Using deliberative methods to understand travel choices in the context of climate change

This paper reports on a 2-year study in England with the overall aim of determining what the public understands by climate change and how it sees transport contributing to it. The research involved a longitudinal study with 140 participants split into five socioeconomic life stage groups in different parts of England. Each group took part in five deliberative events in which the participants were given the opportunity to express their views in an open forum, to challenge each other, and to direct the information they received and activities in which they took part. While these events formed the core of the project, it is well understood that there is a gap between stated intentions and actual behavior, and the project therefore also required the participants to complete four 1-week travel diaries and two psychographic questionnaires through the course of the study. The information from the travel diaries was analyzed to represent the associated amount of carbon consumption and fed back to the participants as part of the study. This paper describes the research process and presents some of the materials that were developed and used in the study. It then reflects on what each element of the research methodology brought to the study and the combined impact of using the different methods both during the study and in interpreting the findings. The paper concludes by addressing the strengths and limitations of the deliberative approach, in studying not only climate change and transport but also broader policy issues.