Smart Travel Flashcards
What is “smarter travel”?
It’s encouraging people to make smarter travel choices which reduce dependence on the private car (behavioural change) and make best use of available or new sustainable transport modes.
Pooley et al. (2011) said…
“Using the car fo short trips in urban areas is convenient, habitual and normal”
Pooley et al. (2011)
What methods are used to influence behavioural change?
Social marketing, nudges, promotion, through workplaces, schools, residential, area travel plans etc.
Sloman et al. (2010) breaks down measures into two separate categories…
1) HARD - physical improvements to transport infrastructure, or operations, traffic engineering, control of road space etc.
2) SOFT - management and marketing which address psychological motivations for travel choices as well as economic ones.
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Some things, such as workplace travel plans, may often have elements of both.
What are the two main benefits of smarter modes?
1) Reduced car use, which leads to reduced congestion, pollution and maintenance of the road
2) Health benefits
How do we make people switch to sustainable modes?
The comfort and convenience of cars is appealing to people, therefore, HIGH QUALITY, sustainable solutions must be made available and PROMOTED.
Why is awareness and marketing important?
You can build all the infrastructure and implement all the services you like, however, you need to market it in an appealing way.
You can’t assume that people will ‘just know’ about improvements.
What is the mutual dependence?
1) high quality infrastructure and services
dependent upon
2) marketing, promotion and encouragement
and vice versa.
Two steps for beginning to design solutions
1) Understand WHAT CURRENTLY HAPPENS
Where is the congestion, where are our pinch points? Let’s look at data from traffic counts, bus patronage, cycle counters etc.
2) Understand WHAT ALREADY EXISTS
Are there cycle paths that can be more heavily promoted? Do we need to tidy up the bus station? Are our timetables confusing?
What is the key issue for local authorities who want to encourage smarter modes?
Securing funding; both for the initial capital costs and the continuous management of schemes.
5 measures to improve cycling
1) Cycle parking - they should be by the front door in an appealing and convenient location, not at the opposite end of a car park
2) Cycle paths - are they of good quality, do they go were people actually want to go?
3) Improving cycle routes - are they practical or do they ‘just stop’
4) Workplace facilities - cyclists need to feel as welcome as a colleague who drives
5) Promotion - cycling training, cycle route maps!
3 measures to improve walking
1) High quality infrastructure - are our pavements uneven, do we have enough benches in the right places, is there enough lighting to improve the perception of safety?
2) Road crossing improvements - are they in good locations where people actually want to cross the road
3) Awareness and promotion - walking maps, walking groups
2 measures and 3 sub-measures of each to improve public transport
THE NETWORK ITSELF
1) High quality transport infrastructure and vehicles, somewhere nice to wait for the bus and a nice vehicle to travel in
2) Bus and tram services which meet the needs of the population
3) Are they reliable, do we need more bus lanes?
PROMOTION AND MARKETING
1) Journey planners, are they easy to use and intuitive? People don’t know the postcodes of their destinations
2) Simple timetables which are easy to understand (paper, online, at the stop)
3) Have branded busses that stand out (eg, Sprint, Skylink, Red Arrow)
5 points about an example of a cycling measure scheme…
1) 6 towns in the UK, including Derby, were given money to spend on improving cycling infrastructure and programmes, branded ‘Cycle Demonstration Town’
2) An average increase of 27% was reported across the 6 towns in the scheme
3) Cycling England claimed that investment in cycling generated town-wide increases in physical activity
4) Cycling to school more than doubled where towns had invested the most in children
5) Investment in cycling paid back 3:1
Sustainable Travel Towns
1) Worcester, Peterborough and Darlington were part of a sustainable travel town scheme, given £10m between them to improve PT and promotion
2) On average:
Car trips fell by 9% per person
Bus trips grew by 10-22% per person
Cycle trips grew by 26-30% per person
3) The biggest falls in car driver mode share were for groups at a point of change in their lives (eg, starting college, retirement, looking for employment) or on a reduced income.
