User:TransportSmorgasbord/sandbox

Since 2010 some transportation professional have suggested that the TDM is widely misunderstood simply as a collection of vaguely related initiatives, and that this misunderstanding is constraining the true potential of the concept. TDM practioners have suggested that TDM is far more effective when framed as a philosophical approach which in over time becomes a cornerstone of sustainable urban transport systems. Some have gone further observing that a new paradigm in transport planning, internationally recognised as TDM, is emerging which embraces concepts commonly referred to as Mobility Management, Smarter Choices, and Active Travel Management under its umbrella www.trb.org

Crucial to the delivery of a sustainable urban transport system is integrating the TDM philosophy into urban transport planning, as well as the daily management and operation of transport services and infrastructure. It appears that managing travel demand has largely been compartmentalized as a set of “soft measures” to promote sustainable travel options or programs to promote and offer shared ride arrangements. Demand management means different things to different disciplines. For example: to Information Technology (IT) specialists, managing demand is new technology to provide information; to operations managers, managing demand is controlling the flow onto highways; to economists, it is pricing the system to find equilibrium with capacity; to marketers, it is promoting innovative campaigns; and to many policy-makers TDM remains a largely unknown entity.

The concept has become confused as each discipline has tried to mold the concept to their set of tools. This “silo” thinking inhibits the kind of policy integration that is needed to develop a sustainable urban transport solution strategy. There remains much confusion as to what a sustainable transport system would comprise. It is helpful therefore to consider different approaches to sustainable transport along a spectrum of viewpoints, ranging from weak to strong sustainability. Generally efforts to address the impact of transport on climate change to date have been largely focused on technology. The impact of this technological-led approach has been very limited in the transport sector. TDM has the potential to move the transport sector from a position of weak to strong sustainability by combining behavior-change with technology improvements.

In this context transport demand management is understood as a much broader concept. Implicit in the use of the term is the assumption that it is accompanied by the implementation of sustainable mobility, introduction of full cost pricing and organizational or structural measures to ensure a broad range of complementary interventions work effectively together to realize the benefits of sustainable transport. It is the unifying philosophy of TDM, not specific measures associated with it, that underpin the policy objective of a more sustainable system of transport. This philosophy of managing demand accepts that meeting unfettered demand for travel is impractical and that therefore the system needs to be managed. That demand for travel needs to be managed by:

• Expanding the supply and availability of (more sustainable) alternatives; • Controlling demand for the use unsustainable modes; • Providing incentives and rewards for undertaking sustainable travel habits; and • Imposing full-cost pricing on the use of the automobile.