Breaking the habit of a lifestyle
We require transport throughout our lives, but specific transport needs vary throughout the life course. We wanted to consider how the life course affects transport behaviour change initiatives so we can be sure we deliver the right messages to the right people at the right time.

Birth
It was suggested that to ensure sustainable transport habits are formed at the earliest point in the life course, expectant mothers through midwives and health professionals should be targeted. The message should be to promote walking or cycling as an excellent way to get back in shape after pregnancy. Most importantly it could be stressed that buying a car (especially a 4x4 for one small child), is not a necessity. Instead, cycling should be promoted as an option for transporting infants, perhaps by offering free trials of cycle trailers (noting need for local providers to be listed inc. tel numbers and websites).

At this point parents must be made aware that healthy lifestyle habits started at such a young age may well continue through childhood and into adolescence.

Childhood
As children grow old enough to travel to school alone there is an opportunity to teach them about public transport and cycle training at school (Bikeability).  While they are still very impressionable there is an opportunity for them to maintain healthy transport behaviour as they gain independence.

For older students parking amenities can be restricted at colleges and universities in order to discourage them from driving as soon as they are old enough (not offer a parking permit on enrolment!). Students could also be given free cycle training lessons and directions, and be advised about the positive impact that this would have on their finances. This could be particularly effective as many students relocate and are reconsidering how they travel.

Work
People also consider their travel options when they start a new job. Therefore timing is important when employers introduce incentives via workplace travel plans. The best time will be when the job offer is made instead of at induction when bad transport habits may have already been formed.

Messages to promote should be time saving as this can be the busiest stage of life especially when employees also have young families.  Walking to work can be a substitute for going to the gym, and taking the train to work provides extra time to prepare for meetings, read emails, or work on the train.

Moving Home
Moving home is a great opportunities to change travel behaviour because large lifestyle changes are being made in many areas. To reach movers, estate agents could give new home owners free travel advice when they make a sale and alert them to cycle routes and public transport systems they may not have discovered alone. More importantly estate agents can discuss transport with potential buyers so that they consider their options when choosing a house. Finding a house that is located walking distance from local amenities can reduce the amount of trips taken in a day or mode choice.

Retirement
The elderly also have specific transport requirements walking and cycling may become more difficult but should still be promoted as a useful way of retaining mobility and exercise. Full knowledge of transport options becomes important as the retired have more free time. Pensioners need to be more informed about free public transport schemes (which are often not well publicized due to financial costs), and should be notified through pre-retirement courses.
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Children: prisoners of transport
Children have very limited control over how they travel, their choices being dictated by the responsible adults around them. Their transport behaviour can not only affect their physical health, but also their social development. Lack of interaction with other children, poor understanding of their local environment and other road users and fear of crime were all mentioned as impacts of car dependency on future generations.
There were many suggestions of how these issues should be addressed:

Solutions: targeting parents
Parents are often unaware that by driving their children to school they are contributing to overcrowded road conditions. The benefits of walking and cycling ‘en masse’ should be promoted to parents so they can benefit from safer road environments around their schools.

Parents should also be made aware of the opportunity walking and cycling to school presents to spend time with your children. Schools could help enable parents to choose more sustainable ways of travelling by arranging parent and child cycle training, carpools or car sharing. To discourage driving car parking restrictions and 20mph zones should be introduced around schools.

Solutions: targeting children
Games or songs could be used to teach young children to become confident users of public transport systems in their later years.   As children grow older they are also strongly influenced by peer approval, so skateboarding and BMXing should be encouraged as forms of transportation as well as hobbies. Role models from influential music and films could go a long way to promoting sustainable forms of transport: Paris Hilton on a bike for example.
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Transport bugbears: your top gripes, personal or professional
We wanted to provide you with an opportunity to get things off your chest, and you certainly didn’t hold back!  Some common themes were clearly visible among your bugbears.

The Lack of integrated planning of land use and transport clearly irritates many of you, with a lack of local shops generally meaning that many have little choice but to drive to get supplies; a lack of planning for non-car use in new developments; and the opportunities provided by teleconferencing or working from home not readily taken into account.

Public transport prices, delays and quality of facilities, unsurprisingly got many a mention as discouraging people from using public transport, and working against much of our hard work in promoting use of public transport over the car. Specific problems cited with public transport included the ticket selling systems, pricing systems, a lack of safety measures, early buses sitting at bus stops for ages, seat sizes too small for the larger person, and lack of cleanliness.

Cyclists were also felt to get a raw deal by many of you. The English road system is centralized around cars, and safety for cyclists and pedestrians is often compromised. A lack of cycling infrastructure with breaks in cycle tracks and few places to park bicycles. Those driving cars tend to have a poor opinion of cyclists - breaks in cycle paths intensify this problem.

The status afforded to cars was also cited as a bugbear. Employers often use company cars and lease cars as part of recruitment, encouraging employees to adopt this principle. Drivers also often neglect the full cost of running a car when comparing costs to other modes which makes it seem a more financially viable option

Finally it also irks you that many transport professionals themselves don’t use sustainable transport when it is available to them. (We hope that the individual who wrote that is not one of them!)
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Prisoner’s dilemma: self-sacrifice or early adopters?
When attempting to make changes to travel behaviour, personal sacrifice seems greater than the wider scale benefit to society. How can we overcome this? Part of the answer is highlighting quick wins that can be achieved:

How we can encourage people to walk and cycle more?
Quick wins cited included:

• Increased attention span
• Reduced stress levels
• Quicker journey times in congested areas
• Promotion of walking and cycling as ‘the free gym’
• Cutting your own carbon footprint

How we can encourage people to use public transport sometimes?
Quick wins cited include:

• Getting other tasks done during your journey and save time
• Avoid the trouble of parking your car
• Using the time to relax and reduce stress

How we can encourage people to use their cars less frequently.
Quick wins cited include:

• Saving time and spending more with family and friends
• Saving money on the costs of running a car, especially with reference to the current economic climate
• Having the opportunity to have a drink after work, and socialise more often
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Your anonymous transport sins
Thank-you for confessing your transport sins to us. We can’t absolve you of your sins, but we hope you feel better for confessing and that it might have helped us understand the potential travel behaviour of our target audiences.

Two in particular stood out as our favourites. They are: