaces but not buying a ticket. The car park operator took these members of staff to court and won the case; staff were fined £150,000. Many hospitals require staff to visit patients in their homes and in most cases using a car is the only efficient means of doing so. This can result in significant administrative costs for staff
who have no choice but to use their own cars when travelling on hospital business. Processing expenses claims can be time consuming for staff and hospital administrators, resulting in direct costs in relation to mileage reimbursement to staff but also indirect costs in relation to processing time, which are largely hidden.
Travel plans A travel plan is a package of measures aimed at promoting sustainable travel within an organisation, with an emphasis on reducing reliance on single occupancy
A travel plan is a package of measures aimed at promoting sustainable travel within an organisation
27
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76
