Sustainable travel planning at the University of Birmingham began in 2008. From the start, understanding how our institution commutes has been the foundation of planning and the 2022 travel survey was the fifth undertaken.
Travel surveying has two main functions: to gauge current commuting behaviours and to guide future work to enable and encourage sustainable choices.
This time around, engagement with the survey was excellent, with over 6000 responses, split equally across staff and students. We reached over a third of staff and nearly 10% of students.
The travel survey results are summarised in these pages, across four sections:
How does University of Birmingham commute in 2022/23?
Mapping University of Birmingham commuting
What would enable staff and students to choose sustainable travel?
Reducing carbon emissions from commuting
The summary is available as a pdf document:
Read the executive summary
Sustainable travel at University of Birmingham
In the past 15 years the sustainable travel plan for commuting has developed to include a wide range of programmes and measures. It is a team effort: some measures are delivered by partner departments, such as Payroll and Security, and UoB enjoys a productive relationship with National Express West Midlands and TfWM. Headlines of the outgoing plan include:
- £1.50 bus fare for the university community city centre–Selly Oak
- Support for an independent bike repair shop on campus
- ULEV lease scheme via salary sacrifice
- Student hire bike scheme
- 25% discounts on staff bus passes
- Free D-locks for student cyclists
- Interest free loan for staff train tickets
- Cycle-to-Work scheme capped at £3000, and gateway staff loan bike scheme
- Travel advice on the intranet, via email and at key welcome and induction events
You can read more about these initiatives elsewhere on this Sustainable Travel intranet site and read the travel plan in full here:
Read the travel plan
