Search

Prospects for mitigating climate change require decarbonisation of the energy sector over relatively short time periods, coupled with significant changes to the way we consume energy. This is particularly true in the transport sector given the current levels of transport-related greenhouse gas emissions, the heavy dependence on fossil fuels, and the uncertainty surrounding transition pathways to ultra-low carbon vehicles. There are policy responses aiming to reduce carbon emissions by changing travel behaviour, but prominent approaches share a common theme of seeking to change behaviour by focusing on the individual and their choices. These are the object of critics who maintain that effective change requires collective action at the social, economic and cultural levels. This paper questions whether decision-makers are relying on these choice-based approaches to change travel behaviour and, if so, how effective they expect them to be. We address this through analysis of over 50 interviews with policy stakeholders in England and Scotland. We find dominant policy approaches do focus on individual choices, but significantly it is not because decision-makers have faith in their effectiveness. These approaches persist in policy on carbon reduction for two reasons. One is appeal to a politically powerful, but incoherent, discourse of individualism. The second is that decision-makers do not want significant behavioural change. There is an imperative of economic growth and a firm belief that a strong economy is linked to higher traffic levels, and that to reduce the demand for travel is to risk economic damage. We argue that these beliefs about the relation between travel demand and prosperity are narrowly defined and contestable for empirical and normative reasons. If there is to be a significant change in the approach to intervening in travel demand there is an urgency to engage in the politics of behaviour change - a meta-level behaviour change challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Travel behaviour is far more variable than policy makers allow for. [•] Factors external and internal to the transport system engender change in behaviour. [•] Accepting rather than problematising change could unlock more radical policies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper presents results from a longitudinal study of the travel behaviour change associated with the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games (the ‘Games’). The research examines commuter travel behaviour through a panel approach enabling an understanding of individual behaviour across three waves (before, during and after), with the study utilising unique access to a Transport for London panel study (n = 1132). The findings indicate that a substantial amount of change occurred during the Games (54% made at least one change), with reducing or re-timing journeys being the most likely adaptations made. A key objective of this work was to advance the discussion about the theoretical constructs that are most applicable in the study of behaviour change associated with disruptive events, which was done through the application and critical evaluation of the Transtheoretical Model. The insights from the stages of change element of the model were relatively limited but the analysis shows significant differences in the underlying factors explaining change according to the type of change made (reduce, re-time, re-mode and re-route). Whilst the long-term behavioural impacts of events like the Games appear small, the study has uncovered a need to consider these behavioural choices as distinct rather than under the collective term of “travel behaviour change”, as is current practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]