Masters Thesis Abstract: Geoffrey McGregor
Travel choices - towards an understanding of household travel behaviour in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Over recent decades a number of factors such as increased car ownership have meant that many cities’ transport infrastructures have come under a significant amount of pressure. The behavioural aspects of travel have, hence become an important aspect in not only the planning of new services and infrastructure to cope with this increase, but also in the development of policies and initiatives which promote both efficient trip planning as well as alternative modes to the private motor vehicle. For transport planners and policy makers, this has meant that, how people travel, why people travel, and where people travel, have become very important factors of analysis in addressing the adverse economic, social and environmental effects of transport.
The aim of this project is to identify the three aforementioned points and also to establish what types of travel behaviour change initiatives are people likely to respond to in a positive fashion. Recently Environment Canterbury has undertaken a Go Smarter community project in the suburb of Papanui. Surveyors approached households in the study area to recruit participants for the pilot project. Each participant in the household was asked to complete a travel diary. The diaries were then collected and used to analyse household travel patterns. The analysis was then used to customise suggested options for changes that households/individuals could make to save time and money on their travel. A second diary was then completed to assess changes made.
The travel diary data obtained by Environment Canterbury will be subject to an initial analysis using the Microsoft Access software package. This initial investigation will be looking at general overall patterns and themes within the entire study. For example, looking at which types of households take which types of trips. The second process will involve selecting approximately 20 households of which 10 will have shown a significant change in behaviour and 10 will have shown little or no change. These households will be subject to in depth loosely structured interviews so as to establish more comprehensive understanding of people’s travel behaviour within the context of their daily activities and to also allow for a rationalisation of the quantitative diary data gathered previously.