Shedding light on the psychological and behavioral determinants of travel mode choice: A meta-analysis

Mobility represents a relevant topic from the standpoint of environmental degradation, health-related consequences and social inclusion. Since private mobility is responsible for the greatest share of polluting emissions, it is necessary to gain deeper understanding of the mechanisms underpinning the choice of individuals to use either cars or alternative, environment-friendly transport modes. A meta-analysis on 58 primary studies is conducted to synthesize evidence on the determinants of travel mode choice, as regards both behavioral intentions and actual behaviors. Results suggest that, besides intentions, habits and past use represent the most relevant predictor, followed by constructs referring to the Theory of Planned Behavior framework. Environmental variables, on the other hand, play a relevant role in shaping behavioral intentions while their effect on actual behaviors is negligible, so that a deep intention behavior gap emerges. A moderator analysis is performed to explain the high heterogeneity in the results. Behaviors’ operationalization and measurement emerges as the moderator affecting heterogeneity of outcomes the most; trip purpose, sample type and year of the study also show a moderate effect on heterogeneity, while location does not appear to be a relevant moderator

Long-distance travel and urban systems : Development of a theoretical and methodological framework and empirical evidence from Western Europe

It is evident in many countries worldwide that both the frequency and the distance of personal travel have grown concurrently with the proliferation of telecommunications that might substitute for travel. While the understanding of the determinants of long-distance travel is still limited in the literature, flows of people are relevant expressions of relations between metropolitan areas. This thesis has sought to enhance insight into the determinants of long-distance travel behaviour and to advance the understanding of the configurations of an urban system at the inter-metropolitan level on the basis of flows of people. To achieve this aim, the following four research questions were addressed: 1.To what extent do the participation in long-distance travel and mode choice for long-distance travel vary systematically with socio-economic and urban form factors? 2.What are the main characteristics of a suitable theoretical and methodological framework for characterising configurations of urban system on the basis of flows? 3.To what extent can the development of the configurations of urban system in the Netherlands be characterised based on the interaction perspective during the period 1992-2002? 4.To what extent do flows of people between urban areas and attributes of urban areas produce different outcome with respect to the position of urban nodes in the larger urban system

Ranking functional urban regions : a comparison of interaction and node attribute data

Although many studies employ either interaction- or node-attribute data to study the positions of cities in the urban system, relatively little is known about the relationships between these two different types of data. This study explores this relationship by ranking and comparing 39 metropolitan areas in Western Europe according to their relative role in the system of flows and their concentration of functions. The former is measured via the intensity of interaction, and the connectivity or distribution of interaction across links associated with nodes. The latter is measured via four dimensions: its sociodemographic, economic, transport accessibility, and tourism characteristics. The results show that the relationships between interaction and node attributes differ for types of flow. Compared with business flows, holiday flows and node-attributes are less strongly correlated. We also find that the differences between the two rankings can be explained to some extent by the fact that corporeal interaction is influenced by the physical barriers imposed by sea

ON THE PARTICIPATION IN MEDIUM- AND LONG-DISTANCE TRAVEL: A DECOMPOSITION ANALYSIS FOR THE UK AND THE NETHERLANDS

Social and economic benefits have accrued from medium- and long-distance travel, but at the expense of the environment. Since the travel behaviour literature tends to concentrate on short-distance trips or trips within daily urban systems, a better understanding of the factors shaping medium- and long-distance travel is needed. Using the 1998 National Travel Surveys for the UK and the Netherlands, the study reported here characterises medium- and long-distance travellers in terms of socio-economic attributes, time availability, day of travel, and land-use related factors. The results suggest that, in both countries, males and individuals with a higher socio-economic status are more likely to engage in medium- and long-distance travel. The analysis further shows that the overall structure of the urban system in combination with the size of the country and the local population density affect the participation in medium- and long-distance travel. Such factors should be considered explicitly in future studies of medium- and long-distance travel. Copyright (c) 2006 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG.

A theoretical framework and methodology for characterising national urban systems on the basis of flows of people: empirical evidence for France and Germany

In advanced economies, flows play an important part in connecting urban nodes. This paper sets up a framework for identifying and classifying the pattern of the urban systems from an interaction perspective. Three S-dimensions are proposed (that is, the strength of interaction, the symmetry of interaction and the structure of the network) and a set of indices that are important for characterising network configurations. Using the European long-distance mobility database (DATELINE), the framework is applied to examine the pattern of interaction between functional urban areas (FURs) in France and Germany. The analysis is carried out separately for three journey purposes: business, holiday and leisure. The results reveal that national urban systems embrace a wide variety of constellations and that considerable variation in these constellations can be observed across journey purposes and countries. Overall, the authors are confident that the proposed framework provides a useful analytical tool for characterising the configurations of urban systems

The influence of socio-economic characteristics, land use and travel time considerations on mode choice for medium- and longer-distance trips

This paper contributes to the limited number of investigations into the influence of the spatial configuration of land use and transport systems on mode choice for medium- and longer-distance travel (defined here as home-based trips of 50 km and over) in the Netherlands. We have employed data from the 1998 Netherlands National Travel Survey to address the question as to how socioeconomic factors, land use attributes, and travel time affect mode choice for medium- and longer-distance travel, and how their role varies across trip purposes: commuting, business, and leisure. The empirical analysis indicates that land use attributes and travel time considerations are important in explaining the variation in mode choice for medium- and longer-distance travel when controlling for the socioeconomic characteristics of travellers

Valuation of travel time for international long-distance travel - results from the Fehmarn Belt stated choice experiment

The geographical scope of travel varies from short distances in urban areas to long distances across cities and countries. While urban travel has been widely analysed in the literature, travel over longer distances and particularly across countries, has received much less attention. While this may be justified due to the number of travellers it cannot be justified when looking at the mileage consumption and its resulting environmental impacts. In this paper, we investigate international long-distance travel preferences related to travel between Scandinavia and Central Europe with particular focus on the Fehmarn Belt fixed link between Germany and Denmark to be opened in 2021. To facilitate long-term demand forecasts for the future fixed link, stated preference data were collected in 2011. Based on these data a discrete choice model for long-distance travellers was developed in order to estimate the value of travel time savings (VTTS). The final model, which was formulated as a nested logit model and included Box–Cox transformed travel time and cost attributes, revealed several interesting findings. Firstly, we found damping effects in both cost and time – most strongly in cost. Secondly, we found significant interactions among travel cost and time, and journey characteristics, such as distance and duration. This had direct impact on the VTTS, which was shown to decrease with distance and duration. Thirdly, we found that air travel implies a higher average VTTS, which is to be expected but rarely supported by empirical evidence