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Travel Demand Management - Measures, Behavioural Impact and User Response
Travel Demand Management - Measures, Behavioural Impact and User Response
Table of Contents
1. Abstract 2. Introduction 3. What is TDM 4. TDM measures and strategies 5. Packages of TDM measures 6. Impact of TDM measures on user behavior 7. Expected car use response to TDM measures 8. Conclusion 9. Further research areas 10. References 2 3 4 5 7 11 15 18 19 20
ABSTRACT
Traffic congestion and the cost of providing mobility are compelling issues to planners, decision makers and members of both the business community and the general public. Transportation, and the degree of efficiency with which it is accomplished, affects us all. Therefore we are constantly in search of solutions to our transportation problems that will give us not only increased mobility, but also greater economic productivity and a cleaner environment. In light of these concerns, recent years have shown increased interest in measures which affect the demand side of the transportation equation. Because the resources to continue to meet transportation needs through infrastructure expansion are strained, and because travel trends suggest a worsening in the supply/demand balance, it has become necessary to see if increasing the efficiency of the travel demand itself can contribute to our efforts to improve mobility. Travel Demand Management -- or TDM, as it is popularly known -- describes a wide range of actions that are geared toward improving the efficiency of travel demand. Much has been said, studied, and written about this subject. There is much controversy and speculation as to the strength, role, and validity of TDM solutions. This uncertainty has probably led to misunderstandings of the role and potential of TDM, and therefore, a lower yield from TDM approaches than appears to be possible.
Introduction
Transportation system is one of the most critical services that keeps the community running. They allow mobility to peoples and goods from one location to almost any other location in an urban area. In rural areas the connectivity is comparatively lesser. But nonetheless, in an increasingly changing world, they connect us as a city, a region and a nation. The transportation system, however, is becoming a huge concern for its day to day operation. These concerns relate to many different issues: congestion on roads seemingly at all hours of the day and specially during peak hours, degrading environment and poor air quality because of vehicle emissions. The main reason for these concerns lies in the fact that most of the communities have grown tremendously over the past few decades. Increase in the income of urban area population caused a corresponding increase in number of private vehicles using road network. Whereas growth in suburban areas also led to the same as there is no alternative public transport is well established. For years, the solution to the rising levels of congestion was to build new and bigger roads. This encouraged still more growth to occur in these areas of now higher and better accessibility, which once again resulted in increased congestion. Although road improvements will continue to be an important strategy for providing mobility, many communities no longer have the financial resources to build many new roads, would likely face serious environmental problems, and/or encounter strong public opposition. In many of these areas, local officials and employers are turning to a new approach for providing transportation mobility that does not suffer from these problems-- Travel Demand Management (TDM).
TDM strategies include: Improvements in alternative modes of transportation; Financial or time incentives for the use of these alternative modes; Information dissemination and marketing activities to promote these modes; and Supporting services that make the use of alternatives more convenient or that remove psychological impediments to their use. Examples of TDM strategies include:
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Financial/time incentives, for example preferential parking for ride-sharers, subsidies for transit riders, and transportation allowances; Parking management programs; Priority treatment for ride-sharers, for example, provision of preferential entry and exit to parking lots; and Information and marketing, such as on-site availability of transit schedules, periodic prize drawings for ride-sharers; and guaranteed ride home programs. Application of cost surcharges or subsidy measures designed to make the relative cost of single occupant vehicle use higher than that for high occupancy vehicles. A typical example of area-wide cost surcharges would be parking surcharges placed on parking lots that would provide a differential cost structure for single occupant vehicles versus ridesharers.
Managing Travel Demand through the Planning System The measures proposed for implementation through the planning system are diverse and wide ranging. They aim to achieve promote land use and transport integration at the strategic level and local level by: Consolidation as far as practicable of population growth in existing built up areas, where accessibility to work, leisure and other destinations by foot, cycle and public transport is generally better; Location of major trip-intensive land uses in areas well served by public transport or in areas that will be well served by public transport in future; Relating the scale of urban centers to public transport accessibility;
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Regional maximum parking standards, and the relation of maximum permitted parking provision to the scale and density of new developments to current and future public transport accessibility, and to the scale and proximity of the nearest centre; Providing a mix of local services within walking distance of their surrounding neighborhood; Designing all new developments with walking, cycling and public transport in mind; Relating maximum permitted parking provision for new developments to existing and future public transport accessibility.
