Project Abstract
Research Purpose:
(1) Establish Travel Demand Data (TDD) Sets for a large institution in a major urban area, and for a rural area. There is very little current TDD that transport planners and councils can use to guide long term planning, especially for rural travel behaviour.
(2) Set up an experiment to take advantage of the high certainty of petrol price rises over the next 18 months to track the adaptation behaviour of a cohort of people. There is currently anecdotal understanding of this behaviour, and there are statistical studies of large populations that indicate fuel demand is inelastic to price rise. This study aims to provide a behaviour model of distinct income cohorts who are travelling to the same destination.
Councils must plan for travel behaviour change in the future, and they must plan to help avoid transport poverty. Local, regional, and national governments are faced with the problem of deciding how to best invest in infrastructure, public transport, education, or develop policy to best meet transport needs of all segments of society. Low income people will act to manage transport costs, but they may have to balance transport with housing costs. Environmentally conscious people may act to reduce carbon emissions. High income people may act to increase convenience or performance even if it incurs higher cost. Some people may not change at all.
