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https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/27432/critical-issues-in-transportation-for-2024-and-beyond

Community2Go! - Pilot of a Community-Based Voluntary Travel Behavior Change Effort

Traffic congestion and the associated environmental impacts continue to adversely affect Floridians. According to the Texas Transportation Institute's annual Urban Mobility Reports, Florida's population increased 15% in the seven largest urban areas over the past decade (2002-2011). However, peak period travelers increased even more (21%) and the annual cost of congestion in these areas increased by 38%. This cost was incurred despite a growth rate in freeway miles and arterial lane miles that exceeded population growth rate. These urban areas had a total of 26% increase of freeway lane miles and 16% increase in arterial street lane miles. Demand for freeway daily vehicle miles of travel in these same urban areas increased by 25%. This growth in demand wasn't limited to highways. Florida public transportation systems in those urban areas saw their annual passenger miles and passenger trips increase 40% and 32%, respectively. There has been some progress as the overall annual hours of delay increased only 7% overall but the average is misleading. Some Florida urban areas experienced much larger increases in delay. For example, Tampa Bay increased delay by 23% while Miami saw only a 4% increase. All this growth in demand has severe environmental consequences, too. In these seven urban areas, the excess emissions of CO₂ would fill over 150,000 Goodyear blimps. The amount of annual excess fuel consumed in 2011 alone from these areas would fill nearly 260 Olympic-sized swimming pools. This pace is not sustainable. The Florida Commuter Assistance Program (CAP) evaluation found the current process has room for improvement. Overall, when the CAPs provided customers with a list of potential carpool partners only 37% of customers actually attempted to contact the potential match. However, when they did reach out, 45% of those customers (8 percent of the total) actually formed a pool. Clearly, getting more people to take action should increase the effectiveness of the effort. Combined with the introduction of new services like carsharing and bikesharing and new travel incentives such as managed lanes, CAPs are being presented with more opportunities to influence commuter travel behavior and reduce congestion and pollution. Simply, passively distributing information has not changed behavior of the majority of CAP customers. Florida needs different approaches that complement its commitments to public transportation and introduction of managed lanes to help manage demand. The following proposal outlines a method for combining community-based social marketing (CBSM) approach with technology-enabled tools to facilitate follow-through and evaluation. This project will reduce household vehicle miles of travel and vehicle trips in the peak periods by applying the following strategies at the household level: (1) Reducing the share of car driving, especially single occupant vehicle travel; (2) Increasing the frequency and duration of carpooling; (3) Shifting car driving to off-peak periods; (4) Increasing the frequency and distance of walking trips; (5) Increasing bicycle use; (6) Increasing use of transit; (7) Increasing vehicle occupancy; (8) Increasing the use of technology as substitute for travel; and (9) Increasing frequency of trip chaining.

Language

  • English

Project

  • Status: Completed
  • Funding: $211886.00
  • Contract Numbers:

    DTRT12-G-UTC22

    77974-00

  • Sponsor Organizations:

    Research and Innovative Technology Administration

    University Transportation Centers Program
    1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
    Washington, DC  United States  20590

    National Center for Transit Research

    Center for Urban Transportation Research, University of South Florida
    4202 East Fowler Avenue, CUT 100
    Tampa, FL  United States  33620
  • Project Managers:

    Wright, Michael

  • Performing Organizations:

    National Center for Transit Research

    Center for Urban Transportation Research, University of South Florida
    4202 East Fowler Avenue, CUT 100
    Tampa, FL  United States  33620
  • Principal Investigators:

    Winters, Philip

  • Start Date: 20141024
  • Expected Completion Date: 20180331
  • Actual Completion Date: 20180331
  • Source Data: RiP Project 39128

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01556881
  • Record Type: Research project
  • Source Agency: National Center for Transit Research
  • Contract Numbers: DTRT12-G-UTC22, 77974-00
  • Files: UTC, RIP
  • Created Date: Mar 13 2015 1:00AM