In summary, new development should be oriented towards non-car use and should underpin existing centres of activity. In addition, new development that is likely to attract a large number of people should be highly accessible by public transport, cycle and on foot.
Measures to Promote Travel Demand Management The application of incentives, marketing initiatives or other practical measures to promote travel demand management has been considered in terms of their potential to reduce car use for journeys to work and education. The measures focus on the workplace, schools, information and technology (IT) applications and the possible role of marketing. Potential components of workplace travel plans, or Mobility Management Plans, may include: Establishing databases to assist ridesharing; Developing car pooling schemes; Providing feeder services to nearby rail or bus services; Putting in place on-site measures to make cycling and walking safer and more attractive, e.g. footpaths, cycle lanes, crossings, secure cycle parking; Providing incentives to use non-car modes; Introducing staggered or flexible working hours so that employees can avoid travel in the peak hour; Allowing compressed working weeks so that employees work a four day week, or nine day fortnight, but a longer day; Promotion of working at home or working at another site to employers and assistance or technical support with implementation; Reducing the amount of car travel undertaken for work purposes by increasing the use of telecommunications; Introducing travel allowances and reimbursements that encourage non-car travel as a replacement for the current arrangements in some organizations which act
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as a financial incentive to unnecessary use of cars for commuting and business trips; and Restricting parking, e.g. giving priority for parking to ride sharers or individuals with certain needs - many successful travel plans are driven by a shortage of onsite parking. In the longer term, employers recruitment policies can also be included in the workplace travel plan. For example, employers can target employment in local areas, particularly those served by public transport. Employees can also be recruited with the understanding that free parking is not provided. Additionally, a long term workplace travel plan can ensure that any future relocation of the workplace is to a site that is accessible by non-car modes. School travel plans are designed to overcome the barriers for pupils to walk, cycle or take public transport to school. The basic aim of school travel plans is to arrest the rapid growth in travel to school by car. School travel plans may include some or all of the following measures: Working with teachers, pupils and families to address perceptions, fears and practical difficulties in overcoming reliance on the car and agreeing a school policy to actively promote sustainable school travel; A toolkit of practical measures including walking, cycling, training, encouraging bus use, car lift sharing, incentive schemes, curriculum based promotion and managing parking and drop off; and Putting in place infrastructure to support the school travel plan and make the route to school safer to walk or cycle and creating a pupil centred front of school environment.
Information technology can be used to alter the ways in which people fulfil their work, services and shopping, rather than changing the mode by which people travel. This is referred to as virtual mobility, a term that focuses on how activities can be undertaken without being dependent on physical mobility. The following possible measures are recommended to promote virtual mobility as an alternative to physical mobility. They require working in partnership with other agencies and could not be promoted purely as travel demand management measures. Awareness campaigns both for organisations and for the wider public about the possibilities for reducing travel through virtual mobility; E-work pilots and programmes, promoting e-work amongst local organisations, including public sector organisations, Telework centres - developing telework centres as have been developed in and around some US cities; E-commerce - promoting online shopping/home delivery amongst local firms and consumers;
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E-services continuing to promote the use of online services government and local authority services, online learning etc and;
Fiscal Measures The two fiscal measures under consideration are a charge on free workplace parking and congestion charging. Congestion Charging All vehicles moving in the charging zone during the hours of operation would need to purchase a licence, which would allow unlimited trips during that period. The charge would not apply at weekends and on bank holidays. A strong preference for morning peak only operation (7am to 10am), so that shoppers and other visitors arriving late morning onwards would not have to pay the charge.
Charges on Free Workplace Parking A charge on free workplace parking is considered to be a measure that would be effective, addressing the rapid growth in demand even in non-central areas. The charge could be implemented either by a workplace parking levy or benefit in kind taxation policy. With a levy, the employer would pay in the first place and then choose whether or not to pass onto the employee. With a taxation policy, the parking space would be declared by the employer and/or employee as a benefit in kind and would be paid for by the employee. Other Fiscal Measures Other fiscal measures may include an increase in fuel duty, tolls on the regional road user and a road user charge for inbound traffic. We consider all of these options should remain under consideration for the longer term when congestion is likely to be more widespread, or public transport is improved, or additional technological options become available.
