Understanding travel behaviour change during mega-events: lessons from the London 2012 Games

This paper presents results from a longitudinal study of the travel behaviour change associated with the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games (the ‘Games’). The research examines commuter travel behaviour through a panel approach enabling an understanding of individual behaviour across three wav...

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Main Authors: Parkes, Stephen D., Jopson, Ann, Marsden, Greg
Format: Article
Published: Elsevier 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/36785/
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author Parkes, Stephen D.
Jopson, Ann
Marsden, Greg
author_facet Parkes, Stephen D.
Jopson, Ann
Marsden, Greg
author_sort Parkes, Stephen D.
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper presents results from a longitudinal study of the travel behaviour change associated with the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games (the ‘Games’). The research examines commuter travel behaviour through a panel approach enabling an understanding of individual behaviour across three waves (before, during and after), with the study utilising unique access to a Transport for London panel study (n = 1132). The findings indicate that a substantial amount of change occurred during the Games (54% made at least one change), with reducing or re-timing journeys being the most likely adaptations made. A key objective of this work was to advance the discussion about the theoretical constructs that are most applicable in the study of behaviour change associated with disruptive events, which was done through the application and critical evaluation of the Transtheoretical Model. The insights from the stages of change element of the model were relatively limited but the analysis shows significant differences in the underlying factors explaining change according to the type of change made (reduce, re-time, re-mode and re-route). Whilst the long-term behavioural impacts of events like the Games appear small, the study has uncovered a need to consider these behavioural choices as distinct rather than under the collective term of “travel behaviour change”, as is current practice.
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spelling nottingham-367852020-05-04T20:00:49Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/36785/ Understanding travel behaviour change during mega-events: lessons from the London 2012 Games Parkes, Stephen D. Jopson, Ann Marsden, Greg This paper presents results from a longitudinal study of the travel behaviour change associated with the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games (the ‘Games’). The research examines commuter travel behaviour through a panel approach enabling an understanding of individual behaviour across three waves (before, during and after), with the study utilising unique access to a Transport for London panel study (n = 1132). The findings indicate that a substantial amount of change occurred during the Games (54% made at least one change), with reducing or re-timing journeys being the most likely adaptations made. A key objective of this work was to advance the discussion about the theoretical constructs that are most applicable in the study of behaviour change associated with disruptive events, which was done through the application and critical evaluation of the Transtheoretical Model. The insights from the stages of change element of the model were relatively limited but the analysis shows significant differences in the underlying factors explaining change according to the type of change made (reduce, re-time, re-mode and re-route). Whilst the long-term behavioural impacts of events like the Games appear small, the study has uncovered a need to consider these behavioural choices as distinct rather than under the collective term of “travel behaviour change”, as is current practice. Elsevier 2016-10 Article PeerReviewed Parkes, Stephen D., Jopson, Ann and Marsden, Greg (2016) Understanding travel behaviour change during mega-events: lessons from the London 2012 Games. Transportation Research: Part A, 92 . pp. 104-119. ISSN 0965-8564 Olympics and Paralympics; Behaviour change; Disruption; Mega-event; Transtheoretical Model; Stages of change http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2016.07.006 doi:10.1016/j.tra.2016.07.006 doi:10.1016/j.tra.2016.07.006
spellingShingle Olympics and Paralympics; Behaviour change; Disruption; Mega-event; Transtheoretical Model; Stages of change
Parkes, Stephen D.
Jopson, Ann
Marsden, Greg
Understanding travel behaviour change during mega-events: lessons from the London 2012 Games
title Understanding travel behaviour change during mega-events: lessons from the London 2012 Games
title_full Understanding travel behaviour change during mega-events: lessons from the London 2012 Games
title_fullStr Understanding travel behaviour change during mega-events: lessons from the London 2012 Games
title_full_unstemmed Understanding travel behaviour change during mega-events: lessons from the London 2012 Games
title_short Understanding travel behaviour change during mega-events: lessons from the London 2012 Games
title_sort understanding travel behaviour change during mega-events: lessons from the london 2012 games
topic Olympics and Paralympics; Behaviour change; Disruption; Mega-event; Transtheoretical Model; Stages of change
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/36785/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/36785/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/36785/