Increasing use of local bus services
The evaluation of all TravelSmart programmes shows that Individualised Travel Marketing (ITM) generates significant growth in public transport use. Recent large-scale programmes have achieved relative increases in public transport trips per person per year ranging between 13 and 37% across their respective target populations. These results are derived in most cases from detailed travel behaviour surveys conducted before and after the ITM campaign across the target population and a separate control group.
In projects of a sufficiently larger scale, the findings of the travel behaviour surveys may be supported by independent monitoring of bus patronage and other traffic counts within the project area. For example, following both large-scale TravelSmart programmes in Gloucester, the reported levels of modal shift were verified by passenger counts on local Stagecoach bus services, which showed double-figure percentage increases compared to other services in the city.
Furthermore there is growing evidence that TravelSmart can significantly increase the impact of new or improved public transport services, helping to maximise the return on public investment in large capital infrastructure projects. This was one of the outcomes of Bristol's first TravelSmart project, funded through the EU CIVITAS programme, which showed that ITM more than doubled the impact of a new Quality Bus Corridor on public transport trips.