Sunday drive: Review of automobile ownership, societal and environmental impacts and behavioural change

The automobile is a pervasive component of modern life; it has played a crucial role in shaping the society in which we live and the way in which we behave and interact with those around us. This paper provides an overview of the motor vehicle; tracing the origins of the automobile, how it helped shaped many aspects of societal and urban development and the psychological impacts on society. It also reviews studies that have explored the driving factors of vehicle ownership and choice at a disaggregate level and examines the literature that addresses the environmental impacts of the motor vehicle. The conclusion is drawn that there is perhaps no single product that has had as big an impact on modern society as the motor vehicle, an impact that is unlikely to wane. As such, the automobile will continue to be fertile subject matter for researchers from many disciplines and for in policy who must make plans in the presence of the motor vehicle

Willingness to accept longer commutes for better salaries: understanding the differences within and between couples

This paper reports on an analysis aiming to understand differences across individual people in their willingness to accept increased commuting time in return for higher salary, using Hierarchical Bayes (HB) analysis of a dataset collected in Sweden. In addition to differences across key socio-demographic groups, we also study the differences between valuations obtained in choices where respondents are faced only with their own commute journeys and those where they make decisions jointly for themselves and their partner. The analysis has revealed a very rich set of findings. We observe major differences between men and women in their preferences. We also note how these preferences change when respondents are faced with choices that affect both themselves and their partner. Finally, there are major differences between respondents’ own preferences and those assigned to them by their partner in the joint choices. An extensive regression analysis has highlighted a diverse set of drivers for these differences, be they socio-demographics, attitudes, or current commute circumstances. The sheer richness of our results is a reflection of the benefits of a HB approach in the present context

Investigation of Photo-Responsive Titania Surfaces

Titania (TiO2) is an oxide commonly used for photocatalysis. This proclivity to form free radicals when exposed to light has also prompted interest in applying porous TiO2 as a reactive/responsive membrane. Surfaces of both main polymorphs of TiO2 (especially rutile {110} and anatase {101}) have been shown to be stable and photo-active. Polyacrylic acid (PAA) is a molecule of interest as changes in pH can cause the molecule to contract or expand, due to changes in the charge distribution relating to the carboxyl group. Due to TiO2’s ability to generate photocarriers, we hypothesize that porous TiO2 substrates are able to induce light-mediated expansion/contraction in PAA. Photo-carriers from TiO2 modify charge distributions on PAA similar to how changes in pH have been shown to do

On the stability of preferences and attitudes: a hybrid model of air travel preferences at two different points in time

Many methods have been developed to give transport policy makers better insight into why different choices are made. One such methodology that has been receiving increasing attention is the hybrid choice model, which seeks to allow for a better understanding of the relationship between choices and attitudes or character traits latent to the respondent. Recently there has been debate as to the appropriateness of using such models to conclude that a change in a given attitude will bring a change in choice given the focus on cross-sectional data. To address this, we propose a framework to examine the stability of choices and attitudes over time. Making use of a repeated stated preference experiment conducted at two points in time on an identical set of respondents we find that, in the context of air security procedures, preferences and latent attitudes are relatively stable over time despite the two different and extreme shocks at the times the survey was conducted. While this is comforting to transport policy makers in some respects, these results lead one to ask that if choices and preferences do not change in extreme situations how changeable are they truly in the context of a nudge agenda by many governments? Additionally, we find some evidence that for the most part while latent attitudes are invariant, the role they play in choices differs over waves suggesting potential cognitive dissonance

