Packaging the Travel Choices: COMMUNITIES
Travel Blending®
Travel Blending® involves in-depth analysis of people's travel behaviour followed by detailed suggestions on how behaviour could be modified, with follow up monitoring and feedback (Rose and Ampt, 1997; Ampt and Rooney, 1999). The term travel blending is used to describe a way for individuals to reduce the use of the car by blending, or mixing, their travel choices over time. This could be through:
- thinking about activities and travel in advance (i.e. in what order can activities be done, who should do them, where should they be done etc.),
- blending modes (i.e. sometimes car, sometimes walk, sometimes public transport etc.),
- blending activities (i.e. doing as many things as possible in the same place, or on the same journey), or finally
- blending over time (i.e. making small sustainable changes over time on a weekly or fortnightly basis).
The blending notion is important, because a commitment to use public transport to work one day per week has the potential for an individual to reduce their weekday peak period vehicle use by 20 percent. In this way, rather than saying people should always use public transport the message is to blend travel choices in a manageable but sustainable way to reduce motor vehicle use.
The program is delivered through a series of four kits. The Travel Blending® program has seen application in Australia and around the world.
The 4 Main Travel Blending® Kits
Individuals, preferably all members of a household, are engaged or recruited door-to- door, by telephone contact or through schools or workplaces. This usually takes place after an initial letter has been sent to the household, informing them of the purpose of the program and signed by a relevant local personality (e.g. local Mayor or State Transport Minister).
When the initial contact is made with the household basic data on the household is collected so that the household receives the correct number of travel diaries. In all, the Travel Blending® Program involves four 'kits' which are given to households which indicate a desire to participate in the program. The focus of the kits and their contents are outlined below. You can follow the links to learn more about individual kits in the program.
Summary of the Travel Blending® Kits
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The Getting Started kit includes – a letter of introduction, a "How and Why" booklet explaining the issues associated with increasing vehicle use and introducing the Travel Blending concept, and a "Before" travel diary for each household member plus aids to assist in its completion. |
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"Before" diaries are analysed and a feedback kit is provided which includes a summary of each individual’s travel during the survey week and an indication of car emissions produced. Positive steps people already make are highlighted and suggestions for reducing car travel are proposed. Kit 2 also includes a booklet "Thinking about your Travel". |
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The 3rd kit includes the "After" 7-day travel diary plus a booklet "Track Your Travel 2" explaining the importance of completing the second set of diaries. |
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The "After" diaries are analysed and a final kit is delivered which includes a summary of the travel revealed in the second diary, identifies the differences between the travel reported in the first and second diaries, and includes a log book to allow people to continue to monitor weekly car travel. |
In general, about 40 per cent of those recruited remain in the program through to completion of the second diary sent out in Kit 3. (DTLR, 2002).
Kit 1: Getting Started
Included in the first kit is a letter of introduction from a prominent local personality (e.g. local Mayor or State Transport Minister). Also included is information dealing with ‘Why’ and ‘How’ issues. The ‘Why’ component addresses the link between vehicle use and urban transport problems, including air pollution, and describes why these problems will continue to worsen unless action is taken. The ‘How’ component outlines the range of potential solution approaches and places the need for individual action into perspective against other initiatives.
The information booklet also introduces the Travel Blending® tool for household travel behaviour change and explains that the first step for an individual in changing their travel patterns is to understand what travel they currently undertake. In this way the rationale for completing a one week travel diary is explained.
Kit 1 includes a one-week travel diary for each member of the household. The travel diaries are used to record all travel outside the home with details obtained of destination, place and purpose, start and end time of each trip, travel mode and for car driver trips, the odometer reading at the start and end of the trip.
Also included is a box that serves as a depository for the diaries and an inbuilt reminder system. The diaries sit in the box in such a way that the people’s names, and the day of the diary they have completed, are clearly visible. In some applications the diary box also has a magnet on the back so it can be placed on the fridge. A set of ‘Count your Kilometres’ stickers is included. These stickers are designed to be placed on the steering wheel of the vehicles to serve as a reminder for the driver to complete the odometer readings in their travel diary. Participating households complete the travel diaries over a seven day period and return them in a pre-paid envelope for processing. Once the processing is complete the household is sent Kit 2.
