Customer journeys: Operational responses to transport inequity

Equity derives from the philosophical and political concept of justice, which adheres to the principles of fairness. The Transport for NSW (TfNSW) Customer Behaviour team would like to understand what it can do from an operational perspective to address transport equity issues in Western Sydney and outer-metro and regional areas, whilst also reducing car dependency and encouraging mode shift to public and active transport in these environments.

As such, this project aims to establish operational perspectives on transport equity and reduce car dependency while also providing recommendations on how to address these issues using short-term operational/demand management behaviour change tools.

Participants

• Transport for NSW
• CARRS-Q at Queensland University of Technology

Project background

The TfNSW Customer Behaviour team provides solutions-based customer outcomes and design data-led interventions in response to network challenges to alleviate issues, shape demand and empower customers to make their best travel choices and is interested in encouraging more sustainable transport use for a variety of reasons including network efficiency, sustainability and social outcomes.

TfNSW would like to understand this via answers to two questions:

1. What can it do from an operational perspective to address transport equity issues in Western Sydney and outer-metro and regional areas?
2. With a subset of that question being, how can we reduce car dependency and create mode shift to public and active transport, in these environments?

TfNSW is particularly interested in travel demand management and behaviour change responses to these questions and how these approaches might be effectively applied in specific outer-metropolitan and regional areas and contexts, as distinct from traditional and existing urban applications of these approaches.

Although it is understood that options which improve transport equity and reduce transport disadvantage may have significant benefits in terms of enabling mode shift; there is also interest in what additional benefits there are and to understand how these can be delivered and captured.

Project objectives

The project objectives are to:

• Identify direct operational levers and short-term initiatives to promote mode shift, reduce car dependency, and address social equity and accessibility issues.
• Assess and quantify the benefits of identified operational levers and short-term initiatives in reducing social equity gap while also reducing car dependency and creating mode shift to public and active transport.

Please note …

This page will be a living record of this project. As it matures, hits milestones, etc., we’ll continue to add information, links, images, interviews and more. Watch this space!