In the European Union between 1975 and 1995 the daily distance travelled per person doubled; today 80% of all personal journeys are by car.  A further doubling of traffic is predicted by 2025.  Congestion costs 130 billion euro annually and the total external costs of motorised road traffic are estimated at 270 billion euro per year - around 4% of Europe's gross national product.  The average traffic speed in European cities is only 15kmh, and 42,000 people are killed in traffic accidents each year on Europe's roads.

Is this necessary!?

TAPESTRY is the acronym for a collaborative research project with the objective of improving the knowledge and understanding of how effective communication programmes or campaigns can be developed to support and encourage sustainable travel behaviour throughout Europe. 

This involves:

• the development of a sound theoretical basis based on best practice in the field of travel awareness and related campaigns,
• learning from a range of case studies that are being developed and monitored specifically for this project,
• Assessment and cross site comparison of case study results,
• Dissemination of the results from the case studies.

In total 16 case study campaigns will be implemented, assessed and used to produce recommendations to guide those responsible for the development of future campaigns aimed at supporting sustainable transport options.

To fulfil the overall aim of TAPESTRY and to ensure the project is conducted in the correct manner, the project has been divided into 6 separate workpackages each of which is described on this website. Within each workpackage it is expected the TAPESTRY project objectives will be reviewed and achieved by applying novel marketing techniques and best practice from other research studies to the demonstration sites chosen for this project.

One of the key areas of TAPESTRY is the development, implementation, assessment and comparison of the case study campaigns right across Europe.  During the initial stages of the project, a number of cities were selected as demonstration sites with each one’s suitability being reviewed before being included in the project.  Each case study city included in the project was placed into one of three topic groups, or ‘clusters’, that share common TAPESTRY related objectives.  The three clusters are: Intermodal Transport, Mode Repositioning and Health & Environment.

The outputs from TAPESTRY will be:

1. Detailed reports on how travel awareness, communication, education and publicity measures were developed within each city.
2. Assessment of which communication techniques and campaign types were most successful at supporting behavioural change.
3. Assessment of problems and selection criteria for communication initiatives and programmes.
4. Development of best practice guidelines for those who wish to bring about changes in travel behaviour.
5. Highlighting the contribution of communications initiatives to achieving policy objectives at the local, regional, national and European levels.

Contract No. 2000-RD.10988, the acronym Tapestry stands for "Travel awareness, publicity and education supporting a sustainable transport strategy in Europe". It is a 3 years project (Nov. 2000 to October 2003) funded by the EU DG Transport.