Travel Behaviour Research and Evaluation
Building on 30 years' experience, TravelSmart's partner Socialdata has developed a unique and respected approach to travel behaviour research.
The Socialdata travel survey methodology has been used widely in the evaluation of Individualised Travel Marketing (ITM) projects in Europe, Australia and North America.
This methodology uses a self-administered, mail-back questionnaire and travel diary, coupled with motivation by post and telephone to encourage households to respond. The design of the survey and the response rates - typically between 60 and 80% - help ensure data validity.
Key features include:
- Survey samples drawn at random from across the ITM target population, including representative proportions of households in the ‘Interested', ‘Not Interested' and ‘Regular User' groups
- Further adjustment of results to take account of the proportion of households not responding to ITM, ensuring that the reported results are representative of the entire target population
- Use of a separate control group not affected by ITM to account for any background effects.
In addition to its role in the evaluation of ITM programmes, this travel behaviour research provides local authorities with valuable local data to feed into transport planning.
There are a number of independent studies supporting the TravelSmart approach. The Department for Transport's influential 'Smarter Choices' report of 2005 provides powerful evidence of the cost-effectiveness of TravelSmart compared with a variety of other travel behaviour change measures.
In 2007 the Department for Transport reviewed all UK ITM evaluations since 2005. Of the 12 projects reporting quantified effects on car use, 11 used the TravelSmart approach.