Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE)
ITE Western District (Western United States)
San Francisco Bay Area Section
2006 Transportation Project of the Year Award
TRAVEL CHOICE ALAMEDA
TravelChoice is an innovative program to reduce driving and congestion while promoting healthy physical activity, was launched in the city of Alameda beginning April 3, 2006. The program was sponsored by the Alameda County Congestion Management Agency, AC Transit, BART, and the Alameda County Public health Department and coordinated by the Transportation and Land Use Coalition. The program was funded through the sponsoring agencies, the Air District's Transportation Fund for Clean Air, and the City of Alameda. TravelChoice connects interested residents with information and incentives to add more walking, bicycle riding, public transit, and carpooling into their daily routines. Outreach was conducted by phone and door-to-door over a period of 8 weeks. The program reached more than 4,800 households, including one-on-one discussions with 3,100 of those households. TravelChoice is unique among transportation behavior change programs. TravelChoice targets all trips made within a household rather than isolating a singe trip type (such as commute or school trips).
This allows participating households to self-select the particular trips they are interested in changing. TravelChoice also succeeds because it encourages the use of all environmentally friendly transportation modes rather than one particular mode. Participating households indicate their interest and personally guide the process to receive the information that interests them. Participants receive only the information that they have requested. Finally, TravelChoice overcomes the hurdles that many mass-marketing campaigns encounter due to the need for people to seek out further information to start using a new travel mode. TravelChoice does this by tailoring the information presented to households and offering individualized bus schedules, local bike classes, and specially created local maps. Personalized trip plans were also created for people who requested them. By offering information that is easily understood and speaks directly to the needs of the household, TravelChoice increases the likelihood of a change in behavior occurring.
The results of post-project travel surveys, conducted by Nelson|Nygaard one month after the outreach was completed, surpassed initial projections when compared with the pre-project travel surveys (also conducted by Nelson|Nygaard). Drive-alone trips were reduced more than 14% (found to be statistically valid) due to an increase of more than 13% in the use of non-congesting, environmentally friendly modes (transit, biking, walking, carpooling, etc.). These results were within the upper range of similar projects conducted in Australia, Europe, and the U.S. Based on longer-term studies in these project areas, it is expected that this attitude and behavior change will remain relatively constant for 3 years.
Congratulations to Travel Choice Alameda!
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