This paper describes the use of a panel in a pilot TravelSmart project in New South Wales, using two-day diaries. Households were initially contacted and recruited by phone, and then sent diaries by post. The diaries were returned by post with two postcard and one phone call reminder. During recruitment, households were asked if they would be willing to do the survey a second time and were recruited only if they agreed. The second wave of the panel was initiated about 9 months later, by contacting only households that responded to the first survey. The survey was completed in early March 2005. Of 1107 households that completed the before survey, 776 (70 percent) completed the after survey. A significant change was found in vehicle kilometres of travel for those households that received TravelSmart tools, but there were no significant differences found in numbers of trips, or proportions of trips by mode or purpose. However, the panel approach used in this study proved of considerable value. The paper demonstrates that, without the panel, the same sample size would have yielded much less information about possible changes, or that a much larger sample would have been required, with concomitantly higher survey costs. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. 0612AR242E.
Abstract