Staff survey

At the end of returning the survey. Here is a summary of the results, download a copy of the full report (Adobe PDF format, 446kb).May 2006, a travel survey was sent to 6,360 staff to find out how staff travel to work and what transport they use for business during the day. We also asked questions to identify the potential barriers that could deter the use of forms of transport other than one person car trips. 1,370 staff members completed the questionnaire.

The results of the staff travel survey will be used to

Maximise travel choice for staff.
Promote several travel alternatives, such as improved public transport services, walking, cycling and car sharing.
Review public transport routes.
Promote car sharing.
Monitor travel habits to see if the council is moving towards its target of reducing car dependency. The survey will also help to ensure that the target is realistic.

The results

The Salford City Council staff travel survey received a very good response with 21.5% of staff returning the survey. Here is a summary of the results:

The most common mode of travel used to and from work for council staff is single occupancy car travel.
The majority of people travel to work in their car because of timesavings
There is interest from some employees to change the way that they travel, if there are other travel options available once they are at work. The most common requests were for a car pool system to be available so that their own car could be left at home, and also for the improvement of shower/changing facilities for people who chose to ride their bike/motorbike or walk to work.
The most difficult form of transport to persuade staff to use is public transport. The most common complaint is that using public transport adds a considerable amount of extra time onto their working day and that the local buses are too unreliable.
A car sharing scheme could be potentially very successful, there was a positive reaction towards such a scheme. Also there are clusters of single occupancy car users who live along the key routes to main council buildings who could car share.
It is important that employee attitudes towards travel are changed, as staff car parks at key sites are operating close to, or over capacity.
There may be potential to reduce the number of trips that are made by individuals in their cars, and with current car parking issues, this may become essential.