Captive Car Users

Captive Car Users

Shift car travel to more sustainable modes, ᴏ where possible and practicable. Given that car captivity stems from a lack of transport alternatives, shift measures primarily focus on shortening the car portion of certain journey types by shifting part of a trip to more sustainable modes, recognising that for many captive car trips, a vehicle may still be required for the first or last mile.

Introduction

In the realm of demand management, implementing measures to address the needs of captive car users plays a pivotal role in ensuring a more inclusive and efficient transport system while advancing broader societal and environmental objectives. Captive car users are individuals who rely on their personal vehicles due to limited viable alternatives, often driven by factors such as lack of suitable public transport options, physical disabilities, various journey types, or specific job requirements. As cited in the CSO’s National Travel Survey in 2021, for over three quarters (76.4%) of journeys to work by car as driver, there was no alternative mode of travel to using the car for going to work, suggesting that a significant portion of the Irish population find themselves to be captive car users for some or all trips.

Improve the carbon emission per km for those ᴏ who do not have an option but to travel by car.

This approach acknowledges the necessity of minimising social and economic disparities during the transition towards sustainable mobility.

As noted by the sub-group, it will be crucial that the just transition component is integral when defining the above group of measures.

“Avoid” measures should consider the impact on employment and community well-being. ”Shift” measures, encouraging sustainable alternative transport modes, must prioritise equitable access and affordability. “Improve” measures, such as enhancing public transport and car emissions, should focus on preserving and creating jobs in the new markets, affordability of new technologies and accessibility to charging infrastructure. A just transition ensures that the benefits of reduced car dependence are shared inclusively, addressing potential challenges to employment, accessibility, and social cohesion. This approach not only promotes environmental sustainability but also fosters a fair and balanced evolution of the transportation system for all members of society.

Representative cohorts of captive car users were considered by this sub-group to assess the potential impact of the potential demand management measures under consideration. The cohorts have been informed by sub-group discussions and insights from the NTA National Travel Survey. The NTA National Travel Survey provides insights into the purpose of journeys that are undertaken by car nationally. The survey results identify differences in the purpose of car usage across urban, suburban and rural areas, as well as across a range of demographic and socioeconomic categories.

It is recommended by the sub-group that additional analysis and quantification of captive car users is undertaken to better inform an assessment of all proposed demand management measures from a just transition perspective.

Avoid

The primary objective of “Avoid” measures is to reduce or avoid the overall amount of travel and, therefore, kilometres travelled by car, by supporting shorter distance trips or fewer trips. These measures promote compact, mixed-use, and transport-oriented development, as well as remote working, e-commerce, and other forms of digitalisation that can substitute physical trips. Moreover, measures that discourage the consumption of fossil fuels and carbon-intensive products, such as carbon taxes, also could encourage people to avoid unnecessary trips.

Measures Considered

In collaboration with various stakeholders, a comprehensive set of measures aimed at delivering the objectives of this Strategy was considered through the Avoid-Shift-Improve lens in order to:

Avoid the need for car travel and, therefore, ᴏ the total kilometres travelled.

Shift

Another key action will be to increase the share of low-emission vehicle kilometres for goods and public transport vehicles. The most intensely used (and most fossil fuel-consuming) motor vehicles should be the first to transition to low emission technology, including light and heavy goods vehicles and public transport vehicles.

The primary objective of “Shift” measures is to provide attractive and convenient sustainable travel options to captive-car users. This will, in turn, reduce the total number of kilometres travelled by car and allocate them to other modes. With the ‘just transition’ principle in mind, these measures are aimed at addressing issues such as accessibility, affordability, frequency and coverage of public transport, last-mile connectivity, park and ride facilities, shared mobility alternatives, incentives or education and behavioural change campaigns. The scaling-up of on-demand shared services was also deemed to be an essential measure.

When planning for this transition, it will be key to design the measures to be implemented from a just transition perspective in order to minimise disproportionate impacts on specific car dependent groups.

Challenges

To create a more sustainable and efficient transport system across both urban and rural Ireland, it is essential to develop targeted strategies and policies that not only address the unique challenges faced by captive car users but also encourage and facilitate the choice of more sustainable modes for those who have viable options already in place and lower emissions transport where this is not possible. By considering the diverse needs of the national car-dependent population, the country can promote more equitable and effective demand management solutions that benefit both individual car users and the transport ecosystem. In the context of just transition, it is critical to focus and target supports to the most vulnerable captive car users when considering transport demand management.

Improve

The primary objective of “Improve” measures is to decrease the carbon emissions per kilometre travelled by enhancing the efficiency, sustainability, and overall quality of transport systems. These measures are targeted at improving the GHG efficiency of residual vehiclebased transport or the efficiency of the network itself. While less directly transformative than avoid and shift measures in terms of behaviour, fleet electrification and biofuels will continue to play a pivotal role in decarbonising transport, particularly for populations living in more isolated areas. Measures within this category will focus on preserving and creating new jobs, and the affordability of new technologies.

While “Avoid” transport demand measures, such as promoting remote working, offer environmental benefits, there are potential undesired social consequences, especially in rural areas.

As per the OECD report referenced previously, to increase the level of transformation through the electrification of vehicles, it will be key that Ireland’s electrification policy supports the overall system transformation, particularly the goal of reducing car travel. This requires prioritising the electrification of frequently used cars (such as taxis). Reducing the privileges of private cars compared to frequently used electric cars (e.g. parking privileges) can help to electrify the remaining car-kilometres more quickly. Defining the electrification target as the share of the remaining reduced car-kilometres has several benefits: it avoids rewarding efforts that increase overall car ownership and use, as the current subtarget does. It also focuses electrification efforts and resources on frequently used cars, which helps to favour shared over private car ownership and to speed up electrification.

