TravelSmart Households in the West

In 2005, the South Australian Government in partnership with the Australian Government commenced an innovative travel behaviour change intervention. The ‘TravelSmart Households in the West’ project covers about 70,000 households within the western suburbs of Adelaide.

The key aim of TravelSmart Households in the West is to reduce car travel, and hence reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the private transport sector. This project now has over 22,000 households actively participating to reduce their vehicle kilometres travelled.

There are various ways people are reducing their kilometres, such as:

• Using the car smarter(more efficiently) eg planning activities ahead and ‘trip chaining’, lift sharing etc.
• Less need for car travel eg by using local shops, services and activities
• Substituting car trips by more environmentally friendly options – walking, cycling or using public transport
• Eliminating the need for some car travel, e.g. telecommuting, banking, bill paying etc on the internet/phone

The TravelSmart Households in the West approach has been underpinned by a strong community development philosophy in which tools have been provided to enable the community to be more informed about what services, shopping and amenities are available in their local area. One example of this is the production of four local activity guides for the surrounding areas of Henley, Glenelg, West Lakes and Kilkenny. If you would like a copy of any of these guides, please contact us.

Exciting partnerships have formed with many organisations within the western suburbs community including, the local councils, health and education organisations, conservation council, passenger transport operators and many other community groups.

The participating suburbs (see map) are situated in the three council areas of Charles Sturt, Holdfast Bay and Port Adelaide Enfield.

To ensure the validity of the results, independent evaluation and long term monitoring is also being undertaken and will allow for assessment of the success in achieving sustainable change in travel behaviour from this project.

The project will continue to run until mid 2007. If you live, work or play in the western suburbs and want more information about reducing your car kilometres contact us.