Kit 2: Help Make a Difference
Once the travel diaries from Kit 1 are received at the study office, the data is coded into a database, analysed and used to produce tailored, personalised feedback sheets for the household. The travel diary data analysis and feedback generation is completed using a special purpose computer program. That program analyses the data and uses a series of inbuilt rules to determine which tailored tips should be included on the feedback sheets for that household or person. The feedback sheets are then sent to the household as part of the second kit.
In Kit 2, the feedback sheets are presented in a folder titled: “Did you know these things about your household?’ There is one sheet summarising results for the entire household and a separate sheet for each individual. The ones for each individual contain the tailored travel tips.
Also included in Kit 2 is a booklet titled "Thinking about your travel". This brochure is designed to encourage households to think about their travel using the details provided on the travel feedback sheets. It also includes general Travel Blending® 'tips' to help people reduce motor vehicle use and emissions.
In some applications, a “goal card” is provided as part of Kit 2. This allows either the household as a whole, or individuals, to record their Travel Blending® goals. A magnetic strip on the back of the goal card enables it to be placed on the front of a refrigerator or filing cabinet.
Participating households are given about four weeks to practice changing their travel patterns and then they are sent Kit 3.
Feedback and Tailored Tips
Respondents who complete their travel diaries are sent a ‘feedback’ report and a set of tailored tips on action they could take to reduce their vehicle use. The feedback sheets summarises travel patterns for each individual (by name) and the household as a whole. This includes details of the total number of trips, trips by mode and total time spent travelling.
For each vehicle, the total kilometres travelled is summarised along with the number of engine cold starts and an indication of the emissions produced (e.g. kilograms of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and oxides of nitrogen and their equivalent volume in terms of 2 litre containers).
The feedback sheet also includes a number of ideas for how the household members could try to reduce the impact of the car. While some are fairly general, others are quite focused including details of specific public transport services, with relevant details (e.g. which bus stop to use, service times to suit travel needs, how to pay the fare etc.) enclosed, for some trips.
In all cases, the suggestions are tailored to the travel patterns reported by members of the household in their travel diaries. Consistent with the Travel Blending® theme described earlier, the suggestions made as part of the feedback are framed in terms of reducing vehicle use on a once a week or once a fortnight basis.
Feedback Examples
These examples illustrate the type of feedback suggestions made to participants:
- Craig, would it be possible for you to travel by public transport one day a week or one day a fortnight? You could catch the train from Blaxland Station and change to the 301 bus at Central Station. We have enclosed copies of the train times which seem to suit your travel pattern.
- Julie, we noticed that there were never any occasions on which you did two or more things on one car journey. This is often called trip chaining and many people use it to reduce their car trips.
- Graham, when you have the choice of using the Commodore or the Statesman, try to use the Commodore (if permitted) because it is less polluting.
- Everyone: Remember when you share a ride with someone instead of driving yourself, this is a real benefit to the environment in Adelaide. On the other hand, when someone makes a car driven trip especially to take you somewhere that you could walk, ride or even take a bus or train to, travelling as a car passenger does not help to reduce congestion and pollution.
Kit 3: Are you on Track?
The purpose of this kit is to measure the impact of Travel Blending® on the household's travel activity. This kit includes another set of travel diaries. The household completes these over a seven day period and returns them for analysis.
To encourage a higher response rate, a booklet titled, “Track your travel 2” explains the importance of completing this second set of diaries.
After analysis, the household is sent Kit 4, the final kit.
Kit 4: Keeping the Air Clean
This final kit includes the summary of travel activity from the second set of diaries and an analysis of the changes in travel between the first and second sets of travel diaries. This comparative summary identifies changes in the total time spent travelling and number of trips by mode for the household as a whole and also for each individual within the household.
Changes in motor vehicle use are reported in terms of the changes in total kilometres travelled and changes in the number of cold starts as well as the changes in emissions (kilograms of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and oxides of nitrogen). Where appropriate, additional tips are also given. For example, although people may have reduced their kilometres, they may not be using the least polluting car.
This final kit also includes a simple vehicle log book so that the household can continue to monitor their total weekly vehicle use over time as they continue to practice travel blending.
Travel Blending® Applications
Travel Blending® has seen application in Australia, the UK, USA and Chile. While the initial development work was undertaken in Sydney, the main Australian applications have been in Adelaide and a pilot in Brisbane. Travel Blending® is currently being used as a key household travel behaviour tool in the Victorian Travel Smart program.
Results from the application of Travel Blending in a trial in Adelaide were very positive with the reduction in car use, measured in terms of car driver trips or kilometres, being slightly over 10 per cent.