THINKING ABOUT THE RANGE OF TRAVEL CHOICES
Introduction
This section will help you to understand more about the range of travel choices available to reduce reliance on the private car. The emphasis here is on understanding the messages about individual options which can be used to effectively promote them as real travel alternatives to the private car.
When attempting to reduce reliance on the private car it is necessary to encourage people to try the alternative travel choices they have available.
In this section we will be reviewing the full range of travel choices which are available.
There are a couple of key points to be kept in mind though:
- Not all travel choices are available to all people. The options considered need to be tailored to the needs of each individual. For example, in many areas public transport may not be feasible and so pushing that as an option may undermine the credibility of your case.
- At all times, keep in mind one key message - travelling by a different method just one day a week can make a big difference. We are not talking about fundamental lifestyle change such as selling all the family's cars! Regular, even small, changes which can be sustained can have substantial long term benefits to the individual, organization and the community.
On first pass through this material you may care to skim read the discussion of the different travel choices presented in this section.
It should be noted that at this stage, each of the chapters on different modes of travel relates only to travel behaviour change in the workplace. This is linked to the TravelSmart employers kit, which is also available on this web site.
Many of the sections provide a checklist of actions you could consider when seeking to promote individual modes of travel.