Travel to Work Survey Programme (10 years Ongoing)
Customer
South Gloucestershire Council working in partnership with:
- Bath & North East Somerset Council
- Bristol City Council
- North Bristol SusCom
- Snap Surveys Research Projects Team
- West of England Mayoral Combined Authority
The Challenge
Transport authorities across the West of England needed long-term feedback to understand how employees travel to work, their changing commuting patterns, and the barriers to more sustainable and accessible travel choices.
With 200 organisations participating across multiple sectors and locations, the project required a scalable survey solution capable of:
- Collecting large volumes of employee travel data consistently each year
- Supporting both regional benchmarking and organisation-specific insights
- Accommodating custom information needs for individual employers
- Providing accessible survey options for all respondents
- Delivering actionable reporting to inform transport planning, infrastructure investment, and workplace travel plans
Snap Surveys has a clear track record delivering large projects for clients.
Our challenge was not simply to gather data, but to create a repeatable programme that could support strategic decision-making across the region over multiple years.
The Solution
Snap Surveys has delivered the Travel to Work Survey programme for the West of England region for more than 10 years – managing the annual survey cycle from survey setup through to reporting and benchmarking.
The survey is open for 2 weeks every March, with 6 months of preparation time on our end.
It includes a comprehensive survey and reporting framework designed to meet the needs of both local authorities and participating employers.
Key elements of the survey solution
- Large-scale online survey programme
- Standardised core questionnaire to ensure year-on-year comparability
- Routed questions so respondents answer questions of relevance to them or answer additional, more in depth questions to get greater depth of responses
- Up to four custom questions for each participating organisation
- Unique survey links and QR codes for every organisation
- PDF survey option for respondents unable to complete the survey electronically
- Automated data processing and visual reporting
- Organisation-level, site-level, and regional benchmarking reports
- Local Authority reports benchmarked against West of England-wide results
- Delivery of anonymised datasets to participating organisations for further analysis
This approach provides a consistent regional dataset while allowing individual organisations to explore their own specific transport and travel planning priorities.
The Results
The Travel to Work Survey programme has become one of the most comprehensive employee travel behaviour datasets in the West of England.
Annual programme impact
- 20,000+ employee responses collected every year
- 200 participating organisations across the region
- Continuous delivery for more than 10 years
Strategic outcomes
The survey findings have been used by Bath & North East Somerset Council, Bristol City Council, South Gloucestershire Council, and the West of England Combined Authority to support:
- Future transport infrastructure planning
- Public transport service planning
- Sustainable travel policy development
- Monitoring and evaluation of workplace travel initiatives
Organisational benefits
Participating employers have used the feedback to:
- Build business cases for cycle storage facilities
- Justify investment in changing rooms and shower facilities
- Support the introduction of electric vehicle charging infrastructure
- Track year-on-year changes in travel behaviour
- Measure the effectiveness of workplace travel plan initiatives
- Measure their Scope 3 commuting emissions
In addition, Economic Development and Business Engagement teams have used the findings to strengthen employer engagement activities and gain a clearer understanding of local transport challenges affecting businesses and employees.
Why It Matters
The Travel to Work Survey project combines consistent feedback with flexible organisation-level insight.
By providing reliable evidence on commuting behaviours across the region, the programme enables local authorities and employers to make smarter decisions about transport investment, sustainable travel initiatives, and workplace infrastructure.
Ultimately, this leads to the data-driven improvement of transport accessibility, supports economic development, and encourages more sustainable travel choices across the West of England.
| Area | Detail |
|---|---|
| Project | Travel to Work Survey Programme |
| Region | West of England |
| Duration | 10+ years |
| Delivery cycle | 2 weeks annually (6 months’ preparation) |
| Participants | 200+ organisations |
| Annual responses | 20,000+ |
| Survey modes | Online and PDF |
| Reporting | Organisation, site, local authority, and regional benchmarking |
| Primary users | WECA, local authorities, employers, economic development teams |
Testimonial
“We’ve worked with Snap Surveys on our regional Travel to Work Survey for over a decade now, and the level of support has been excellent throughout. As the survey has scaled up, they’ve been able to work with us at each stage, adapting the survey as our requirements have changed. They’re always on hand to answer questions and talk through options, and that flexibility has meant the survey has been able to evolve alongside us rather than us having to fit around a fixed template. Their analysis and expertise give us real confidence in the data, and the outputs they produce, with individual reports for around 200 participating organisations as well as regional level reporting, means we can share meaningful results with stakeholders across the West of England area. This partnership has helped us keep the survey running smoothly year after year.”
Nicola Lomax
Principal Transport Planning Officer – Travel Planning
Example Results
See the survey reporting we created for the Travel to Work Survey programme.
We can do the same for you!
Please click here if you’re interested in taking part in the Travel to Work Survey yourself.