Future scenarios and strategic choices - Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain - page 414

Box 24.1 Public attitudes to climate change and transport
There is only a weak link between knowledge and awareness of climate change
on the one hand and travel behaviour at the individual level on the other. Raising
public awareness of this link is necessary, particularly to galvanise support for carbon
abatement policy, but it is not sufficient to change behaviour on its own. In order
to effect change many other factors need to be addressed - at the objective and
subjective and at the individual and collective levels. These factors will be different
for different travel behaviours and different people.
Transport policies can set out to change attitudes directly as a route to behaviour
change, or they can be indirect in that they aim to change behaviour first without
necessarily changing attitudes. This review concludes that a combination of each of
these types of measures is desirable. In addition, any travel behaviour change strategy
will be more effective if it targets change at the community level. Community Based
Social Marketing offers a strategic framework to transform markets and behaviours.
There is a need to engage the public in issues of transport and climate change
using deliberative methodologies to deviate from traditional 'top-down' methods of
information provision. New forms of research and communication need to be two-
way, explore formats for learning on all sides of the issue, have an iterative and
deliberative component and not necessarily strive to reach consensus.
Source: Anable, Lane and Kelay for DfT 2006 Summary Report p. 3
attitudes and behaviour. This was the subject of a separate research review
commissioned by DfT which encompassed all aspects of travel behaviour, including
choice of mode, car purchasing, the frequency and amount of travel and support
for transport policies (Anable et al. 2006). Its main findings are summarised in
Box 24.1.
24.5 The Eddington Report
In 2005 Sir Rod Eddington, formerly Chief Executive of British Airways, was asked
by the then Chancellor Gordon Brown and Transport Secretary Alistair Darling to
produce a report on the long-term links between transport and the UK's economy,
focusing on the period after 2015. He was provided with a small support team from the
two departments and also drew on the expertise of an appointed group of academic
'friends' coincidentally chaired by Sir Nicholas Stern. In addition to his four-volume
main report (Eddington 2006b) his main findings and key recommendations were
published separately (Eddington 2006a). Summary articles of the main topics
covered together with comment and press reaction are included in LTT 458.
Transport can impact on the performance of the economy in two main ways - on
GDP and on quality of life (Box 24.2). Eddington's study sought to take account of
both sets of factors, and explicitly incorporated Stern's advice on costing emissions
consistent with the long-term stabilisation of CO 2 levels. The empirical evidence of
the links between transport and GDP are not conclusive (because of doubts about
the direction of causality) but Eddington maintains that, by taking a broader view of
economic benefit, the value of transport investment is clear.