Travel demand management

TRAVEL DEMAND MANAGEMENT

Transportation demand management (TDM), or simply demand management, is defined a set of strategies aimed at maximizing traveler choices. In the broadest sense, demand management is defined as providing travelers with effective choices to improve travel reliability.

Travel Demand Management (TDM) practice designs and executes programs that develops and implements a set of strategies that influence travel behavior change so people can get where they need to go with less cost and less impact on the environment.

Traditional and non-conventional TDM approaches include:

• ridesharing
• bicycling
• telework
• transit
• car sharing
• on-demand services and 
• real-time applications

to redistribute commuter travel across alternatives and away from daily peak periods.

Transportation Demand Management (TDM) aims to maximize the efficiency of the urban transport system using a wide range of measures that include:

• congestion pricing
• public transport improvement
• promoting non-motorised transport
• fuel taxation and
• parking management.

• TDM is also concerned with urban design and municipal planning. 
• TDM  is still a relatively underused tool despite its powerful reach and transformative potential

The main objective of Transportation Demand Management Strategies is 

• • Reducing traffic congestion
    

  • Conserving energy and reducing emissions

  • Improving community health and fitness levels

  • Achieving equity

  • Boosting urban livability

  • Solving parking problems

  • Enhancing community safety

  • Helping commuters based in rural areas

  • Making alternative transportation more affordable

  The common strategies for enacting a positive change through Transportation Demand Management (TDM) are:

  • Making information about locally available alternatives to single-occupancy vehicles easy to access and use.
  • Marketing the benefits of commuting alternatives to business owners so they encourage their employees to use them.
  • Supporting a diverse range of transportation options, including not only public transit, but also carpooling, vanpooling, ridesharing, walking, cycling, and others.
  • Incentivizing the use of smart, sustainable commuting methods.
  • Discouraging the use of single-occupancy vehicles by introducing tolls and surcharges that increase the cost gap between solo driving and other options.
  • Introducing limits on driver accessibility to key commercial areas of cities with high levels of traffic congestion.
  • Capping single-occupancy vehicle trips, or increasing the average passenger density of privately operated vehicles.
   
• The transformative power of technology is one of the most effective available tools in the fight against traffic congestion along with the environmental and social damage caused by it.
• Transportation Demand Management is an effective solution to the problems of urban transportation