Sep 19, 2008

Cracking the Addiction to the Car

I drive to work -- do I need to see a shrink? Bob Pinkett, partner from Peter Brett Associates LLP (PBA), which has international headquarters in the United Kingdom, might think so. He believes the same principles that are applied to break addictions in drug therapy could be one secret to breaking America’s love affair with the automobile. Speaking at the Association for Commuter Transportation’s International Conference in Atlanta, Pinkett advocated a radical approach to transport planning to change travel behavior in the USA.

“Existing methods of travel-demand management only scratch the surface,” he said. “We must move beyond the traditional broadcast method of influencing travel behavior, which delivers the same high-minded message to everyone everywhere, in a futile attempt to persuade.”

Pinkett recommends a more individualized approach in delivering messages that will hit home with various groups within the population as a whole. Otherwise, he said, drivers simply tune out.

“In this age of climate change fatigue, the ‘narrowcast’ approach, where messages are direct, valued and personalized will achieve the necessary shift required to encourage widespread use of sustainable transport,” he said. “New models, drawn from other industries such as health, environment and technology, now focus on the influence of the social network on the individual’s behavior.”

Addiction therapies used to combat smoking, for example, offer proven techniques, as do the achievements of environmental activists in mobilizing communities. Pinkett said that sophisticated market segmentation can identify what drives people to behave the way they do, to enable transport professionals to integrate these attitudes into the travel-planning process. In this way, transport planners can work with people to understand their “triggers to change” better, and excite and engage community influencers.

Anybody got a cigarette?