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Chapter six: Conclusions
The main objective of this research was to establish how much, and in what ways, Traveline Scotland has contributed to modal shift in Scotland. In the introduction, travel information was identified as a "soft" barrier to modal shift and was identified as providing a bridge for people's individual journey needs. The findings from this research support this viewpoint.
The survey and focus groups suggest that Traveline Scotland's main role for users is to inform and support a decision that is in the process of being made or to reinforce that decision by laying out the public transport solutions available to make a journey. The telephone survey found that a fifth of people surveyed were multi-modal, using different forms of transport for different kinds of journey. Although this highlights the need for services such as Traveline Scotland in providing efficient and reliable information about public transport solutions, it is important to be cautious when analysing the findings in that this is a survey of people who have either already used a Traveline Scotland service or another internet service to plan their journey, therefore the proportion of multi-modal users is higher in this survey than found in the general population. TLS users are already willing to consider public transport solutions.
For all journey types public transport use increased and car use decreased which suggests that modal shift is related to the receipt of travel information from Traveline Scotland, but this does not mean that Traveline Scotland has caused modal shift. Rather because modal shift has occurred across a range of journey types it suggests that modal shift is not restricted to certain journey types. Those who have switched mode do not have any particularly similar characteristics. Therefore the data suggests that Traveline Scotland does indeed contribute to modal shift rather than modal shift being dependant on the types of journey people make or the characteristics of people who contact Traveline Scotland. When respondents were asked directly there was no consensus on whether they would have made the switch without contacting Traveline Scotland.
To shed more light on why some people continue to use their cars attitude statements were analysed by key demographic variables. Five types of people were identified: those whose public transport use had peaked, those who felt constrained, those who felt uninformed, those who were lazy and those who showed complacency. Women's travel behaviour was more likely to have peaked than males and they also felt more uninformed about the services on offer. There was also tendency for females to be more lazy than males. In contrast, males were more likely to feel constrained and complacent about public transport use and car dependency.
The Traveline Scotland service plays a vital role in encouraging modal shift. If services are of a high standard, provide reliable information and are visible to the public, people will continue to use the service, which in turn increases the likelihood of them choosing public transport solutions. The layout and structure of the information on the web site appears to be challenging for new users and might be acting as a barrier or lessening the service's impact for some people. Other people in the focus groups and indeed in the telephone survey could not understand why a travel information service did not give out pricing information and instead were instructed to call the specific travel operator for that journey. The recent introduction of price information starts to fill one of the key gaps mentioned in the research. Another area where participants in the focus groups felt Traveline Scotland could improve is to better market its product. Several people remarked that they had only seen advertisements at bus shelters and train stations and that Traveline Scotland should be focusing their efforts in other places, rather than just preaching to the converted.
If people make the journey successfully after receiving the information, they will be likely to make the journey again, but unlikely to re-contact Traveline Scotland about that journey, as they already have the information they need to repeat it. Participants in the focus groups said they usually contacted Traveline Scotland for journeys that were outside their normal routine.
Traveline Scotland makes it easier for people who are in the process of switching to public transport, facilitating that transition or supporting the desire to identify a public transport option. Traveline Scotland seems to reinforce public transport decisions rather than bring them about, because to call Traveline Scotland a person must be considering at some level to make a journey by public transport. Users were, on the whole, positive about Traveline Scotland services. In the telephone survey users showed a preference for using the website, over the telephone and text messaging services. Whereas in the focus groups there was a sense that the website was difficult to use at first, but after the second or third time it became easier and was especially convenient for people who worked and could access the internet at their desks. Participants in the focus groups were more complimentary about the telephone service and found the operators to be very helpful. The only real negative comment users made about the telephone service from both the focus groups and telephone survey was that they disliked being directed to a travel operator to find fare information.
The number of repeat users to the telephone and website services further emphasises that Traveline Scotland is providing a useful and efficient service. Taking the evidence from the telephone survey and focus groups into account, Traveline Scotland seems to function well as a bridge to modal shift, making public transport information more accessible to the general population. The following verbatim comment summarises some of the decisions involved when contacting Traveline Scotland.
I think you have to get an attitude change before people will use public transport. People have to be thinking about using public transport. They don't know anything about it. Nobody is going to go 'if I call Traveline they'll tell me all sorts of things, that's very exciting! I'll go and get on a bus, that's a good idea'. You almost have to suspect the journey's going to be easy enough to be worth doing before you're going to phone Traveline to find out how to do it. All the things I suggested were perhaps sending out, giving out, maps or timetable information to everybody, so you've always got the information. You can look and see where things are and then think 'oh, I can do that''. Then you might start phoning Traveline to find out exactly how to do it.
Male
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