PERSONAL TRANSPORT ACTIVITY ADAPTIVE CAPACITY (TACA)

When conditions change, the adaptive capacity is a measure of the ability to maintain essential activities and wellbeing while adjusting to the pressures for change. How would you measure the adaptive capacity of the personal transportation activity systems in a city as a function of the urban form and demographics?

If you analyze the elasticity of petroleum use to fuel price it looks like we will pay anything to fill our cars. But that only holds if the fuel is available. This project developed a sim-game type computer program that helps people to understand how they use transportation and to explore their options. Their exploration of options lets us measure the transport adaptive capacity for people in different circumstances in different parts of any city. 

Here is the full report describing the survey design and approach and results for Dunedin, Christchurch and Oamaru, New Zealand NZTA Report 486