Travel behaviour change guidance handbook

Print version: Travel behaviour change guidance handbook (PDF, 1.29 MB, 87 pages)

1.   Introduction

The Travel Behaviour Change Guidance Handbook has been developed for use in conjunction with the Interim Travel Behaviour Change (Interim TBhC Procedures). The purpose of this Handbook is to provide guidance to Regional Councils, Territorial Authorities, consultants and others on how to submit a funding application to Land Transport New Zealand (Land Transport NZ) for Travel Behaviour Change projects as part of the National Land Transport Programme. It also contains advice to practitioners for the development, specification and outcome monitoring of TBhC projects, to encourage consistency and ‘best practice’ in this area.

A further document, the Travel Behaviour Change Evaluation Procedures Technical Report provides supporting technical information with respect to the development of the Interim TBhC Procedures, particularly the derivation of the diversion rates, benefits and benefit values contained therein.

‘Travel Behaviour Change’ (TBhC) programmes aim to encourage voluntary change in travel behaviour by providing incentives for people to utilise sustainable modes of travel and reducing the overall requirement for travel. Such programmes generally employ education-, planning- and/or marketing-based techniques. TBhC is part of a wider area of work, Travel Demand Management (TDM), which is a generic term for strategies used to reduce demand for road-based travel and improve energy efficiency in the transport sector. A definition and typology of travel behaviour change projects, including those excluded from consideration by Land Transport NZ for funding, is found in Section 2.0.

Section 3.0 provides practitioners with advice on the initial specification of particular types of TBhC projects, namely: workplace (including tertiary education and clusters of smaller organisations banding together); school; and household-based TBhC programmes. These types of TBhC project have the most information on factors that may contribute either to successful travel behaviour change (i.e. a measurable reduction in vehicle kilometres travelled), or to the successful development and implementation of the project. Other TBhC project types (e.g. car sharing clubs, teleworking, etc) have not yet had the same degree of scrutiny to confidently provide such information.

The TBhC Guidance Handbook is not intended to provide detailed methods on how to carry out specific individual projects such as “school travel plans” or “personalised marketing”. There are many such “how to” documents available through other organisations and on the internet. A selection of the more informative and user-friendly ones is listed following each section.

Land Transport NZ’s objective is to allocate resources in a way that contributes to an integrated, safe, responsive and sustainable land transport system. In order to achieve its objective, Land Transport NZ has developed an allocation process for preparing the National Land Transport Programme to take account of the New Zealand Transport Strategy (2002) and the requirements placed on Land Transport NZ under the Land Transport Management Act 2003. The Allocation Process consists of six stages:

• Formulation
• Assessment
• Prioritisation
• Programming
• Approval
• Monitoring

The economic evaluation of a TBhC proposal, using the Interim TBhC Procedures, is a key input to the “Assessment” stage of the Allocation Process, along with other information regarding the overall strategic context of the proposal.

Section 4.0 describes:

• the assessment requirements for TBhC proposals, including advice (in Appendix A) for completing the strategic assessment framework information for Land Transport Programmes
• the economic evaluation process for different types of TBhC proposals, including packages
• the key elements, including underlying assumptions, of the Interim TBhC Procedures.

An example of TBhC evaluation using the Interim TBhC Procedures is illustrated in Appendix B.

Because of the relative newness of TBhC programmes to New Zealand and the general lack of good quality evidence to prove their effectiveness, Land Transport NZ has indicated the need for a substantial monitoring programme for this activity class. All TBhC project proposals submitted to Land Transport NZ shall include a detailed outline and costing of their associated monitoring programme. Note that the cost of the monitoring programme is generally not included in the funding costs for the project.

The monitoring requirements described in Section 5.0 should be seen as “interim”. Once sufficient information is gathered to satisfy Land Transport NZ that its objectives are being achieved, it is likely that “key performance indicators” monitoring will replace the current requirements. Section 5.0 focuses on the methodology for the monitoring programme, as well as identifying the monitoring focus for data collection. No specific advice is given on the questionnaire design or analysis of the data collected.

Finally, Section 6.0 provides a glossary of key terms used either in the Interim TBhC Procedures and/or the TBhC Guidance Handbook, including brief descriptions of various types of TBhC projects.

 

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Page created: 20 October 2008