Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
flats or similar with a range of communal facilities, then almost certainly a management
company will be established anyway which can include operating a travel plan, car club
etc. as part of its responsibilities. Car clubs offer potentially the greatest benefits to all
parties in the context of so-called 'car-free' developments (Morris 2005).
From a public perspective the operation of car clubs (whether as part of a travel
plan or more generally) has the benefit that members who were previously car-owning
(but who now adopt a 'pay as you go' approach) are likely to reduce their car mileage
by around 60-70% (Cairns et al. 2004). The average change in mileage for all car club
users is 33%. This lower figure reflects the fact that car club membership also offers
the opportunity of car use to people who would otherwise not have had it, i.e. non-car-
owners or people seeking occasional use of a second car. Advice on the setting up of
car clubs and car sharing schemes and the role of local authorities in supporting them
is given in ITP Ltd (2005).
16.6 Marketing and the 'Sustainable Towns' initiative
Marketing is a feature of all forms of soft measure as well as being a discrete activity
in itself. It extends from the passive provision of information, through advertising and
promotional campaigns (often involving the product branding of particular facilities or
services) to the selective presentation and targeting of information at certain groups
or individuals with a view to achieving attitudinal and/or behavioural change in their
travel behaviour. Marketing can also be utilised in the branding of overall behavioural
change programmes of which those undertaken as part of the Government's recent
Sustainable Towns initiative are important examples.
Travel information
The availability of information about alternative modes is recognised as one of the
major barriers to securing changes in travel behaviour amongst car users. Unlike
other barriers such as cost and unreliability it is a shortcoming which can be rectified
relatively quickly and cheaply. In line with its 'Integrated Transport' agenda the New
Labour Government took two major initiatives in this field:
1
placing a statutory duty on local transport authorities (under the Transport Act
2000) to ensure the availability of bus service timetables
2
to establish (as part of the 2000 Ten Year Plan) a new national web-based journey
information service (launched in 2004 as 'Transport Direct') embracing all modes
and offered on a 'door to door' basis.
A further important information facility - for rail journeys - had been established
previously as part of the privatisation of the network, through a National Rail Inquiry
Service.
By 2006 Transport Direct had achieved its initial target of 6 million users a year.
However the value of the service, both in meeting the needs of its users, and in serving
public objectives of promoting choice and securing behavioural change is open to
question. Prior to considering the next phase of its development DfT commissioned
a review of research in the field of travel information generally (Lyons et al. 2007).
This highlights the importance of understanding the reasons why individuals do (or do
not) seek information and what their interpretation and response is to the information
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