Lessons learned from a personalized travel planning (PTP) research program to reduce car dependence

Abstract

Voluntary travel behavior change programs have been implemented worldwide since the late 1990s at a personal and community level. Most of the now completed programs were commissioned by local authorities to commercial firms, in an attempt to reduce private car use. In this context, the evaluation and review of the reliability of these policy measures have been at the core of most of the debates and studies in this field. In this paper, we describe the lessons learned from a research program funded by the Sardinian Government (Italy), aimed at testing a soft transport policy measure for reducing car dependence. In particular, the work reviews in detail the methodological approach and participants’ feedback on a personalized travel plan (PTP). After implementation of the soft measure, the PTP participants were divided into two groups depending on whether they had reduced car use or not, and separate analyses were conducted to highlight the factors underlying different behavior change decisions. General conclusions regarding the effectiveness of the PTP are beyond the scope of the present study.