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Mobility management in Camden has
been driven by the Council’s Green Transport Strategy Taking Steps for a
People Friendly Camden, adopted in November 1997. It was extended by the
Council in March 2001 and now covers the period from 2001 to 2005. Three
initiatives of the Green Transport Strategy were
monitored by the MOST project – Camden Direct,
Camden Green
Travel Network and Camden Clear Zones.
The objective of Camden
Direct is to promote public transport services, as well as to reduce the
need to travel. Target groups are local people, council staff, tourists and
other visitors. The objective of the Camden Green Travel Network is to
reduce the impact of motor vehicles and related pollution through the
development of a mobility management network and encourage local employers to
develop green travel plans. The objective of Camden Clear Zones is to
develop traffic free areas and low emission zones. Target groups are local
residents, local employers and visitors to the area.
Camden Direct takes
the form of a mobility centre; the Camden Green Travel Network and Camden
Clear Zones involve the development and promotion of mobility plans.
Focused and diverse communication strategies are used for each target group.
For example, the council staff targeted by Camden Direct are informed of
the service by e-mail ‘messages of the day’, emails, and payslip messages,
while the public is informed by signage, posters, press articles, Transport for
London’s website (www.tfl.gov.uk),
postcards as well as personal contact at the Mobility Centre. Camden Council’s
internet site www.camden.gov.uk/green/
is the main channel for the delivery of the Camden Green
Travel Network.
The objectives of the mobility
management services have been met with a high degree of success. The usage of
the Camden Direct mobility centre has risen since its inception in March
2000, with over 6000 ticket sales during its first 12 months of operation and
this increased to approximately 7000 public transport ticket sales in the
second year of operation. The Camden Green Travel Network has 24 members
covering 35 separate addresses and the initiative was relaunched
at the end of 2002 with a new website and additional staffing to further
increase its effectiveness. Mobility plans at 18 of these addressed will be
enforceable via planning agreements made under local regulations, while the
other 17 plans are being developed voluntarily. The Network enables members to
share experiences and ideas to assist in the development and implementation of
their mobility plans. The Camden Clear Zones project has several
initiatives, e.g. traffic calming measures have been implemented on an area by
area basis, participation in the Car Free Day enabled measurements on noise,
air quality and traffic volumes to be made, which were used to support
longer-term proposals for traffic management measures.
Camden’s
experiences shows that mobility management initiatives are most likely to be
effective when they are integrated as part of wider green transport strategies,
and are most effective when implemented in partnership with other stakeholders.
In addition, Camden has
found that new mobility management initiatives can take some time to develop;
hence the role of the mobility coordinator is important to enable such
initiatives to progress, while collaborating with internal and external
partners. Dedicated staff resources are also required to maintain the momentum
and progress of these mobility management initiatives.
Source: http://mo.st |