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The Right Time and Place to Change Travel Behavior: An Experimental Study

In this study, the authors seek to understand for whom travel behavior change programs alter behavior and in what context. To do so, they conduct a true experiment by randomly assigning incoming graduate students at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to an experimental and control group. Students in the experimental group received information on car-free travel options to campus prior to the academic year, when they begin searching for housing. Relative to the control group, members of the experimental group were less likely to always drive to campus and were more likely to always use transit. They also lived closer to campus, but visited campus more often. Overall, the average member of the experimental group drove ten miles fewer each week than members of the control group (33.6 v. 23.6 miles). If the intervention were scaled up to include all incoming graduate students over the course of a year, the authors expect vehicle miles of travel to decline by one million miles and CO₂ emissions to fall by 430 metric tons. The intervention was only effective among young people who moved in the past 6 months. The intervention was more effective than similar travel information campaigns implemented previously in other settings with substantially more or fewer non-automobile travel options. Together, these results suggest that behavioral change programs are most likely to be cost- effective if they are implemented at the right time—just before or just after a move—and in the right place—where non-automobile options exceed expectations.

  • Supplemental Notes:
    • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADB10 Standing Committee on Traveler Behavior and Values. Alternate title: The Right Time and Place to Change Travel Behavior: Experimental Study
  • Corporate Authors:

    Transportation Research Board

    500 Fifth Street, NW
    Washington, DC  United States  20001
  • Authors:
    • Ralph, Kelcie M
    • Brown, Anne E
  • Conference:
  • Date: 2017

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Digital/other
  • Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
  • Pagination: 20p
  • Monograph Title: TRB 96th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01625871
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Report/Paper Numbers: 17-00461
  • Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
  • Created Date: Feb 13 2017 2:41PM