Voluntary Travel Behavior Change Programs

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Voluntary Travel Behavior Change Programs

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Voluntary travel behavior change programs encourage people to use alternatives to driving alone in a car through education, encouragement, and reinforcement. Unlike employer-based trip reduction programs, these programs are focused at the household level. These include personalized travel planning, travel awareness campaigns, and public transit marketing programs.

Proven Outcomes

Reduced Vehicle Use

Reduced VMT

Reduced GHG

Voluntary travel behavior change programs reduce vehicle use (Bamberg & Rees, 2017), vehicle miles traveled (VMT), and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Two factors may be involved in overstating the benefits from voluntary travel behavior change programs. First is self-selection, where participants already considering behavior changes may choose to enroll in these programs, making it difficult to determine whether results can be generalized to the full population. Secondly, neighborhoods with infrastructure that supports active transportation are often selected for these programs, again limiting generalizability to other types of neighborhoods (Spears et al., n.d.).

These research caveats speak to the issues of generalizability and effect size. For practice, they can be interpreted as guidance for where these programs might be most successful. Cairns et al. (2004) found these programs are best suited where community views traffic as a problem, there is wide availability of transit, there is support from local and transit, walk and bike infrastructure exists, and local destinations are nearby. Travel behavior change may be more effective when participants are making a life change, such as taking a new job, changes in their family membership, or moving. Additional guidance can be found from Davies, (2012, paywall).

Likely Outcomes

Reduced Air Pollution

Improved Health

Reduced Congestion

Improved Community Interaction

Increased Walking

Increased Business Viability

Increased Bicycling

Increased Transit Use

Postulated co-benefits include reduced emissions and traffic congestion, increased transit use, potential health benefits from increased walking and cycling, improved community interaction and increased viability of local business (Spears et al., 2013).