Search

Peak-avoidance has been suggested as a strategy to ease congestion and improve the travel experience in the road traffic system. However, commuters’ trade-offs when choosing whether to avoid the peak in the context of subway use have not yet been explored. In highly concentrated megacities, high demand during peak hours in the subway leads to long queues waiting to enter stations or platforms, as well as crowded trains, which yields highly negative externalities. This paper contextualizes and incorporates commuters’ perceived value as a theoretical basis to explain how perceived benefits and perceived sacrifices affect commuters’ intentions to avoid the peak in subway systems. A hybrid model was constructed to incorporate the perceived benefits and perceived sacrifices as latent variables to understand peak-avoidance behavior. Social norms, previous habits, and personal subjective feelings have significant impacts on subway commuters’ peak-avoidance decisions. In addition, our combined model improved the explanatory power compared to a traditional ordered logit model. The framework can be used as a theoretical basis for further development of behavioral research into commuters’ decision-making. Finally, these findings provide meaningful guidance for the government and subway companies to encourage travelers to avoid rush hours effectively.

This paper reports on the effects of an e-cycling stimulation program on travel satisfaction in the province of North-Brabant, the Netherlands. The program was designed to stimulate car-commuters to shift to e-bike in daily commuting, earning a monetary incentive for each kilometre e-cycled. With a longitudinal design, this study shows a significant increase in travel satisfaction when switching from car to e-bike. Starting from an average slightly positive satisfaction with car commuting, participants reported an extremely positive expected travel satisfaction by e-bike. Although a bit less than expected, the experienced travel satisfaction with e-cycling was high after a period of a month and even increased in the following period of half a year. Where the participants can be sub-divided into car-only and multi-modal car-commuters, this distinction does not show in the experienced travel satisfaction with e-cycling. Our study indicates that the hedonic treadmill mechanism does not automatically apply to the satisfaction with e-cycling. Multivariate analyses suggest that the increase in the travel satisfaction is affected by self-reported health, car ownership, urbanization degree, whether car use and e-cycling are experienced as strenuous, congestion on the route and the attractiveness of the cycle route.

In this paper, we argue that the current focus on cycling must not neglect the need to improve public transport services for the large number of people who do not want to or are unable to cycle. An ...

Although interest in the concept of tradable driving credits (TDC) has increased in recent years, empirical research into the potential effects of such a measure is scarce. The study reported in this paper employed an activity-based approach to investigate drivers’ responses to two distance-based TDC scenarios. Three hundred and eight Dutch frequent car commuters participated in an online stated adaptation experiment in which they recorded their car use for 7 days and, in response to the TDC scenarios, had the opportunity to reorganise their car use pattern, if desired. This paper investigates adaptation behaviours at the trip level. The results show that approximately 30% of trips made for maintenance and leisure-oriented activities were subject to change. In cases of change, a travel mode change was the most preferred adaptation strategy. A mixed logit modelling framework is used to test the effect of a variety of activity/trip attributes, TDC scenario attributes, and individual characteristics on the preference for adaptation alternatives.

There is increasing interest in the concept of tradable driving credits (TDC) as an alternative road pricing measure. To a considerable extent, this interest is inspired by the belief that TDC will address some major equity-related concerns, which are often raised in the case of traditional road pricing, because the measure is revenue-neutral, offers an opportunity for individuals to gain, and guarantees a minimum amount of ‘free’ travel through the allocation of personal credit allowances. This study investigates the acceptability of a proposed kilometre-based TDC scheme for personal car use. By analysing data from the Netherlands and China (Beijing), opinions towards TDC and its determinants are studied in two different cultural, societal and institutional contexts. Acceptability was much higher in Beijing: 67% compared to 22% in the Netherlands. We relate this difference to higher congestion levels in Beijing and the city’s current license plate-based driving restriction policy, compared to which TDC is evaluated to be more effective and fair by a majority of the participants. Having a higher income was positively related with acceptability in both countries, as were expected effectiveness and fairness. The effect of perceived fairness was particularly strong in Beijing.

