Sustainable travel around Linmere

SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL 

Linmere Consortium and Central Bedfordshire Council are working together to deliver a package of measures to reduce car reliance and deliver sustainable travel.

Why do we want to do this?

• To give residents as many travel options as possible

• To help minimise the impact that cars have and to help make the Linmere development a safe and attractive place to live

• To minimise pollution and fossil fuel usage

• To enable and encourage healthy and active ways to travel by reducing need for high emission vehicles

• To encourage attractive walking and cycling routes to promote healthy and active ways to travel

This strategy is to promote the use of alternatives to the car, rather than limiting any resident’s ability to use their car.

Travel planning support

Linmere has a dedicated Travel Plan Coordinator to help assist residents, advising them on all aspects of travel options. The Travel Plan Coordinator will also:

• Gather feedback from residents

• Make sure travel options are easy to use and useful

• Promote national and local sustainable travel events

• Organise cycling and walking groups

Your Travel Plan Coordinator will advise residents of upcoming national and local events.

Contact your Travel Plan Coordinator for any travel needs, queries or personalised planning

Linmeretravel@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk

The Linmere development has been designed with many interesting, meaningful destinations located around the entire development to enable and encourage walking as an easy, attractive, safe, and fun way of navigating the immediate vicinity and wider local surroundings.

Day to day amenities are all within easy reach, with waymarking, footpaths and safe crossings all incorporated. Public Rights of Way across the site link into a wider network beyond, to make leisure walking easily accessible.

Information on the health benefits of walking are available at:

A fun, free, smartphone app that offers rewards for exercise. Street Tag turns physical activity into a game and converts walking, running and cycling into points (tag), turning streets and parks into giant virtual playgrounds. Watch your total distance accumulate and see how far you climb up the local leaderboard and compare with other players.

The app can run in the background, so it automatically collects tags in a 40-metre radius allowing you to focus on your journey and not your phone. If you are in an area of Central Bedfordshire that doesn’t have many tags, you can also use the app to add more yourself, enabling you to collect extra points every time you go for a walk, run or cycle.

Each game season lasts from 14 to 16 weeks. In that time schools, groups and individuals can compete to hit the top of the leader board and become the winner! Get ready to push the boundaries and start your journey to a healthy lifestyle with Street Tag.

App-Bike is an app based self-serve bike hire system provided for the use of residents. Bikes are located at various designated points across the development which can viewed within the App-Bike app.

To use the bikes, you will need to register in the App-Bike app and provide a proof of address to verify your residency to info@activecyclingprojects.com. Once validated full instructions are emailed.

Choose from two membership and rental tariffs:

• Pay As You Go – No monthly fee, £1.50 per hour

• Monthly membership – £5 per month, cancel anytime. Daily 2 hours free then £1.00 per hour

For further queries or assistance please contact App-Bike on:

t: 01892 320270

e: info@activecyclingprojects.com

w: www.linmere.com/linmere-pilot-bike-hire-scheme-goes-live/

Buses

Currently the Arriva Z bus service provides a 10-minute frequency to Luton and Dunstable, the full route of this service is shown below. Your nearest bus stop is located on Sundon Road.

Find your nearest stop, check arrival times, and store your tickets in one place with the Arriva UK Bus app; find and download today in the Apple App Store or Google Play. Enjoy being able to:

• Purchase tickets in fewer clicks

• Plan your journeys and access your m-tickets all in one app

• Find your way from A to B with better journey planning

• Always know where your bus is with more accurate real-time information and live bus tracking

• Have access to your full order history, so you can stay in control of your account

• Know exactly how long your m-ticket is valid for with the handy ticket countdown on the app

Once the neighbourhood centre, adjacent to Thornhill Primary School and Green Park, is open in 2025 the bus route will also service that route. As the development progresses more routes will be introduced.

There are a range of useful websites that can assist your bus journey including:

Trains

Train services are available from both Leagrave and Luton stations which provide access to Central London, Bedford and stations in between.

Luton station is accessible by the Arriva Z bus service and Leagrave as described on the previous page.

Leagrave station – via the National Cycle Route 6 (10-15 minute cycle). There are also bike storage facilities at Leagrave.

Information about train services can be found at:

A car club operator will be in place in from summer 2023. This car club will have two electric vehicles. The EV car club will be operated by HiyaCar and once established vehicles will be available for hire via the HiyaCar app.

Car Clubs provide an easily accessible vehicle for short term hire as and when needed. This provides a low-cost alternative to car ownership or leasing.

Car share

Car sharing offers a more sustainable mode of travel than single occupancy car journeys, whilst still offering the convenience that a car provides.

If you choose to start car sharing, you should decide how to split the cost of travel. Costs should be agreed in advance and could be split in one of the following ways:

• Sharers can take turns to drive, and no financial transactions will be necessary

• The driver charges for the share of the cost of fuel

• The driver charges based on a mileage rate to cover fuel, depreciation and wear and tear

Why not try Liftshare?

Liftshare is an app where individuals can search for car sharing opportunities within their local area. You can match potential partners as a driver, or a passenger based on your destination. You can choose who to share journeys with and how often.

Lift sharing can help you to save money, reduce congestion and have a calmer commute. Liftshare is trusted by over 700 corporate companies for commuting purposes. To get startedand create an account, head to www.liftshare.com/uk.

National events

As part of sustainable travel, we will be participating and promoting the following events annually:

Event	When	Details
The Big Wheel and Walk	March	Sponsored by UK cycling charity Sustrans, The Big Walk and Wheel – Previously known as The Big Pedal, is the UK’s largest inter-school cycling and scooter-based challenge that aims to inspire and empower kids, teachers and parents to get on two wheels in order to make the daily trek to school.
National Walk to Work Day	April	National Walk to Work Day – get involved! Taking simple steps to improve your health could pay dividends years down the line. Taking part also helps you reduce carbon emissions, add some healthy movement to your day, and generally appreciate the world around you more.
National Walk to School Week	May	Walk to School Week is a national event to raise awareness of the health benefits of walking to and from school.
Bike Week	June	Bike Week is a national event that aims to promote cycling and to show how it can easily become part of everyday life.
National Clean Air Day	June	National Clean Air Day gives people a chance to find out more about air pollution, share information with friends and colleagues, and help make the air cleaner and healthier for everyone.
National Cycle to Work Day	August	Cycle to Work Day is the UK’s biggest commuting event which is for everyone, it doesn’t matter if you haven’t cycled in years or have never cycled before. It’s just about giving it a go!
Catch the Bus Week	September	Catch the Bus Week is a nationwide campaign aimed at driving awareness of the benefits of taking the bus.
ROAD SAFETY WEEK	November	Road Safety Week is a national campaign that aims to inspire thousands of schools, organisations and communities to take action on road safety and promote life-saving messages during the week and beyond. It also provides a focal point for professionals working in road safety to boost awareness and engagement in their work.

  

Travel planning resources

There are a wide range of apps currently available that can assist you with your sustainable travel choices. The following can be readily downloaded onto your smart phone and will aid you in planning your journey via a range of sustainable transport modes.