Results of the 2022 Travel Survey

We’d like to say a massive thank you to everyone who participated in this year’s Milton Park Travel Survey, providing us with invaluable data which we can use to inform future travel-related decisions here at the Park. 

We’re committed to reducing transport emissions as well as supporting our occupiers throughout the cost-of-living crisis by providing affordable, greener transport options.

Through the data collected from the survey, it’s great to see that people’s use of green modes of transport to and from the Park has increased yet again in 2022, helping to protect the environment.  

Results from previous years have led to the expansion of the £20 per year bus pass and ebike hire scheme, the implementation of the 20mph speed limit through the Park and the creation of new cycle routes. It’s really encouraging to see that these changes are improving the accessibility and viability of greener transport options for our occupiers.

Of the nearly 1,000 responses from this year’s survey, the proportion of people working full-time at Milton Park has decreased from 60% to 29% with many people now working at least one or two days a week from home, affecting the way people travel. This has been taken into account within our Travel Survey analysis as we seek to further improve the convenience of a range of sustainable transport modes, supporting those wanting to save money, help the environment, improve their physical health and/or don’t have access to a car.

Cars & car sharing

Since 2021, the proportion of people travelling to and from Milton Park in single occupancy cars has decreased by 12%. To encourage greater car sharing amongst our occupiers we’ve relaunched our partnership with the platform KINTO Join. Currently, car sharing makes up 6% of all journeys to and from Milton Park. In 2023, we’re planning to boost our promotion of the KINTO Join offering further, providing incentives and rewards to people using the platform.

Through this scheme we aim to help people save on their fuel costs, experience more enjoyable commutes to work and further limit the number of cars across the Park.

Our current traffic information system which sends out warnings of traffic delays or upcoming roadworks is available to access through the Greener Workplace Forum. If you’d like to receive these notifications directly, please get in touch with our Sustainability & Community Manager, Veronica Reynolds at veronica.reynolds@miltonpark.com.

Bus services

We’re thrilled that the number of passengers using the bus to get to and from Milton Park has almost doubled since 2019, with the proportion of people choosing to travel by bus increasing by an impressive 12%. This rise is most likely due to the expansion of the £20 bus pass zone over the past year as a result of our partnership with Thames Travel and the Oxford Bus Company.

The pass is now available to those who live in the Didcot area as well as Drayton, Steventon and Sutton Courtenay. By focusing on the shortest journeys, we’re not only supporting a high concentration of our occupiers who live locally (38%) to take the bus but also targeting some of most polluting car journeys, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Although there are currently no plans in place to expand the bus pass zones further to areas like Abingdon due to commercial viability, we will continue to monitor and review this over the coming year. We’re also keen to discuss all survey feedback in relation to the bus services with the providers at our next contract review meeting. Here, we’ll ensure to address issues such as punctuality and cleanliness as we’re aware that October roadworks at the Milton Interchange and Drayton Road played a significant role in recent bus delays.

Additionally, in relation to our bus services, we received a few survey comments suggesting we install bus laybys across the Park. However, we will not be introducing these.

Luke Marion, Managing Director at Thames Travel, explains more: “We want to ensure buses are as attractive as they can be, to help encourage people to leave their car at home and to make more environmentally conscious choices when making journeys. To support this, it’s important that bus journeys are as quick as they can be.

“One of the downsides of laybys is that often buses have to wait before they can re-join traffic; there is also an increased risk to other road users, in particular cyclists, when passing buses wanting to re-join general traffic. In Milton Park the speed limits are set at 20 mph, so there is no safety reason to use laybys and so we think it works best for bus passengers and other active travellers to stop on the carriageways as we do now.”

With 25% of people travelling to and from Milton Park by bus, it’s key that we continue to ensure these passengers are given enough consideration on our roads.

Cycling

12% of people travel to Milton Park by cycling, a 4% increase from 2019. Additionally, it’s positive to see that the number of unique users of Milton Park’s bike and ebike hire scheme has more than tripled since 2019, totalling 193 users utilising 18 regular bikes and 12 ebikes across the Park.

Improving cycle routes to and from Milton Park was highlighted as a major priority by survey respondents. In particular, routes between Milton Park and Abingdon, such as the ‘missing’ section from Kelaart’s Field to Peep-o-Day Lane, and the need for a better cycle path from Steventon to the Park (avoiding the Milton Interchange) were heavily flagged as areas in need of attention.

Going forward, we’re working closely with Oxfordshire County Council to carry out these improvements alongside the hope that the recent work on the Didcot and Abingdon Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP) should also provide some of these much-needed enhancements.

To ensure the safety of more vulnerable road users at Milton Park such as cyclists, we’re keen to keep the speeds of vehicles low which is why we have a 20 mph speed limit on our roads. Despite this decision being questioned by some survey respondents, we’re committed to encouraging more people to take active and greener modes of transport by making them more accessible. Therefore, we must value the safety of our cyclists ahead of shortening car journeys by an extra few seconds as they drive through the Park.

Thank you

Finally, we’d like to say again a massive thank you to everyone who completed this year’s Travel Survey. The responses received are really helpful in making sure we can continue to provide greener and more affordable transport options to as many people at the Park as possible.

We’d also like to congratulate our three prize draw winners Alexandra Horton from Evotec, Evert Merkx from WaveOptics and Lisa Bradshaw from Allmakes 4×4 who have chosen £150 to be donated to each of the following charities: Oxfordshire Mind, Plan B and SOFEA.