Advice Notes and Fact Sheets

Travel Plans – Resources, Rewards and Risks!

2016-02-04 10:56

This advice note provides information about Travel Plans; what they are, who they are of interest to and why should you develop one? It describes the approach, characteristics and benefits of a Travel Plan, focusing on the balance of development and implementation, and how this relates to the rewards of success and risks of failure. The note also provides useful links to best-practice guidance and other valuable behavioural change resources, as produced by the National Transport Authority’s Smarter Travel team.

Travel Plans, also called Mobility Management Plans or Commuter Strategies, seek to promote active travel (walking and cycling) and public transport, and reduce car use, through a targeted and integrated package of measures. How can my organisation benefit from a Travel Plan?

Document keyphrases: travel plan, transport planning, public transport, cycling, mobility management plan, commuter strategy, walking

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Transport Strategies: Critical Success Factors

2015-07-24 13:30

This note provides advice on the key elements of a successful transport strategy. These strategies are generally commissioned by central, regional or local government, and form part of a structured planning framework, to inform policy – in particular spatial / land use and economic development plans or social inclusion initiatives, and/or development of capital investment programmes.

As such, maximising the effectiveness of a transport strategy and setting it in the wider land use planning context, while ensuring its deliverability are of the utmost importance – these represent the strategy’s critical success factors.

Document keyphrases: transport strategy, transport planning, spatial planning, land use planning, economic strategy, capital investment plan, capital investment programme, Greater Dublin Area, SUMP, objective setting, option development, option appraisal, package development, traffic congestion, public transport, cycling

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Planning Stage: Transport Advice

2015-05-11 10:34

This note provides advice to developers and their advisors in determining the likely transport implications and inputs to the planning stage of development. It should be read alongside Transport Insights’ Site Selection and Feasibility Advice Note.

To minimise the risk from transport factors at the planning stage, and ensure the development proposal maximises the site potential, it is helpful to understand broad transport considerations at the earliest stage of development planning, before determining the focus of any further traffic and transport analysis and advice. In addition to discussions with the local authority’s traffic engineers, other factors to consider include the location of the development (including relative to other nearby land uses and accessibility), and the need for, and scope of, an impact assessment.

Document keyphrases: site selection, site appraisal, site feasibility, development feasibility, feasibility assessment, traffic assessment, traffic engineering, initial transport assessment, outline transport assessment, transport impact assessment, traffic impact assessment, planning permission, development planning, development site transport checklist

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Site Selection and Feasibility: Assessing Transport Risks

2014-08-20 16:00

Transport Insights has produced a development planning advice note containing information on transport related considerations at the earliest stages in the development planning process. The note is intended to be of assistance to developers and their advisors, and considers the two initial stages in the development planning process, namely:

  • site selection and acquisition; and
  • site feasibility.

By engaging experienced transport advisors to provide inputs to site suitability and feasibility assessments, the time, cost and risk of bringing a subsequent development to fruition can be significantly reduced.

Document keyphrases: site selection, site appraisal, site feasibility, development feasibility, feasibility assessment, traffic assessment, traffic engineering, initial transport assessment, outline transport assessment, transport impact assessment, traffic impact assessment, planning permission, development planning, development site transport checklist

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Factsheet – Irish PSO Bus Tendering

2014-08-20 16:15


Transport Insights has produced a factsheet to provide bus operators with the information presently available on the upcoming tendering of Public Service Obligation (PSO) bus routes by the National Transport Authority (NTA), in one concise document.

In addition to bringing together the information presently in the public domain, Transport Insights has drawn on its experience in the field of bus service procurement and planning, to address some of the gaps still present in the information provided by the NTA. The document provides an overview of the extent of NTA’s competitive tendering proposals, an outline of the possible forms that the procurement process and contract structure may take, along with some background on past procurement activity by the NTA. In particular, Transport Insights offers advice on engaging in the tendering process and emphasises the importance of preparatory bid development work, in light of the expected emphasis on quality as well as price in the evaluation of tenders.

For those operators not yet present in the Irish market, and who may not be familiar with its structure, this document also gives a concise introduction to the bus services market in the Republic of Ireland.

Document keyphrases: bus industry, Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann, National Transport Authority, NTA, bus tendering, bus operators, procurement, Dublin, Waterford, competition, contract, route, service, transport, public, privatisation / privatise, Ireland, Irish

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