Transport behaviour change in Wellington: the effectiveness of personalised transport planning in reducing car use

Abstract

Personalised transport planning (PTP) has been used internationally, and recently in New Zealand, as a means of encouraging voluntary travel behaviour change away from private vehicle use. Results from evaluations undertaken to date indicate that this technique can achieve reductions of around 7-15% in car driver trips in targeted urban areas. A scarcity of robust evaluation from New Zealand examples prompted an investigation into the quantitative and qualitative impacts of a PTP programme undertaken in Wellington to determine whether this approach has potential to instigate a mode shift from cars into public and active transport. In 2007 and 2008, the Sustainability Trust implemented a PTP programme known as 'Getting Around Wellington' (GAW). The current study continued this programme with 165 households and, alongside a control group of 158 households, monitored the daily average vehicle kilometres travelled (vkt) before and after a PTP intervention. Aggregated quantitative data from odometer surveys showed no effect of the programme on vkt overall. However, follow-up interviews with intervention participants, substantiated by their individual vkt data suggested that in a number of cases, there had in fact been a modal shift towards public and active transport. Factors external to the project such as long-distance car trips, a sharp decline in petrol prices during the research period and problems with the public and active transport alternatives to private car use are though to have influenced the outcomes and lessened the effect of the programme. Conclusions are drawn as to future PTP design and further research priorities.