Smoothing the Transition: Personalized Travel Planning to Support Student Travel Choices Adam Arnold Senior Program Specialist UrbanTrans Consultants

I’m Adam from UrbanTrans Consultants

Let me tell you a story…

Mohawk College asked for our help with a challenge…

15,700 students, 1200 employees 3 sites in the Hamilton and Brantford area Growth aspirations, campus development Goal to increase catchment area Strong sustainability focus

They were closing their Brantford Campus, relocating 1500 people

They were worried about a few things…

Disruption to staff and student life Impact on student recruitment – increased travel distances Increased demand on parking infrastructure Increased environmental impact

...but they also saw some big opportunities

Chance to stop bad commuting habits before they start… Showcase commitment to student welfare Increase usage of existing TDM infrastructure and programs Increase student recruitment catchment area

Sure, we can help…let’s do a study and get a better picture

34% of Brantford population (staff and students) planned to drive alone to the new campus Would require an additional 267 parking spaces to accommodate

The study also told us that people would need a bit of help with this move

55% planned to use an alternative mode Personalized travel information identified as one of the most useful TDM programs that could be provided Top recommendation: creation of commuter profiles

We thought about it a bit…and figured the best help we could provide was a handy Commuter Profile for everyone

Detailed trip plan based on departure location Provide a prioritized range of options based on location, distance etc Identify specific routes, timings and costs Identify cost and environmental savings, compared to driving alone Can be based on one-to-one consultations

But…we didn’t quite have the time or money to take 700 people out for coffee, one by one

Hmmm….how to make it personal… but not that personal

Identify common trips and provide broader commuter profiles based on these trips Travel guidance from your town or locality, rather than your front door Provide additional tools to allow students and staff to find more detailed route plans independently (eg Google Transit planning, Carpool Zone route matching)

How did we do it, you ask?

First, we mapped all the postal codes

Then we clustered all the departure points…

Next, we created 10 commuter profiles based on the 10 departure points

Ancaster Brampton-Missisauga Haldimand Hamilton Downtown Hamilton Mountain Kitchener – Guelph – Cambridge Oakville-Burlington St. Catharines-Niagara Falls Toronto - Durham

Then, we made a handy little database to match up students with their profile

Excel based database to sort each student into one of the 10 departure points. Sorting by postal code: If your postal code starts with L2R, you are identified as needing the St Catherines Commuter Profile Each individual in database assigned 1 of 10 commuter profiles

And so finally, every student was assigned one of 10 commuter profiles, personalized and mail- ready

Detour! What makes a good profile?

Multiple commute options Realistic commute options Approximate time and cost guidelines Detailed route plans (street names, bus route numbers etc) Links to further resources and information Clear and clean layout Personalized appearance

Looks a bit like this…

We also added in some great extras

Then, we sent it out into the world!

Profiles ed to 701 students 23% Open Rate 79% click through rate Opens peaked just before and just after first classes started For future projects, hard copy mailing may have more impact

So…did it work?

120 additional Carpool Zone users added since September 2012: all since Sept 2013.

Mohawk liked it…a lot

Mohawk sustainability steering committee chose to expand the program to all Mohawk students Created an interactive, online portal: MoCo Modal Choose your departure point to generate your commuter profile

So kids…what did we learn?

Departure point clustering can be used to create broad based commuter profiles Quicker, less resource intensive than traditional personalized travel planning User sorting and mail merging can create profiles with a personal look and feel Commuter profiles can inspire behaviour change….the next step is to find out how much!

Give me a shout if you want to learn more! Adam Arnold