OXFORD Brookes hopes to get even more students to take the bus to university instead of their car, as part of a new travel plan.

Brookes' Sustainable Travel Plan 2006 aims by 2010 to reduce the percentage of staff using their cars to get to work from 48 to 40 and to cut the percentage of students travelling by car from 12 to seven.

It proposes to extend current Brookes Bus routes to Bicester and Witney, to improve ticketing systems, and to display real-time information displayed on Brookes Bus stops.

It has also pledged to review timetables to cut the need for travel between sites, buy greener vehicles for its own fleet, and to further promote home-working and car-sharing.

The university's original Green Commuter Plan, launched in 1999, cut the number of students using a car to get to campus from 34 per cent to 12 per cent. Staff car usage has dropped from 57 per cent to 48 per cent.

But Holton residents, who have long suffered from students parking cars in the village, were sceptical that the plan would have much effect on them.

Parish councillor John Walsh said part-time jobs after lectures, not living near a bus route and the cost of bus permits would continue to deter students from using the bus.

Double yellow lines are to be painted along the main road up to St Bartholomew Church, but Mr Walsh said residents feared it would just push the cars elsewhere in the village.

He added: "It's the problem of Brookes expanding so fast without adequate parking for students."

The university's Sustainable Travel Plan was officially launched when Oxford Brookes' Chancellor Jon Snow took a Brookes bus from Oxford railway station to Headington Hill Hall, while the University's Vice-Chancellor, Professor Graham Upton, and Deputy Lord Mayor Mary Clarkson led a group of cyclists.

The challenge was intended to be a demonstration that it is better for the environment to travel green and can also be quicker, healthier, and more convenient.

Mr Snow said: "It takes a lot to get me off my bicycle, but I am really proud of the Brookes Bus. I know that the improvements which are planned for the scheme will bring enormous benefits to the university and to the wider community."

The university's Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Registrar, Rex Knight, said: "The Sustainable Travel Plan is an ambitious combination of proposals which will change the way Brookes operates, and will also bring noticeable improvements to the local community."