Life Transitions and Travel Behaviour

The aim of the project is to assess how life transitions influence travel behaviour and to identify opportunities from this for policy interventions to achieve desirable transport outcomes. Life transitions (major changes in personal circumstances) are associated with life events such as joining the labour force, moving home, having children or retiring. Emerging research has established that significant changes in travel behaviour are often associated with life events. However, there remains much to learn about the extent to which different life events trigger behavioural change and the conditions under which life events are more likely to trigger change. It is of interest to policy makers to better understand this so that policies can be formulated to influence travel behaviour and achieve objectives such as tackling congestion and carbon emissions from transport.

The Understanding Society (US) survey offers a previously unavailable opportunity to investigate interactions between life events and travel behaviour for a large, representative sample of the UK population (40,000 households and 100,000 individuals). We know that about 10% of the sample move home each year with about 700 births per year and a similar number of retirements. Data from the first three waves of US will be available during the project. Information collected on travel behaviour includes household car ownership (number of cars owned) and commuting behaviour (mode, distance and time of travel) as well as information on housing mobility, changes in employment and other key life events. British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) respondents have been incorporated into US since wave 2 and it will also be possible to create a longer data history for these respondents. In addition, the project will be innovative in linking the survey data to local spatial data drawn from Office for National Statistics (ONS) sources such as the census and Department for Transport (DfT) accessibility indicators. This data will allow new insights into the effect of the spatial context on changes to travel behaviour associated with life events.

The project will start by creating the required bespoke data sets drawn from US/BHPS and ONS data. The first stage of data analysis will identify the prevalence of life events amongst different population groups and the relative importance of different life events for changes being made to car ownership level and commuting behaviour. It will then be analysed under what circumstances life events are more likely to result in changes in these types of travel behaviour. Consideration will be given to individual, household and geographical circumstances and statistical models will be used to quantify the relative importance of different factors. The final part of the analysis will assess the stability of car ownership and commuting behaviour and whether people whose behaviour has been stable are less likely to change their behaviour when life events occur.

The project team comprises travel behaviour experts from Centre for Transport & Society, University of the West of England (UWE), longitudinal data experts from Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), University of Essex, and policy researchers from DfT. The project will extend the skills base in the analysis of large and complex data sets to the field of transport. DfT will be involved in all stages of the research to ensure there is a close link with policy and practice needs. The research co-investigator from DfT will chair an Advisory Group that also includes representatives from transport practice and academia. UWE will manage a website for the project, including a researcher forum, and will draw on their existing networks in academic and policy circles to promote engagement with the research. ISER will contribute media communications support and disseminate findings from the research through the ISER website and US communications team at ESRC.

We envisage a number of outputs and have identified how to maximize the impact of the study in policy circles as detailed in the Pathways to Impact section.

First will be the involvement of Ben Savage from DfT and other relevant policy makers at all stages of the research process. He will chair a project Advisory Group made up of members of the project team and representatives from transport practice and academia. This will enable a close link with wider research, policy and practice throughout the research process and enable the results of the research to be quickly disseminated to relevant audiences. The DfT is excited by the prospect of this study as it feeds directly into their key policy concerns. We will also engage with the Living with Environmental Change cross-council research programme and invite a member of their Directorate to join the Advisory Group to maximise research links between ESRC and other research council investments.

There will be a focussed two day training event at the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), University of Essex, for DfT researchers, PhD students and other policy researchers interested in using Understanding Society for transport related research. This will use a data set derived from Understanding Society and prepared for use by transport analysts which forms one of the outputs from the research. We will consult with DfT to ensure the course is tailored to meet their requirements. The course will take place at ISER towards the end of the project.

As part of the capacity building aspect of the research programme, UWE researchers will be hosted at ISER for a research visit to familiarise themselves with the data and gain from interactions with researchers conducting longitudinal analysis at ISER.

Other outputs will include a full report for DfT on the inter-relationship between life transitions and travel behavior. Alongside this we will produce a series of short summary policy briefing documents designed for policy makers. We will organize at least one policy briefing meeting in London and disseminate the research findings widely to relevant government departments and other interested policy makers. UWE will manage a website for the project, including a researcher forum, and will draw on their existing networks in academic and policy circles to promote the findings from the research. ISER will contribute communications support for media and other activities and disseminate findings from the research through the ISER website and through regular e-bulletins and other reports which ISER circulates to the user community and policy circles. ISER's Communications Manager will work closely with the Understanding Society communications team at the ESRC to ensure the study has maximum impact.

Finally, we will aim to produce at least two academic journal papers and present the research at appropriate academic conferences.