As highlighted by the sub-group members, while strategies such as incentives for individuals to work remotely may be effective, an increase in the numbers working at home may lead to decreased social interactions, which can impact mental health and contribute to feelings of isolation of marginalised populations. Another implementation consideration is the impact of increasing demand for public transport on riders’ experience, especially for disabled people or people with limited mobility. For younger or newer workers in an organisation, it may also negatively impact their full integration into the company, and it may inhibit their progress within the organisation.

Another potential challenge of remote working policies, as discussed by the subgroup, was the phenomenon of people relocating further away from their workplace. This is particularly relevant in the Irish context, where housing prices in urban employment areas are high and available options are limited. This can lead to an increase in car dependency and the overall distance travelled. To overcome this challenge, measures targeting captive car users need to be coupled with policies that encourage sustainable and compact urban development.

longer time-horizons is required to facilitate better longer-term planning and implementation of new and upgraded PSO services.

While significant effort is being made in Ireland in the area of “Improve” related measures, further investment and policy supports will be required to maintain momentum and achieve the ambitious targets set by the CAP. As discussed before, studies such as the OECD’s 2022 report acknowledge that attempting to decarbonise a car-dependent system, such as the one we have in Ireland, via private vehicle improvements is unlikely to lead to substantially different patterns of behaviour, rapid emissions reductions, or large well-being improvements. Car-dependent systems make rapid electrification slow and difficult, by locking-in large and growing vehicle fleets. Even with improved (and fully electric) vehicles, they also fail to reduce life-cycle emissions, address accessibility gaps and reduce other negative impacts (e.g. road fatalities).

While there is significant investment, planning and delivery already underway under the ”Shift” theme, the sub-group members acknowledged that these efforts need to be ramped up to achieve the level of transformation required. There are several challenges that will need to be addressed when designing demand management measures aimed at achieving a modal shift to active travel among captive car users. One significant obstacle is the deeply ingrained car-centric culture, where there is a perceived convenience and comfort associated with private vehicles over other alternatives. Convincing captive car users to adopt active travel modes requires overcoming what are now well entrenched behavioural and cultural norms, perceptions related to inconvenience, safety concerns, and weather-related challenges. The scaling up of communication efforts has high transformative potential and is needed to build political support for any proposed policy.

Sub-group members also identified other significant barriers such as human capacity, communications/buy-in, and a lack of necessary data to design evaluation into measure design. A focus on piloting and iteration was identified as a response with potential to aid in achieving buy-in from citizens.

In terms of financial impacts, these include the risk of subsidising or providing financial incentives to existing users (with a limited impact on behavioural change), start-up costs (for solutions such as Mobility as a Service (MaaS)) and other derived costs such as marketing, app costs and ongoing engagement for the implementation of other carpooling measures. In the financial area it was also mentioned that it would be important to compare the implementation costs versus the cost of doing nothing, with the possible resultant costs to the state under EU carbon credit and statistical transfer systems.

Inadequate or unsafe infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists is another critical issue, as the lack of well-designed paths and lanes can discourage individuals from choosing active modes. Additionally, the perceived time constraints associated with active travel, especially in comparison to the speed and efficiency of car travel, may dissuade individuals from making the shift. To provide convenient public transport alternatives to captive car users, CAP23 notes that the level of service enhancements needed to drive the required modal shift is significant (e.g. NTA modelling work applies a 3-fold increase in service frequency to drive modal shift). Not only will costs of existing services need to be met, but delivering the required modal shift to public transport is predicated on significant further expansion in services and frequency. Greater clarity as to the availability of current funding over

Conclusion and Recommendations

In line with CAP23, a targeted communications strategy is being undertaken to promote action being taken by Government, and the citizen’s role, in climate action in the transport sector. In the first instance, this sub-group recognised the need to challenge the deeply ingrained car-

Recommendation 15: Continue to evolve opportunities for flexible and remote working and digitalisation.

centric culture that currently exists in Ireland. For this reason, it is intended that the Strategy will seek to engage and motivate the citizen to make sustainable travel choices, supported by robust research. This will include campaigns aimed at raising consumer awareness around car emissions and the cost of ownership, focusing on financial, environmental and social costs of ownership compared to other modes, including the potential for car advertising regulation and mandatory disclosure of emissions data. In this way, people will have more information to help compare costs and benefits of various travel choices. As well as an increased need for data, to help better target supports for captive car users, the effectiveness of regulatory measures relating to advertising will also be considered. To assist in identifying who exactly is a captive car user, the subgroup recommended that a definition of Just Transition in this instance be developed. This is being progressed by the NTA as part of the GDA Demand Management Strategy and Scheme, and which can be adopted by others. Along with a ramping up of sustainable transport alternatives, as reflected in previous recommendations arising from other sub-groups, the following summarise the next steps that must be taken to develop a deeper awareness and understanding of the challenges and opportunities ahead.

Recommendation 16: Encourage greater utilisation of remote working from hubs.

Recommendation 27: Raise consumer awareness on vehicle buying and ownership.

Recommendation 28: Enhance modelling tools to better understand the impacts of specific demand management measures as part of wider climate action initiatives.

Recommendation 29: Commission research to measure and model the cumulative and relative impacts of the recommendations.

It also recognises the importance of supporting captive car users through the following:

Recommendation 13: Develop further ‘supply side’ measures, particularly shared mobility interventions, to augment sustainable mobility alternatives in next iteration of SMP Action Plan.

Recommendation 14: Review existing incentives for encouraging uptake of EVs, with a focus on targeted supports for Captive Car Usages.