Policy

The Missing Key to Reducing Car Dependency?

Most solutions to reduce car dependency focus on improving accessibility by redesigning built environments, expanding public transit and active travel infrastructure, enhancing the sustainable transport level of service, and offering shared mobility alternatives. However, there is a growing consensus that this will not be sufficient to end car dependency and other 'demand-side' approaches will also be required. This chapter looked at behaviour change strategies to achieve mode shift in Quebec, Canada.

Key Takeaways

• Personalised Behaviour Change (PBC) strategies should be systematically included in transport policy.
• These strategies, based on the models of behaviour change, provide a marketing program that directly targets individuals either at work, at school or in their neighbourhood to offer them information, assistance, motivation and incentive to support them in voluntarily altering their travel choices.
• Such approaches have demonstrated their effectiveness around the world, but remain underutilised.
• Focuses on three reasons people use a car: habits, the normalisation of car culture (it's what normal people do), and the affective and symbolic associations to cars, such as social status and identity.
• PBC strategies can deliver a 5-10% modal share reduction of car use at orders of magnitude cheaper than infrastructure interventions.
• Four conditions for success:

1. Adapt Each Intervention to the Mobility Context of the Targeted Area
2. Combine Hard and Soft Interventions for Maximum Effectiveness
3. Leveraging changes in an individual's context, such as starting a new job, to change their habits.
4. Personalise Interventions to target the right people with the right approaches.

Comment

A PBC program has the potential to be a highly cost-effective way of achieving mode change with multiple benefits. For example, in Chile, an app providing travel information led to a 10% mode shift. See here.

However, transport agencies tend to be dominated by people who build and operate transport systems. I have seen successful project-level travel change programs fail to gain traction across an agency because of these cultural mindsets. Therefore, systematically implementing this type of program will require sustained senior-level support to change the agency's mindset.

What next?

Do you have a comprehensive strategy for the 'demand' side of behaviour change to encourage mode shift? Could you pilot a PBC strategy?

Walking and Cycling

Policies for Promoting Walking and Cycling

It is well known that the benefits of promoting more walking and cycling extend well beyond transport policy, encompassing health, the environment, and the economy, among other key areas. Therefore, it is no surprise to see the World Health Organisation publishing this toolkit for policy options to promote walking and cycling.

Key Takeaways

• The report identified seven policy action areas:

• The toolkit identifies several key enablers of successful implementation, including:

1. Strong governance and intersectoral coordination;
2. Community engagement and co-design;
3. Capacity building and skills development;
4. Effective advocacy and communications;
5. Robust legislation and regulatory frameworks;
6. Sustainable funding and financing mechanisms.

• Provides guidance for data collection, target setting, and tracking progress.
• Contains case studies from around the world.

Comment

The toolkit does an excellent job of making the case for promoting walking and cycling, as well as advocating for policies that can improve the situation. However, the list of policies is long, and there is no indication of which ones are most effective, their relative costs, or the difficulty of implementing them. As a consequence, there is no guidance on which policies to prioritise for taking forward.

The other gap is around funding. Although the toolkit sets out some potential sources of funding, the most important one is to take money away from roads to put into walking and cycling and on how to do this, it is very quiet.

What next?

Are there policies set out in the document that you can identify as a priority to take forward in your jurisdiction?

Leadership

10 traits of high-impact transport leaders

Being a leader in transport is no easy task. The systems are complex, the challenges are constant, and the stakes are high. To succeed, you need a broad and strategic leadership toolkit.

Here are 10 traits that set high-impact transport leaders apart:

1. Resilience​
Things will go wrong, project delays, equipment failures, and major incidents. Great leaders remain steady under pressure and continue leading even when it feels like everything is falling apart.

2. Vision​
Transport systems face enormous challenges, including congestion, decarbonisation, and technological disruption. Effective leaders know where they’re heading and how to bring others with them.

3. Momentum​
Having a vision isn’t enough. You need to build momentum behind it and maintain progress, even when conditions are tough. That means steering the ship and staying on course, no matter the storms.

4. Negotiation​
Transport is a contested space, with unions, different levels of government, private operators, and the public all having a stake. Strong leaders know how to negotiate competing priorities to deliver outcomes.

5. Inspiring​
Transport leadership is people leadership. The ability to inspire your team and stakeholders to give their best is often what separates routine performance from transformative change.

6. Transport Knowledge​
While leaders don’t need deep technical expertise in every area, they do require a strategic understanding of how all the components (planning, operations, policy, engineering, etc.) fit together to create a functioning system.

7. Decision-Making​
Difficult trade-offs are part of the job, whether it’s choosing which projects to fund or where to cut back. Leaders must be willing and able to make tough decisions and own the consequences.

8. Commitment to Excellence​
The best leaders raise the bar. They create a culture of continuous improvement and never settle for mediocrity, in themselves or in their organisations.

9. Team Building​
Transport challenges are too complex to solve alone. High-impact leaders focus on building teams that are greater than the sum of their parts.

10. Strategic Focus​
It’s easy to get lost in day-to-day fires or short-term wins. Great leaders maintain a clear line of sight across strategic, tactical and operational priorities and know when to zoom in or out.

What next?​
Which of these traits do you need to develop to become a more effective transport leader?

Quick Adventures in Transport Wonderland

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Interesting articles, podcasts and papers that sent me down the transport rabbit hole this week:

• ​Should noisy phone calls on public transport be made illegal? Etiquette on public transport is a crucial aspect of the customer experience, and noisy phone calls are a common concern for many passengers. But should they be made illegal? This article in the Law Society Journal doesn't think so and proposes alternative approaches.
• ​What lessons can we learn from the transformative changes in Brussels? Brussels has been creating a greener, more efficient, and accessible public transportation system. This podcast with Elke Van Den Brandt, the Minister for Mobility, Public Works and Road Safety, offers fascinating insights into the often controversial changes.
• ​Can light rail be built a lot cheaper? In the UK, it typically costs £100m+ per km to build light rail. However, Coventry built their system for just £15m per kilometre. This article describes how they did it.

Blog

Supporting Political Leaders to Become Bold Transport Reformers

This week, my blog was based on a seminar I presented at the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies at the University of Sydney. My premise was that we can do more to support transport political leaders so they can become the bold reformers of our transport system that we need.

Innovation

Tulip Cycle Wands

Looking for an innovation that recycles waste, improves cycle safety and makes a place more attractive? Tulip cycle wands might be the answer for you.

Tool

Mapping the x-minute city

What places can you access within a short walk?
Are parks just around the corner, but grocery stores out of reach?
And are the everyday essentials equitably accessible across your city?

This tool is designed to help answer these questions.