In July 2011, the Climate Change and Transport Choices report (commissioned by the DfT) was published, outlining a segmentation of public attitudes to climate change and transport choices and proposed a framework for reducing CO2 emissions from personal travel.
The segmentation model, outlined in this report, provides a framework for local authorities; the communities; and the social enterprises sector seeking to develop effective, targeted sustainable transport initiatives, which take account of the nature of their local population.
The segmentation model focuses primarily on surface transport, and was developed using statistical analysis of data from a nationally representative survey of adults living in England. The analysis identified nine distinct segments which were refined using a series of qualitative focus groups. The aims of the segmentation were to:
- Identify and quantify groups or segments within the population that differ in terms of the factors relevant to reducing CO2 emissions from personal transport use;
- Enable a better understanding of the segments that exist within the adult population of England;
- Provide a model that could be used by the DfT and its partner organisations (including local authorities) to develop more targeted and effective sustainable transport initiatives (Thornton et al, 2011).
The main survey found a great deal of variation in travel behaviour and attitudes towards the environment among different groups of people and across different types of locations. In particular that:
- Higher income groups showed less sustainable transport behaviour, tending to own more cars, own cars with larger engines, travel by car more often, travel more miles a year by car and, fly by plane more often than lower income groups;
- Better educated respondents tended to hold more ‘pro-environmental’ attitudes. As there are strong links between education and income, this led to an apparent disconnection between attitudes and behaviour;
- higher income, highly educated respondents tended to be more pro-environmental in their attitudes but less sustainable in terms of their actual transport behaviour than lower income, less well educated respondents;
- Those living in rural areas tended to show particularly high levels of car travel, more positive attitudes about cars and less positive attitudes about alternative modes; and
- Older age groups cycled less and tended to hold greater concerns about cycling (Thornton et al, 2011).
Although not directly related to adaptation via the means of engineering solutions, catering for the travel habits of citizens should be considered by engineers, in order to:
- Raise awareness for individuals and organisations to adapt to climate change;
- Develop new evidence on risks and opportunities of adaptations to address those risks;
- Ensure progress by checking the programme is successful with need to measure real outcomes and progress is being made; and
- Enable government policies and systems to work across national and local levels.