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Complexity - Number of different outcomes Conflict - The degree to which attainment of one goal inhibits the achievement of another goal. Intensity: It is the commitment that user shows to attain the goal. The importance that user gives to achievement of goal. The process that user employs to acieve the goal.
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A relationship between difficulty of goal and performance to achieve the goal has been established as - a difficult and specific goal leads to a better performance than setting the goal which is easier to attain. If user receives feedback of his/her performance, it further boosts his/her motivation to perform better. It is also established that if the goal is not specific, i.e. multiple, distant and too high to achieve, then user may not give enough input for attainment of goal as would have been otherwise. and user may shift his attention to other easily attainable and more productive goal. Over a time period, people perceives a present situation and compare it to his goal. The goal is usually an ideal image that user wants to gain. And if there is any discrepancy between the two, i.e. present state and goal, user starts attempt to reduce the difference. For example, a user sets his goal to be ideal member of his society. For this he would like to be concerned about the problems of their society. They may find environments concern, or road congestion, or safety as the most critical issue. so to be good and valuable member of his society, he decides to reduce his car use, so as to reduce his carbon footprint and help in reducing congestion. At this level, when a person is motivated to reduce car use, the policy makers should implement pull measures to provide alternatives to the car user. And then user may decide upon the alternative measures to be taken such as walking/cycling or public transport. This hypothesized condition may not be always true as some user may find punctuality to be the most critical issue for becoming the valuable member of the society. This perception may lead to increase of car use instead of decreasing, for the same goal. Operational choice - At this stage, say user has decided and now he must change his mode of travel and reduce the car use. He will first look for the alternatives that will bring least changes to his schedules, i.e. maintaining the status quo, and then looking for the cheapest alternative. A further step would be to combine and reschedule the activities so that they are performed at the same time or in sequence. If an activity schedule cannot be maintained, then eliminating or substituting the activity also becomes a option. Though not all activities are possible to be eliminated, this practice can be used mostly for leisure activities like shopping, entertainment etc. Situational factors TDM measures are assumed to mainly affect travel choice by influencing trip chain attributes and goals, whereas situational factors influences travel choice through disturbances. These disturbances should be sufficiently important to create deviations from desired goal. The environment consists of myriad of disturbances that effects the decision of user in unpredictable way. For example, a man has to go to work. In normal condition he may walk or cycle. Suddenly it begins to rain. This disturbance may lead to deviation of choice away from goals. User may choose to stay at home or drive rather than walking or cycling. But for this decision to be made, this disturbance must be perceived strong enough by the user. Disturbances need not only to be environmental. It may be as an unexpected meeting, behavioral preferences or may be just the convenience factor that leads to change in decision.
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Planning prior to setting of goal is considered important component of goal implementation. While setting the goal, people may ignore the obstacles or may fail to realize the level of commitment required to attain the goal. Hence if users plan in advance, the detailed action required for implementation, they are more likely to attain the goal as desired. Planning has also a positive effect on car use reduction. Public information about TDM measures is likely to be more effective if it provides lucrative information i.e. beneficial measures and alternative transport, rather than deterrent or push measures. Personal habits are also believed to be a deterrent for goal attainment. Researchers have found that intentions and attitudes are difficult to enact if interfered by habits. In this case it is not inability of user to look for alternative but its unwillingness. Hence types of measures required to form a habit may not be the same as breaking the habit. TDM policies comprising of push measures may be helpful and effective in breaking the habit but may not help in yielding new behavior. A pull measure has potential to attract the user to form a new habit. So it is advised to use both the push and pull measures to achieve significant change in travel behavior. A pull measure may help in forming new habits but not before push measures have been implemented successfully.
