Sowton Transport Management Association

We often hear moans and groans about travel issues in Exeter, but how often do you hear of a brand new initiative to address these issues? The Sowton Transport Management Association is a new way for businesses to look at the issues and work to overcome the problems we have.

Why a TMA?
Sowton Forum has represented the interests of businesses around Sowton Industrial Estate for many years. We have improved the flow of traffic in and around Sowton considerably over the years with initiatives such as speed limit reduction, yellow lining, improved signage and working with the County to improve the Honiton Road roundabout. But now we want to take this one stage further and see how we can get all of us to work smarter, think more environmentally and, by co-ordinating various initiatives, address the remaining transport issues we have.

What will it do?
The nature of business has been changing for several years now with technology helping to make us more flexible but more mobile. Flexible working hours and home working are more commonplace. At the same time there are more pressures on us to limit car usage. Therefore the Sowton TMA is a company set up by Sowton Forum to work with employers and employees so as to help us all improve by for example:

• creating Green Travel Plans
• linking in to car-sharing schemes
• encouraging innovative ideas for alternative working practices
• identifying transportation 'hot spot' issues and proposing ways of addressing them.

We believe this is the first such organisation within the UK which is business-led, and that it gives us a great opportunity to address our local travel/transport requirements while helping improve the overall transport needs of those travelling to and from the City through Sowton.

Read more about the Sowton TMA on the City Council web site and on BBC news.