Travel behaviour...

Before I get into the post, I wanted to wish Chris a happy birthday.

The pie chart to the left is a percentage breakdown of greenhouse gas emissions per sector.

I am doing a lot of reading these days about the relationship between travel behaviour and transportation choices. For example, why do people decide to drive their own vehicles (with only themselves in the vehicle) when they are surrounded by public transit choices, bike paths and carpooling options? There are some obvious reasons for this, but travel behaviour can be a lot more complex than this. Understanding travel behaviour has been a focal point of transportation research. More important, it has been crucial for understanding how we can minimize transportation's impact on climate change.

I was reading a study that looked at the factors influencing the future travel behaviour intentions of young people between 11 and 18 and how climate change considerations affect these. The sample was a group of youth in the U.K. Photography was shown by the researchers to the youth to compare photos between things like traffic congestion, motorists who looked happy while driving and pictures of the natural environment. These photos were used as a trigger for discussion about the environmental impacts of transport.

Results show how these young participants are enthusiastic to drive if provided the opportunity because of the speed, cost-savings, convenience, flexibility and freedom. The youth mentioned how walking and cycling is good for health, but it is an inconvenience. Using a car saves their "personal energy", they think that exercising should be separate from traveling. The sample group identified the importance of the environment and climate change, but said that it would still not deter them from their willingness to drive. Indeed, this was identified as the social dilemma where their own efforts to tackle climate change may be rendered worthless by the inaction of others.

What does this mean for policy? Policymakers need to promote cycling as a signal of success and promoting it as "cool" instead of just the obvious environmental and health benefits. Researchers suggest that society must empower young people in relation to their knowledge of climate change and how to tackle this issue as well as their ability to communicate this knowledge effectively to others.

The authors state that there would be merit in gathering more youth together and providing them with different transport choices, seeing what their choices are and their reasoning. Or, introducing “covered” cycle paths and walkways to protect people from the weather. Researchers suggest that these recommendations might help with changing youth’s perceptions regarding driving and climate change. Also, if there were regulations to enforce travel behaviour change towards more environmentally friendly options, then it could help remove the social dilemma identified by the youth.

As mentioned, climate change has become an overarching issue in the transportation research agenda. By developing a better understanding of travel behaviour, particularly for youth, policymakers will be able to implement measurements that promote a more environmentally friendly transportation system while concomitantly addressing the critical issue of climate change.

Key message: We need to understand how our youth perceive (if they even do) the issue of climate change as it relates to things like driving their family car. When I got my license at 16, I was completely excited to drive whenever and where ever I could. I never thought about the environment. Mind you, climate change has become more of a hot topic since, but we still need to communicate and educate our youth about the significant relationship between driving and its impacts on the planet.