Assessment of personal travel adaptive capacity using a participatory survey approach

Abstract

Fuel supply issues have the potential to cause significant travel behaviour change as pressure on oil production spare capacity increases into the future. Transportation planners need information on the transport options available to people and their ability to change to reduce fuel demand. This paper investigates a new transport parameter, travel adaptive capacity, the capability to reduce fuel demand without reducing participation in activities. An online survey, the Travel Adaptive Capacity Assessment (TACA), was used to capture travel activities in a normal week. The interactive survey asks for selection of up to three possible alternatives for each trip including modes, destinations and doing the activity without travel. We propose that these alternatives an be used to calculate travel adaptive capacity (TAC). The survey was conducted in the city of Christchurch and the small rural town of Oamaru, New Zealand. The survey results show a surprisingly high adaptive capacity for a cohort with normally very high level of personal automobile use. We report statistical relationships between adaptive capacity and transport, demographic and geographic factors.