Public Housing Tenants’ Transport Access and Willingness to Reduce Emissions

Public rental housing in Aotearoa New Zealand is a safety net in a pressured housing market with often unaffordable rents. The needs and behaviours of public housing tenants may differ from more prosperous New Zealanders’. The present paper focuses on transport behaviours and preferences of this group, as part of a wider research programme (‘Public Housing and Urban Regeneration’) addressing tenant wellbeing and behaviour. Particular ways in which such tenants use transport are identified in Keall et al. [1]. To dig deeper on tenants’ transport patterns and access, and understand their willingness to reduce emissions, we surveyed 160 public housing tenants, via a mail-back questionnaire in mid-2023. The responses represented 66% of those approached. Key findings are that public housing tenants, while often using cars, especially as passengers, frequently use public transport (PT) (40% of respondents) and active transport (walking 68%; cycling 17%). However, tenants’ transport preferences are often unmet. For example, for everyday needs, 36% of respondents would prefer to use a car less; 42% said easily walkable access to shops or facilities would help in taking fewer car trips. Such findings from our survey suggest that housing providers, council planners and public transport operators should collaborate to make public rental housing as accessible as possible, locating new housing close to public and active transport facilities and shops; and recognising that tenants overwhelmingly see local easy access, including better PT, footpaths and cycle paths in their neighbourhood as making it easier to travel car-free, thereby reducing emissions.