Travel behaviour change evaluation procedures

Technical report

Print version: Travel behaviour change evaluation procedures (PDF, 1.57 MB, 98 pages)

1. Introduction

1.1 Background
1.2 Definition of travel behaviour change projects
1.3 Purpose
1.4 Accompanying reports
1.5 Report contents

1.1 Background

Travel Behaviour Change (TBhC) projects are a relatively new and growing area of transport system management. TBhC programmes generally employ education, information and marketing based approaches to achieve voluntary changes in the travel behaviour of individuals. Experience to date in New Zealand has found that existing project evaluation procedures are not well suited to TBhC projects. Such projects are neither roading projects (evaluated using the Project Evaluation Manual procedures) nor traditional Alternatives to Roading projects.

Transfund New Zealand (Transfund) and the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) commissioned Maunsell Australia Pty Ltd (Maunsell), Pinnacle Research (Pinnacle), and Booz Allen Hamilton NZ Ltd (BAH) to review New Zealand and international TBhC procedures and experience, and develop evaluation procedures and guidelines for practitioners in New Zealand.

Transfund wishes to increase the level of consistency within and between evaluations of TBhC projects by considering the framework under which such packages of projects are assessed and the associated benefit values used in the analysis.

1.2 Definition of travel change projects

TBhC programmes aim to change travel behaviour by providing information or incentives that will encourage people to utilise sustainable modes of travel or, in some cases, to reduce their overall requirement for travel. TBhC has different names in different countries, such as “soft measures” in the UK and OECD, and “mobility management” in Europe. Each of these include some measures that are different from others but the common theme is reducing private car use through voluntary changes in the travel behaviour of individuals.

TBhC programmes in the context of this project do not include freight management, logistics or any other possible action to change the travel behaviour of commercial vehicle operators or fleets (in Europe, mobility management includes freight related initiatives). The focus in this project is on changing “personal” or “private” travel behaviour.

In summary TBhC measures include:

Workplace based initiatives
Substitutes for travel: teleworking, home shopping
Community-based initiatives: information and education programmes
Household/Individual initiatives: encourage efficient travel decisions
School travel initiatives

More detailed definition of TBhC projects is provided in the Guidance Handbook and in the Task 5 working paper that was prepared earlier in the study.

1.3 Purpose

The purpose of this report is to provide information to Transfund and EECA highlighting issues encountered during the project, and information, conclusions and recommendations that are applicable mainly to Transfund and EECA. Information for wider distribution to councils and other agencies responsible for developing TBhC projects is contained in the accompanying Guidance Handbook.

Issues covered in this report include:

Commentary about the evaluation procedures including explanation of the methodology, derivation of benefit values and diversion rates (impacts of TBhC projects), and discussion of areas of uncertainty where further development may be required
Monitoring issues that are only applicable to Transfund including short term and longer term requirements
Discussion of other issues that are outside project scope but relevant for Transfund to consider such as overlap with other Transfund policies.

A copy of the recommended interim evaluation procedure for TBhC projects is included as Appendix B of the Guidance Handbook.

1.4 Accompanying reports

Other reports prepared as part of this project include the following:

Literature review report

This report describes the review of New Zealand and international literature that was conducted to investigate the “state of the art” in TBhC project development, evaluation, and monitoring. The report discusses the key issues, themes and findings from detailed assessments of the most useful and relevant documents identified in the review.

Parameters and scope (Task 5) report

This working paper was prepared to enable Transfund and EECA and the technical working group to review the proposed procedures and parameters, and to make changes where necessary, before detailed work was carried out on developing the procedures. The paper covered relevant evaluation principles, existing and potential new benefit parameters and a recommended evaluation methodology.

Guidance Handbook

The Guidance Handbook provides practitioners with guidance on the development and specification, preparation of assessments and funding applications, and monitoring of TBhC projects to encourage consistency and “best practice” in the area. The handbook includes guidance on profiling to determine the most promising communities, organisations and areas for successful TBhC projects. It also contains references to sources of more detailed information on TBhC project development.

In addition to these reports a MS Excel spreadsheet model of the evaluation procedure was also prepared for calculating benefit values and worked examples, and undertaking sensitivity tests.

1.5 Report contents

The remainder of this report is structured as follows:

Section 2.0 discusses the options for evaluation methodology, the requirement for a procedure that is consistent with Transfund’s Allocation Process, and the theoretical framework that was selected for TBhC project evaluation based on these considerations.

Section 3.0 describes the benefits and disbenefits associated with TBhC projects, including net benefits to TBh changers, and provides details of the benefit values that are proposed for inclusion in the evaluation procedures.

In Section 4.0 we present findings from extensive research and analysis of the impacts of common TBhC project types and derive default diversion rates from private car to environmentally friendly modes for different project types for use in the evaluation procedures.

Section 5.0 outlines the evaluation procedure including components and assumptions. The interim evaluation procedure is included as Appendix B of the Guidance Handbook.

Section 6.0 discusses issues related to the funding, monitoring and review including overlap with public transport funding policies, etc.

Section 7.0 contains conclusions and a set of recommendations in relation to the evaluation procedures and possible future refinement.

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Page created: 28 October 2008