Evaluation of south-Australia's TravelSmart project: Changes in community's attitudes to travel

Abstract

The research this paper presents is from the TravelSmart Households in the West project (THITW), which was implemented in Western Adelaide, South Australia by the South Australian Department of Transport, Energy and Infrastructure (SA DTEI). The primary aim of this project was to reduce transport-related greenhouse gas emissions through travel behaviour changes. In this paper, we present a study where before and after surveys were conducted to evaluate to what extent this project impacted the community's attitudes with respect to travel behaviour change, that is, not to evaluate their behaviour change, but to see if the THITW Project impacted their attitudes about use of car and alternatives to the car. The results show that in the before survey, inadequate public transport did not get mentioned as one of the most cited disadvantages of reducing car use while in the after survey, public transport has come into the minds of both THITW participants and non-participants. Moreover, an analysis of attitudinal statement scales shows that, compared to the 2005 survey, the THITW Project has contributed to some degree of attitude change. Particularly, evidence was found that THITW participants have significantly increased their willingness to reduce car use. We conclude that evidence exists that the THITW project has had the desired effect of changing participants' attitudes towards reducing car use.