The NHS is responsible for 5% of all traffic on our roads (Telegraph, 2018). The Royal Devon and Exeter (RD&E) NHS Foundation Trust Wonford Hospital is one of Exeter’s largest employers and is positioned in the City Centre. The Trust commissioned City Science to conduct a comprehensive Active Travel analysis to better understand the existing travel choices and patterns of staff, patients & visitors. The Trust wanted to understand how they could effectively impact modal shift away from single occupancy vehicles and reduce the strain on their on-site car parks.
City Science Response
City Science worked closely with the NHS Foundation Trust to conduct a comprehensive analysis, to understand the existing travel choices and patterns of staff, patients & visitors. The project was conducted in two key phases – a baseline analysis, taking account of all open and proprietary data available and a second phase developing a bespoke survey of 1,500 staff, patients and visitors to capture insights specific to the Trust’s emerging spatial, access and site strategies.
We also evaluated the transport options from active travel infrastructure to rail availability.
Our report evidenced strategies to orchestrate modal shift away from single occupancy vehicles towards walking cycling and public transport.
This aimed to reduce the strain on hospital parking, promote active lifestyles and reduce transport related emissions. As a result of our multi-modal recommendations, the trust has increased their Park n Ride offering, introduced a subsidy for staff bus travel and increased bike racks on site. Based on our recommendations, they also have plans in place to expand their fleet of pool cars and introduce an electric bike fleet for staff use.
What we can offer now
City Science has grown its offering to a wide range of services, in order to support decarbonisation of the NHS and other healthcare organisations. Our services now include: Electric Vehicle Planning Parking Strategies Travel Planning Community Transport Planning Building Retrofit Local Area Heat and Energy Planning , GHGP scopes in the context of the NHS
Our wide range of services can support Scopes 1, 2 and 3 as defined by the NHS Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP). Travel and EV planning, alongside parking strategies, can further support indirect emissions associated with patient and visitor travel, currently outside the scope of the GHGP. Indeed, the NHS are also working towards net zero for NHS Carbon Footprint Plus, with the need to remove 24.9 MtCO2ei from the Scope 3 and Travel sectors (an emissions profile equivalent to the whole of Croatia).
Interested in any of the above? Send us an email to set up an introductory call: info@cityscience.com
Client Testimonial
“The Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust is committed to promoting the use of active and sustainable transport options to staff, patients and visitors when visiting the hospital and positively contributing to reducing Exeter’s congestion and air pollution, whilst improving the city’s health. City Science’s dedicated, experienced and knowledgeable team delivered thought provoking insights that we were able to use as an evidence base to help develop our plans for a number of schemes to improve travel to and from the hospital. City Science have helped the Trust recognise the challenges presented by single occupancy journeys and how tackling this problem will alleviate the strain on our on-site car parking.”
– Dave Tarbet, Business Development Director, Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust
A sample of the visualisations that formed part of the baseline analysis can be seen below.
