Influencing Travel Behaviour - Think Piece

The Transport Planning Society (TPS) has launched a new paper calling for a fundamental shift in how transport planning is approached across the UK. In ‘From understanding to influencing travel behaviour – if not now, then when?’, TPS argues that embedding behaviour change thinking in all aspects of the profession must no longer be a specialist consideration, but central to all that the profession does. Policies, plans and interventions that are not delivered in a way that resonates with their intended audience will only ever go so far in influencing travel behaviours.

Among the paper’s recommendations are:

• Embedding behaviour change thinking into all transport planning education and qualifications, including the Transport Planning Professional (TPP) accreditation and master’s degrees.
• Ensuring that behaviour change ‘activation’ is built into every infrastructure project, not just those explicitly branded as sustainable travel schemes.
• Fostering greater collaboration between transport planners and other disciplines, such as behavioural science and marketing, to design more effectively.

To read the paper in full, please see below. 

• Ensure TPS is influential and proactive in seeking improvements in policy and practice, and in setting the transport agenda at a national, regional and local level.
• Be proactive in the creation of an open, diverse and inclusive transport planning community.
• Provide the widest possible forum to engage on relevant and topical transport planning issues.
• Improve the public understanding and the image of transport planning and transport planners, and promoting transport planning as a profession.