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The impacts of climate change present significant challenges for the development, sustainability and resilience of cities. Greenhouse gas associated with high land and material consumption, loss of biodiversity, and reliance on car travel puts European cities at risk from climate-change related events.

Urban mobility is currently facing changing circumstances globally including congestion, air and noise pollution, climate change, the search for alternatives to fossil fuels, urbanisation and the impacts of new technology.

Decarbonising transport is vital to prospects of mitigating dangerous climate change but requires changes in travel, which will affect people’s lives.

Welcome to this course on climate change and human behaviour for an effective low carbon modal shift.

What will you be learning in this course?

In response to the unprecedented challenges of urban mobility, the big question we’ll be looking at in this course is: ‘how do we understand and influence human behaviour and choices for low carbon mobility.’

To answer this, we’ll examine the determinants of transport behaviour, including structural determinants such as the urban form and transport systems. We’ll also explore practical, psychological and cultural determinants.

We’ll explore what these determinants mean in terms of policy making and the ways in which we can influence transport behaviour.

Throughout the course, we’ll explore a range of innovative solutions, international case studies and hear from urban specialists.

Learning outcomes

By completing this course, you will be able to:

• differentiate the structural, practical and psychological determinants of transport behaviour
• explore the relationship between policy settings and transport behaviour
• interpret how people make transport choices
• describe design, policy and communication approaches that influence travel behaviour.

Meet the team

Jago Dodson is a Professor of Urban Policy and Director of the Centre for Urban Research at RMIT University.

Jan Scheurer is an Honorary Associate Professor in theSchool of Global, Urban and Social Studies.at RMIT University.

Romaine Logere is a transdisciplinary researcher and a lead content writer with RMIT Europe.

Other courses in this series – Climate change and urban mobility

This set of courses cover key impacts and opportunities for climate change mitigation in urban planning, transport, and related infrastructure. Each course can be taken on its own or as part of a set to enhance your overall learning and in-depth understanding of this topic.

• Transit Oriented Development for Climate Change Mitigation in Urban Centres
• Real Estate and electric mobility in the age of Climate Change: Opportunities and Challenges

Getting involved

A key way to enhance your learning is to participate in the ‘your task’ set by your educators, and engage in topic-related conversations with your fellow-learners. Some of the ways you can do this include:

• add a post to start or continue a conversation. For building on what others are saying use reply to ask a question or make a comment that indicates you’re interested in what someone has said
• make a comment that links, compares or contrasts different themes in the conversation, or disagree with a comment in a curious, constructive and compassionate manner.

Your task

Watch the video from Jan as he introduces the determinants of transport behaviour.

Next, take a moment to get to know one another by telling us a little about yourself in the comments below.

For example, you could describe:

• your location, professional background and interest in urban development
• your motivation for participating in this course and what you hope to achieve.