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most effective strategy. For combination of measures, both the strategies are equally expected to be chosen. Thirdly, it is desirable to find the factors that are important for car use reduction in response to TDM measures. These factors are mostly behavioral factors. These are internal motivation, background factors, personal norms etc. Internal motivation factor are found to be more important than background factor. We have already discussed these behavioral impacts on users in the last chapter. The study was done in two parts in order to separately measure the internal motivation and background factors in one hand and evaluation of TDM measures on other hand. First a pre-questionnaire was given to identify car users with similar characteristics to assess their internal motivation and background factors. They were asked if they are willing to respond to a second questionnaire regarding TDM measures. Those who agreed to respond were randomly given three separate questionnaires regarding three scenarios of TDM management. One group evaluated the case where public transport was improved by reduced rates and increased service frequency. Second group evaluated the measure where fuel prices were raised to create deterrence of car use. And third group evaluated the scenario where combinations of these measures were implemented. In each of the questionnaire, the policy package was described in detail and possible monetary, time, convenience and environmental benefits of respective measures were stated. Before analyzing the expected car use reduction, it was analyzed whether three groups are similar in their internal motivation and background factors, so that there is no significant difference between groups. As the first aim was to analyze the extent to which car use is reduced in response to the TDM measures, it is found in the study that combination of push-pull measures led to significant reduction in car use in comparison to improved public transport for weekly car use. In this case no significant difference is found between raised tax and combined measure. For annual car use, it was found that combined measure reduces car use to a greater extent than increased tax. Hence the combined measure displayed the reduction of car use to a greater extent than individual measures. For long term, no significant differences in reduction of car use for individual measures were found. The second aim was to examine the strategies to reduce the car use in response to TDM measures. From users response it was found that, group evaluating improved public transport would reduce their car use by switching to public transport only, especially for shorter distances. But as the distance of travel became larger, the affinity to reduce car uses decreased, showing preference to travel by car for longer travel
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distances. For the group evaluating raised tax, walking or cycling emerged as the most preferred strategy for shorter travel distances. For moderate distances some preferred public transport. One in every five respondent still preferred to use car for travelling. In response to the combined measure, users preferred both, cycling/walking and public transport equally for shorter travel distances. For larger travel distances, they preferred public transport. Respondents planned to reduce 80% of car trips, if measures were implemented. The third aim was to identify the crucial background factors important for the car use reduction in response to the TDM measures. The results of the analysis done on background factors showed that only number of cars in the household were significant predictor for expected reduction in car use for improved public transport and combined measure. It showed that more number of cars in household leads to lesser reduction in car use. When internal motivation was analyzed, numbers of cars were significant predictors for improved public transport only. Personal norm to reduce car use for improved public transport and combined measure and intention to reduce car use for raised tax emerged as a other significant predictors.
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Conclusion
The various TDM measures are certainly effective in dealing with congestion and can be very effective in mitigating environmental problems cause by road transport. However, it is important to understand that success and effectiveness of these measures, upto a large extent, depends on users perspective. i.e. how users see these measures, how these measure impact them, and how users respond to these measures. Since, to improve the public transport, expansion and new construction might not be the viable option for government in most of the metro cities for the land, monetary and environmental constraints, TDM may be an effective measure to improve the situation. As these measures and its effectiveness rely largely on user response, it is imperative from transportation planners point of view to analyze and understand the potential impact of measures on user and users response to the measures, before implementing them. From this study it has been found that instead of implementing any single TDM measure, it is always beneficial to implement a combination of push pull measures. Both the analyses, i.e. analyses of behavior of user in response to the measures and analyses of user response for expected car use reduction, put forward similar outcomes, stating combined push-pull measures to be more effective than individual measures.
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References
Garling T, Eek D, Loukopoulos p, Fujii S, Stenman O J, Kitamura R, Pendyala R, Vilhelmson B, 2002, A conceptual analyses of the impact of travel demand management on private car use, Transport policy 9, 59-70. Eriksson L, Nordlund A M, Garvill J, 2010, Expected car use reduction in response to travel demand management measures, Transportation research F 13, 329-342 Loukopoulos P, Jacobson C, Garling T, Schneider C M, Fuji S, 2003, Car user responses to travel demand management measures: Goal intentions and choice of adaptive alternatives, International Conference on travel behavior and research, Lucerne. Victoria transport policy institute, [Internet, www], Address : http://www.vtpi.org/tdm/ [Accessed on 29 mach 2012] NSW Government, Transport: roads and maritime services, [Internet, www], Address: http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/usingroads/traveldemandmanagement/index.html, [Accessed on 29 march 2012] Auckland transport, [Internet, www], Address: http://www.arc.govt.nz/albany/fms/main/Documents/Transport/RLTS/Chapter%20 8.pdf , [Accessed on 24 march 2012]
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