Households in two UK cities have proved that choosing greener and healthier transport options just once or twice a week can significantly reduce car traffic.

An innovative personalised marketing scheme run in Peterborough and Worcester by sustainable transport charity Sustrans and partner Socialdata has reduced car trips by as much as 13%.

The results show that people can be encouraged to switch from car use to walking, cycling and public transport – helping to tackle traffic congestion and climate change - without the need for radical lifestyle changes, or massive costs to the taxpayer.

The work is taking place as part of a £10 million Department for Transport programme to show how better travel information and marketing, together with other measures to boost the alternatives to the car, can help reduce traffic.

Sustrans believes that the initial results from the trials show sufficient promise to merit an immediate national programme of Individualised Travel Marketing (ITM), to help tackle congestion in all major towns and cities and reduce the CO2 emissions from transport.

The ITM scheme involves making direct contact with households by phone and on the doorstep to offer people personalised information and advice on the alternatives to the car, from bespoke local bus timetables to discounts on cycles. In Darlington, a similar scheme is being run on behalf of the local council by a firm of transport consultants.

An evaluation of this work has shown that ITM resulted in the following changes across the respective target populations:

• In Peterborough there was a 13% reduction in car driver trips, with increases in levels of walking (up 21%), cycling (25%) and public transport (13%).
• In Worcester there was a 12% reduction in car driver trips, with a 17% increase in walking. Public transport usage increased by 22% and cycling by 36%.

In both cases, the overall changes were achieved at the individual level by switching an average of around 60 car trips per person per year to other forms of transport, or a little more than one car trip per week across the population. In Peterborough, more detailed surveys used to evaluate the impacts of ITM also showed that:

• The reductions in car use were concentrated during peak times in the morning and afternoon.
• There was a 15% reduction in distances travelled by car – a total annual saving of around 5.5 million miles.
• The increases in walking, cycling and public transport use resulted in an 18% increase in daily time spent using physical active forms of travel.

James Ryle, Director of Sustrans' TravelSmart programme, said: "These schemes prove that by making just a few changes to our day-to-day travel patterns, we can all help tackle congestion, reduce the impacts of transport on the global climate, and get fitter."