The 18-month study will bring together TNS with public policy consultants People Science and Policy, transport planners JMP Consultants, and the Centre for Transport and Psychology, to explore the barriers and motivators which trigger travel behavioural change.
Starting this month, the study will be rolled out in four phases and will comprise 3,500 random probability, face-to-face interviews with the general public in England.
Interviews will be based on a bespoke quantitative survey questionnaire. Following the survey fieldwork, TNS analysts will develop a full segmentation model based on public attitudes, motivations, lifestyle attributes and behaviours relevant to climate change and travel behaviour.
The study will aim to help the DfT identify how to encourage people to change their travel behaviour in order to consume less carbon.
Douglas Dalziel, director at TNS, said: "The model we have proposed will identify segments based on attitudes and behaviour and then quantify the scale of each segment within England's population.
"These insights will inform government policy and will also support the development of social marketing strategies to help reduce CO2 emissions from transport."