Well, I guess we must be half-way - our travel behaviour change project started in July 2007, it's January 2008 now and we're due to finish up in June.
By then, we hope to have spoken with at least 700 people in Wellington’s south and east about reducing their household car-use. We've already spoken to about 250 people and their response has been amazing.
I'm talking about “Getting Around Wellington”, a voluntary travel behaviour change programme working particularly on people's short trips – easy to change journeys of 2 – 5kms.
By talking to people at libraries, at the beach, at city events and at special workshop meetings we can find out a bit about their travel habits and the things they really value in life. Then it's easy to suggest ways to use the car less that are actually going to improve life in other ways - like getting more exercise, more headspace after work, saving money on fuel costs - lots of good things can come out of leaving the car at home!
Actually, for a lot of people driving is a habit they want to break - like smoking, or eating bad food. People have really amazing goals that they only need a little encouragement to fulfil.
Here are some of the stories we’ve heard so far (not the participants' real names):
Alice from Strathmore Park left her previous sales job because of the extremely high car use. She now combines most of her car trips, and is aiming to walk to her weekend activities to improve her health. She is interested in trying a set up working from home to reduce her car journeys further. Good on you Alice!
Jo from Hataitai is pretty dedicated – he runs and walks everywhere! But he also has a van which he is planning to convert to bio-diesel which will reduce his already low emissions – go Jo!
Lara lives in Island Bay and had kids at kindy. She tries to take the bus to town and walk to work when possible but it's the kindy run that's tricky. She is going to try carpooling to kindy with other parents in her area because it will save her money on running the car, and the time she spends driving there every morning. Good luck with that, Lara.
To find out more, or get involved with “Getting Around Wellington” see our website.
Or email me lee@sustaintrust.org.nz
