Reducing Residential Transportation Emissions

Hello Amanda,

Reduce the Juice has run a couple of these programs in Waterloo in partnership with the Region of Waterloo Public Health and the Transportation Planning department. I can give you more information if you like. Just email me off-list.

Cheers,
Theresa

Theresa Sauren
Reduce the Juice
Canada

Amanda,
I spend my life working on transport behaviour change initiatives to increase walking / cycling / mass transit and to reduce car use in the UK. This is a major part of UK urban transport policy and there has been a hefty amount of case studies and evaluation research. Recently, three "sustainable travel demonstration towns" demonstrated a 9% reduction in car use over a 5 year "smarter choices" campaign. An earlier report to British Government (Dec 2004) "Changing the Way We Travel" (http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/sustainable/smarterchoices/ctwwt/) sought to assess the scale of impact of employer travel plans, marketing campaigns, personal travel planning etc. and there's been quite a lot of resarch evidence compiled since. Happy to point anyone in the direction of Uk research and practice if you want to contact off-line.

Martin Higgitt
Associate Director
JMP Consultants Ltd.
United Kingdom
www.jmp.co.uk

Hello Amanda
Wheel 2 Work Whitehorse was a program we ran for 2 years in Whitehorse (2006/07). I would be happy to provide you with the materials and results of that program.

Sabine Schweiger
City of Whitehorse
Canada

Hi Amanda,

The Canadian Partnership for Active & Safe Routes to School (ASRTS) is made up of several provinces that promote active and sustainable transportation - lots of best and promising practices to be found among the various programs offered by the organizations making up the ASRTS Partnership: http://www.saferoutestoschool.ca/partnership/

-Janet

Janet Barlow
Active & Safe Routes to School Coordinator
Ecology Action Centre
Canada

Hi Amanda,

The City of Calgary opened a new bike cage for City employees in June of 2008. Although it was not initiated as a marketing program per say, the project did encourage more cycling to work and reduced associated carbon emissions.
In 2008, The City needed to replace an existing bike cage as it was located in a parking structure that was at the end of its usable life and was scheduled to be demolished.
This former bike facility was located across the street from the Municipal complex and managed by an offsite third party. To gain access to the cage employees had to apply in person at an office 8 blocks away. A deposit was required for the access key fob along with a nominal fee of $60.00 per season. The chain link structure did not provide a high level of security and was vandalized and broken into on a few occasions resulting in property losses.

The new bike cage located onsite in front of the Municipal Complex opened on June 6, 2008. It was configured to hold 120 bikes and includes space for bikes with attached child carriers, recumbent cycles and jogging strollers. The new steel structure is more secure and has increased lighting, surveillance cameras and is situated in an area subject to higher pedestrian traffic.

Access to the new cage was made available to all City employees at no cost through the use of the employees security access card. This has made it possible for occasional use by employees who make the decision to bike in at the last moment. The new cage is outfitted with lock bars to accommodate lock storage for cyclists who prefer to leave their locks in the cage overnight. It also contains a bike stand and tools for basic repairs. Supplies such as tire tubes and lubricants are also available at the Building Operations Control Centre.

Within two weeks of the bike cage opening there were 80 employees using the cage, a significant improvement over the 30 or so who used the previous facility. The improved accessibility, function and security augmented with support and skills training have maintained a high level of use. The highly visible facility is readily associated with the desirable behaviour and provides an impetus to behaviour change as well as a showcase for other employers.


ron schafer

Hi Amanda,

The City of Edmonton last year did an intense month long community based TDM project in the neighbourhood of Parkallen, which involved a number of social marketing activities and included working with the local community league and the neighbourhood school. We had funding support from the Transport Canada Eco-Mobility Grant and were able to do quite a bit of pre and post measures ranging from traffic counts to community surveys. By all accounts the program was quite successful, and we are now looking at how we can sustain it. Information on the program can be found on our website at: http://www.edmonton.ca/environmental/programs/local-motion-eco-friendly-transportation.aspx

Ian Hosler
Program Coordinator
Walkable Edmonton
Canada
www.edmonton.ca/walkableedmonton

Hi Amanda,

I'm currently researching in the psychological factors leading to people's decisions in commuting with bicycles. The result may lead to a huge change in the ways to promote cycling. However, we are not going to have the result in less than 2 months.

Just let me know if we are still able to help.

TC Woo
U of Canterbury
New Zealand

Ron,

I would like to find out more about how this was initiated in Calgary. Was it difficult to get buy-in?

Thanks.

Gord

Gord Androsoff
Executive Director
Road Map Saskatoon
Canada

Gord,
Call me to discuss.

Thanks

Ron Schafer
Transportation Demand Management Specialist
Transportation Planning
The City of Calgary

T 403.268.1629 | F 403.268.1874 | www.calgary.ca
 

I would like to say thank you to everyone who posted a response to this question. I will still be in the process of researching programs for the next month, so if anyone has anything else to add to the thread, it would still be appreciated!

Amanda Kilburn
Canada

Amanda, I have been collecting examples like this. The most effective ways to encourage transit use are those that avoid simultaneously making it easier to drive:

http://capntransit.blogspot.com/2009/09/sticks-carrots-and-sugarlumps.html

People also seem to be much more inclined to fund public transit if they see the transit system as "our" transit system, run by "us" for "us." If they think of it as run by "them" or for "them," they tend to support funding cuts and oppose funding increases.

Cap'n Transit
United States
http://capntransit.blogspot.com/

Rickshaws vans aka work trikes with weatherproof lockable cargo bays resting on the chassis replace gas-guzzling vans here in NYC as well as in Boston and Portland, OR, to name a few cities of which I'm aware. Our manufacturer, Cycles Maximus, also produces pick-up trikes that take the place of pick-up trucks.

It's critical if we want to move away from fuel-based transport platforms to maximize the possible with regard to our own power. The fact that rickshaws, which are so prevalent in Asia and promote self-sufficient utility, health, and hard work, are routinely ignored in the overdeveloped world is unfortunate, at best, and is one that can be addressed in this upcoming book, if it pleases you.

revrickshaws.com



Gregg Zukowski
Managing Director
Revolution Rickshaws LLC
United States
revrickshaws.com

Hi Amanda

Final Report:

http://www.transport.sa.gov.au/pdfs/environment/travelsmart_sa/Households_in_the_West_Final_Report.pdf

The TravelSMART Households in the West Project achieved
- an 18% reduction in car use (measured by vehicle kilometres travelled - VKT), evaluated independently using statistically robust techniques

- 22,103 households saved 28,000 tonnes of greenhouse emissions

- reversed a trend, as non participants increased their driving by 6%

- an independent Long Term Monitoring Project has found that this behaviour change has been sustained by participants, long after the intervention was completed

- reported a benefit cost analysis ratio of at least 6.9:1

- VKT reduction was achieved via a) substituting the car with another mode (eg. public transport), b) using the car smarter and more efficiently (eg. trip chaining), c) reducing the distances travelled by car (eg. doing things locally), and d) eliminating the need for a journey (eg. online bill paying, teleconferencing).

Happy to provide further detail.

Regards

Samara

Samara Farrell
Project Officer
Australia