Surface Structure of Catalytically-active Ceria Nanoparticles

Catalytic mechanisms, and therefore activity, depend on the structure of catalyst surfaces. In turn, surfaces may reconstruct and/or exhibit local configurations that vary from bulk composition and structure. CeO2(ceria) is a redox catalyst of interest in numerous automotive, energy and, increasingly, biomedical applications. Previous studies aimed at understanding catalytic mechanisms on ceria have limited consideration to systems with bulk-like stoichiometric or sub-stoichiometric surfaces. Here we summarize previous computational studies on ceria surfaces, nanoclusters, and nanoparticles, and highlight challenges in constructing physically-representative ceria nanoparticle (CNP) structures. Setting aside assumptions of bulk-like stoichiometric or sub-stoichiometric ceria surface terminations, we report results of DFT +Ucalculations and show that sufficiently small CNPs are not bulk-terminated, but rather are stabilized by the formation of Oxq groups at corners, edges, and {1 0 0} facets. These surface structures, not the annihilation and regeneration of O-vacancies, may directly control reduction/ oxidation catalysis at CNPs below a critical size. As anion groups other than Oxq groups could be incorporated in stable CNP surfaces, this suggests the possibility of tailoring small CNP structures and mechanisms for particular catalytic reactions

Power and the illusion of control: Do individual’s correctly anticipate how much influence they have within a household choice?

Choices of groups remain one of the lesser studied behaviours in the choice literature. This continues to be an oversight as many choices are made at a household or even social level. In particular, studies that seek to further our understanding of the role of individual influence in group choices remain uncommon. This paper presents the first steps of research into an even less researched area of group choice; the level of influence that individuals think they have over a group choice. In the context of motor vehicle choice among household dyads, we find that individuals mostly perceive influence to be equally shared across vehicle attributes, with the primary user of the motor vehicle, on average, perceiving themselves to be more influential than their partner. While the primary user may perceive them self to be more influential this is mismatched with what is uncovered by modelling group powers. Influence of the primary agent is limited to the type of fuel the vehicle uses. We find that perceptions of influence are predominantly a function of attitudes about vehicle emissions and the age of the individual. Overall we provide new evidence into the ability of people to assess their own influence in a negotiation process, the influence of another and the sources of discrepancy that may exist, thus adding richer insights to the contextual understanding of group decisions

Insights into the Impact of Covid-19 on Household Travel, Working, Activities And Shopping in Australia – the early days under Restrictions

When 2020 began, we had no idea what was to unfold globally as we learnt about the Novel-Coronavirus in Wuhan, in the Hubei province of China. As this virus spread rapidly, it became a matter of time before many countries began to implement measures to try and contain the spread of the disease. Covid-19 as it is referred to, resulted in two main approaches to fighting the viral pandemic, either through a progressive set of measures to slow down the number of identified cases designed to ‘flatten the curve’ over time (anticipated to be at least six months), or to attack it by the severest of measures including a total lock-down and/or herding exposure to fast track ‘immunisation’ while we await a vaccine. The paper reports the findings from the first phase of an ongoing survey designed to identify the changing patterns in travel activity of Australian residents as a result of the stage 2 restrictions imposed by the Australian government. The main restrictions, in addition to social distancing of at least 1.5 metres, are closure of entry to Australia (except residents returning), and closure of non-essential venues such as night clubs, restaurants, mass attendee sporting events, churches, weddings, and all social gatherings in any circumstance. With some employers encouraging working from home and others requiring it, in addition to job losses, and many children attending school online from home, the implications on travel activity is extreme. We identify the initial impacts associated with the first month of stricter social distancing measures introduced in Australia

A simplified and practical alternative way to recognise the role of household characteristics in determining an individual’s preferences: the case of automobile choice

It is common practice in choice modelling to include the socioeconomic characteristics of other members of a household in the utility expressions associated with the preferences of a particular individual. By including household descriptors, the analyst is assuming that other household members can influence the choices made by the household as if the preference weights (or marginal utilities) are reflective of equal influence of all members of a household. In reality it is likely that there is a power relationship that underlies the contribution of the individual whose preferences are being studied and the contribution of other household members, typically proxied by a number of socioeconomic descriptors. In this paper we condition the individual and the household explanatory variables on an additional parameter that represents the influence or power that each agent has in the revelation of the preferences of a sampled individual. Using a data set of the stated choice of automobile fuel type (petrol, diesel, hybrid), we estimate a nonlinear model to identify the strength of the power relationship, and find that the power contribution of the household members to the individuals choice vary across alternatives. The model with the power relationship is found to be a statistical improvement and delivers substantially different elasticities than the traditional model with household characteristics