Too Good To Be True? An Assessment of the Melbourne Travel Behaviour Modification Pilot
This article describes the Greenhouse Gas Abatement Program for the TravelSmart brand of Travel Behaviour Modification (TBM), a program that uses individualized marketing to change public perceptions of the attractiveness of walking, cycling and public transport, with the aim of bringing about mode shift. TBM is used to change travel patterns without the need for expensive or controversial alterations to substantive transport policies. The authors describe how the Australian government has allocated $18.3 million for the program. The Victorian government is a strong supporter, and claims that a trial of TravelSmart along Melbourne‘s Alamein rail corridor in 2003 reduced car driver trips by 10%, and increased public transport, walking and cycling trips by 23-27%. The authors consider whether this program as a form of “greenwash,” in which responsibility for environmentally unsustainable transport policies is deflected from transport policy makers to the public. Thus, careful scrutiny is important to ensure that the programs are accurately evaluated. The authors present a review of the South Perth public transport data, and subsequent data from the 2001 census; their findings cast doubt on the claims of substantial increases in public transport patronage. They discuss the causes of the discrepancy between the results reported from TBM trials, and independent data like patronage counts and census results, focusing on statistical artifacts‘ arising from interactions between the TBM researchers and participants. These include expectancy bios, sampling and non-response biases, and weighting techniques used. The authors conclude that it cannot be safely inferred from the survey results that the Alamein pilot produced any significant change in travel behavior. They also provide some recommendations for improving the evaluation of such programs in the future. This paper was originally presented to the 28th Australasian Transport Research Forum in Sydney in 2005.
- Record URL:
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Availability:
- Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/13527614
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Authors:
- Morton, Anthony
- Mees, Paul
- Publication Date: 2010-8
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Web
- Features: References; Tables;
- Pagination: pp 8-23
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Serial:
- World Transport Policy & Practice
- Volume: 16
- Issue Number: 2
- Publisher: Eco-Logica Limited
- ISSN: 1352-7614
- Serial URL: https://www.worldtransportjournal.org/journal
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Publication flags:
Open Access (libre)
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Bicycling; Consumption rates; Energy consumption; Government funding; Greenhouse gases; Marketing; Policy making; Public transit; Rail transit; Statistics; Transportation modes; Travel behavior; Walking
- Identifier Terms: TravelSmart (Program : Victoria, Australia)
- Geographic Terms: Australia; Melbourne (Australia)
- Subject Areas: Highways; Policy; Public Transportation; Railroads; I21: Planning of Transport Infrastructure; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01328316
- Record Type: Publication
- Files: TRIS, ATRI
- Created Date: Jan 28 2011 10:43AM