Commission on Travel Demand

The Commission on Travel Demand is an independent group which has assembled as part of the Research Council UK funded DEMAND Centre. It was established to bring together the state-of-art in understanding how travel demand is changing and may change in the future, recognising controversies which exist over current forecasting practice.

Twenty eight written submissions were received from twenty seven different individuals and groups in response to a call for evidence. Across the course of six evidence sessions, 58 people from 39 different organisations participated either through presentations or participation in the discussions. Presentations and summary write ups are publicly available for each of the sessions except where commercial sensitivities preclude that.

The Final Report, All Change? The future of travel demand and the implications for policy and planning summarises the deliberations of the Commission. It found that people travel substantially less often today, per head of population, than they did one or two decades ago. The relationship between how much, how often, when and how people travel and the activities they take part in has changed and continues to do so. We need to change our approach to understanding and planning for this in response. Ten recommendations for change are set out which challenge decision-makers, practitioners and researchers to make a step change in how they think about travel demand, how the future is planned for and what kinds of evidence are ten serious when taxpayers’ money is invested in the transport system.

New report infographic available here.

Presentations and audio from the report launch event are available here.

As well as the Permanent Secretary of the Department for Transport’s response to the ‘All Change’ report, and the Commission on Travel Demand Chair’s response to this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Any queries regarding the Commission should be addressed to the Commission chair Professor Greg Marsden (g.r.marsden@its.leeds.ac.uk)