Active Travel Forum

The Active Travel Forum established last year agreed recommendations for an Active Travel Strategy and proposals for demonstration projects to increase walking and cycling across NI. A draft strategy called "Building an Active Travel Future for Northern Ireland" is due to go to public consultation in December 2011.

Ecar

The ecar pilot project is bringing an electric vehicle charging infrastructure to Northern Ireland. As part of the Plugged in Places initiative Northern Ireland has received funding to install charging posts over the next two years from the Office for Low Emission Vehicles. The project is led by two Government Departments and is backed by a consortium of public and private organisations. ecar will install public, rapid, work place and home charging posts in several towns and cities in Northern Ireland. For more information visit the ecar website at www.nidirect.gov.uk/ecar.

Park & Ride

A strategic review of Park and Ride focussed on revisiting the planned provision of Park and Ride set out in the Regional Transportation Strategy and associated transport plans. The report, published in August 2011 identified a number of sites to which priority should be attached, but recognised that this will be subject to funding. The report highlights the need for Park and Ride to be delivered as part of an integrated framework of measures if it is to prove effective. The Department is currently examining the best way to bring forward the report's recommendations.

Department for Regional Development TravelWise NI

Over 50,000 schoolchildren participated in Walk to School Week (6 - 20 May). Bike Week (18 - 26 June) participation also increased with 16 of the 26 local authorities joining with TravelWise to promote the benefits of cycling. Once again TravelWise NI co-operated with colleagues in ROI to highlight these annual events.

Current headlines for TravelWise NI include:

• TravelWise NI launched a new Best Foot Forward for Schools teaching resource (Key Stage 2) to mark the start of a new school year. This has been distributed to all Primary Schools across Northern Ireland in September 2011.
• For the first time TravelWise NI encouraged schools in NI to participate in International Walk to School Month (October). Over 100 schools took part in a very encouraging start to what we hope to develop into an annual feature.
• The TravelWise NI car share scheme www.carshareni.com continues to thrive as a result of our regular promotions. Current membership has climbed to almost 4000 members with a healthy match-rate of 55%.
• TravelWise NI has been supporting the development of Workplace Travel Plans by employers across the region - we have helped 55 workplaces and over 10% of the NI workforce. In 2012 we hope to sponsor a 'Most Sustainable Workplace Travel Plan' award as part of the prestigious Action Renewables Annual Awards.

Andrew Grieve
028 9054 0422
Andrew.Grieve@drdni.gov.uk