If you are travelling to London this weekend, Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th July, there will be significant impact to travel as a result of the weekend of Prudential RideLondon cycling events. Certain roads and river crossings in east, central and southwest London and Surrey will be closed to traffic.

For full details, including event information and road closures, and to know your travel options, please visit tfl.gov.uk/ridelondon

With the school holidays in full swing, Greater Anglia are promoting 2FOR1 offers to popular London attractions, perfect for a summer day out in the Capital. Hop on a Greater Anglia train to London and you can claim over 150 fantastic offers with something for everyone from river cruises, discounts on eating out, 2For1 entry to the London Zoo, Tower of London and London Dungeon.

You can now purchase or pre order the Visitor Oyster cards from the ticket office at Cambridge Main Station. A Visitor Oyster card is a smartcard pre-loaded with pay as you go credit that you can use to travel in London. It is a quick and easy way to pay for single journeys on bus, Tube, tram, DLR, London Overground, TfL Rail, Emirates Air Line cable car, Thames Clippers River Bus and most National Rail services in London.

Benefits of Visitor Oyster include:

• Save time – your card is ready to use as soon as you arrive;
• It’s cheaper than buying single tickets; and
• Enjoy exclusive discounts at leading London shops, restaurants, galleries and entertainment venues.

Visitor Oyster cards are not valid for travel on Heathrow Express or Stanstead Express services. Find out more about Visitor Oyster Cards.

Abol Chizari, CEO of Auriplex Ltd based in Cambridge Science Park (CSP), is developing innovative hearing/audio technologies such as iEar and the next generation Smartphone “a new concept in hearing…”. Abol commutes to work by car every day and he decided to take up the CSP summer challenge using the Travel Plan Plus (TP+) ebike for few days. “The experience of signing-up for the ebike was very simple and getting hold of the ebike was straight forward. I found the overall experience of using the ebike an enjoyable one. Avoiding the Cambridge traffic was very convenient which meant faster travelling time. I will definitively be using the TP+ ebike in the future and I am also considering to purchase my own ebike to commute to work.”

CSP Summer challenge is still running until the 29th of September. If you are interested, please contact Prajina.Baisyet@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

The first phase, between the River Cam and Coldham’s Lane, was granted planning permission unanimously by members representing the City, South Cambs and the County Councils at the Joint Development Control Committee on Wednesday 19th July.
 
The north-to-south trail, which closely follows the railway line, will be built in phases and is expected to be completed over a period of three to five years. As part of the plans through phase one of the works, a package of positive measures have been put in place that will ensure impacts to wildlife in the area are kept to a minimum. Containing two new bridges, one of which will replace an expired culvert (river tunnel), the bridges being far more popular with otters as they are far easier for them to pass under.
 
Phase two of the Chisholm Trail will largely be an on road scheme and will extend further south to Cambridge Station. This will make up the final section of the Chisholm Trail and Abbey Chesterton Bridge project and will likely go through this planning process in 2018. Full article can be found here.

Last month Travel Plan Plus attended the Air Quality and Active Travel workshop to coincide with the National Clean Air Day. It was a chance to find out more about air pollution, share information with colleagues, and take action to make the air cleaner and healthier for everyone. Here are key points from the workshop:

• The UK’s first-ever National Clean Air Day took place on 15th June.
• Air pollution is real and harms the health of millions. Unlike a lot of other risks to health, a lot of people don’t know what causes air pollution, what effect it has on our bodies or how to reduce exposure to it. There are lots of simple things we can do to help improve air quality in the places we live.
• Promote active travel into everyday life such as walking, cycling, or combine with public transport instead of travelling by car.
• Nearly 75% of our journeys are under 5 miles.
• There is one car for every two people in the UK accounting for 13% of the UK’s CO2 emissions.
• Everyone can be affected by air pollution but it has the most impact on young children, the elderly, and people with existing lung or heart conditions.

If you work on the Science Park, why not take the CSP’s 3-day summer commuter challenge which is still running until the end of September and make a small difference to the air quality in your area?

Almost every employee with more than 26 weeks’ service has the right to request flexible working and in the last 10 years the number of people working from home has increased by a fifth to reach a record 1.5m, this is according to official figures by the Trades Union Congress which reveals that nearly a quarter of a million (241,000) more people work from home than a decade ago. 
 
Here are four factors that are set to drive the trend to more flexible working approaches:  
 
1. The rise of the App Generation - As the app generation starts work, employers will be challenged to deliver the workplace environments and technologies that meet their expectations of modern working.   
 
2. Employee demand will influence technology decisions - A significant 90 per cent of UK workers say they could work effectively from any location as long as they were given the right technology to do so.
 
3. Cultural changes will relax IT policies - Increasingly, businesses are becoming more comfortable with employees working in a way that suits them, recognising this greater freedom can help both motivation and productivity.    
 
4. Cloud communication will save time and drive collaboration - As businesses increasingly move their critical applications to the cloud, using a single platform, this issue will start to disappear, freeing up IT departments to focus on building a collaborative workforce that is motivated and productive in every location. 

Find out more about the four factors here.