Transport and travel

Traffic congestion is not as severe in Plymouth as in many other cities; in fact, according to the Department for Transport’s ‘Traffic Speeds in English Urban Areas 2004’ report (*), which aims to monitor average traffic speeds at different times of day for the 18 largest urban areas in England (excluding London), Plymouth has the 5th highest traffic speed, with an average speed of 22.4 mph during peak times and 24.0 mph during off-peak times, compared to the average of 21.0 mph during peak times and 25.3 mph at off-peak (*).

Within its Environmental Policy and Action Plan, Plymouth City Council sets out a number of action points based around transport in the city to meet its commitment to keeping congestion at a minimum, including:

Park and Ride facilities

There are three park-and-ride facilities in the city, at Coypool, Milehouse and Roborough, offering free parking and discounted bus travel for regular travellers. These schemes have proved successful, and the City Council is planning to develop further sites using both bus and rail.

Plymouth City Council's public transport unit looks after and administers the park-and-ride services.

Green travel

The Green Travel scheme is an incentive used by the City Council to encourage voluntary adoption of Travel Plans amongst the city's employers. Travel passes allow the use of public transport at a discounted rate within the Plymouth area. Proposals are in place to extend the range to the whole of the Plymouth travel-to-work area and other public transport operators to provide a multi-modal ticketing system. Employers currently adopting this scheme include the University of Plymouth, Child Support Agency, National Health Service, Orange and, of course, Plymouth City Council.

Cycle routes

There are around 24 miles (38 km) of cycle paths in Plymouth, and the City Council is hoping to increase the use of cycles through the implementation of the Plymouth Cycling Strategy, the development of more cycle routes, improved cycle safety and increased cycle security at key destinations.

Public transport

Two principal bus operators serve Plymouth, ie the Council-owned Plymouth Citybus and the First Group-owned First Western National, and they work in partnership with the City Council to provide faster, affordable and more frequent services at the standard demanded by the public.

Information on bus services may be found on the City Council's public transport pages.

Plymouth enjoys excellent communications by road, rail and air with the rest of the UK and Eire, and by sea to Europe, and further details may be found on the transport and travel factsheet.

(*) Source: ‘Traffic Speeds in English Urban Areas 2004’, Department for Transport © Crown Copyright 2005