Facing serious challenges of traffic congestion and air pollution, Beijing has implemented a series of traffic polices. In this paper, we first investigate the effectiveness of existing traffic measures in Beijing and analyse the underlying factors from the perspective of drivers, which provide insights for the traffic regulations in other cities worldwide. While the car ownership restriction has effectively limited the total number of vehicle in Beijing, the effect of the car use restriction only lasts for a short period. A survey on drivers’ opinions and attitudes towards the traffic situation and a potential measure, i.e., tradable driving credit (TDC), is conducted. Although traffic data shows that congestion improved and traffic was slightly congested in recent years in Beijing, most respondents believe congestion is still serious in Beijing. However, they think the impact of traffic congestion on their personal car use is relatively low, which could partly explain why so many travellers still depend on driving given the relative convenient transit facilities in Beijing. In addition, a large proportion of respondents treat personal cars as a representation of social status and think driving bring them pleasures, which indicates that it may be hard to further decrease the share of car trips in Beijing. According to their attitudes and social-economical characters, respondents’ willingness on their changes of travel behaviours under TDC is investigated. The results show that individuals’ social-economic characters such as income level, education and family size and the symbolic meaning of personal cars have significant influence on respondents’ willingness to switch to other transport modes.

Congestion is a major problem for peak-hour commuters in the Beijing subway system, as it leads to long queuing times and overcrowded vehicles. This paper explores to what extent peak travel can be reduced by providing incentives for peak avoidance. In a stated preference study, travellers’ responses to two financial and two non-financial incentives were measured, and factors increasing or limiting the response were identified. Our results suggest that all four incentives can be reasonably effective tools and the financial incentives seem to have a slightly stronger effect than the services and credit-for-gifts-based scenarios. Ordered logit models indicate that various factors influence people’s receptiveness of incentives for peak avoidance which relate to the ease of change or presence of alternatives and receptiveness to incentives. Both theoretical and policy implications are concluded that the proposed factors and incentive system can help solving the subway congestion in Beijing.

This paper reports on the effects of an e-cycling incentive program in the province of North-Brabant, The Netherlands, in which commuters could earn monetary incentives when using their e-bike. The study used a longitudinal design allowing to observe behaviour change and mode shifts. The program appeared to be highly effective in stimulating e-bike use, as one month after the start of the program, the share of commute trips made by e-bike increased from 0% to 68%, with an increase up to 73% after half a year of participating. The environmental, congestion and health benefits of this shift are however mixed. Half of the e-bike trips substitute car trips, with positive effects on environment, congestion and health. The other half substitutes conventional cycling trips, implying fever health benefits. Our analyses further suggest that distance is an important factor for adopting e-cycling, where e-bike has a larger acceptable distance than a conventional bike. Nevertheless, we observed that the likelihood to use the e-bike decreased as commuting distance increased. Multivariate analyses suggest that a shift to e-cycling is affected by age, gender, physical condition, car ownership and household composition. Our study did find support for the hypothesis that having a strong car-commuting habit decreases the probability of mode shift to a new mode alternative. In contrast, multimodality may increase the likelihood of e-bike use as a result of openness to other travel options and a more deliberate mode choice. Lastly, dissatisfaction with the current travel mode positively influences mode shift towards the e-bike. Our results imply that stimulating e-cycling may be a promising way of stimulating physical activity, but that it will be most effective if targeted at specific groups who are not currently engaging in active travel.

With the continuous advancement of (mobile) ICT devices and applications, their impact on travel, activities and time use becomes more diverse. This holds in particular for apps developed for mobile devices (smartphones). In this paper, we argue that the effect of ICT on travel and activities should be analysed at the level of a single specific device or application, rather than for broad classes of ICT devices. We propose activity theory as a framework to analyse the impact of smartphone apps on travel and activities. Activity theory describes how subjects apply tools (such as apps) to work on an object and achieve an outcome that is in line with the subject’s motive. The application of the tool is embedded in an activity system which includes a community, formal and informal rules and in which a division of labour exists. We apply activity theory to analyse the effects of Whatsapp and travel feedback apps, based on existing literature about these apps. The analyses suggest that the activity systems of each app differ greatly in terms of object, motive, outcomes, community and rules, with implications for their use and impact. Both apps have an impact on travel, but differ with respect to whether this effect is intentional. For both apps contradictions in the activity system can be identified, which may give rise to further development of the activity system. These seem, however, to be largest for travel feedback apps. Based on our exploration, we argue that quantitative research on the impact of apps should be complemented by qualitative research based on activity theory. In particular, activity theory may help to gain a better understanding of underlying mechanism by which apps influence travel, to strengthen the theoretical underpinning and interpretation of the results of quantitative research and to explore changes in the development and use of apps and their impact on travel behaviour.

The impact of spatial characteristics on well-being has received increasing attention over the past decade. In most studies, however, the emphasis has been on either cognitive well-being (life satisfaction) or mental health. In addition, studies differ in terms of using objective or subjective characteristics, and in terms of the spatial scale of spatial variables (neighbourhood vs. the wider urban environment). This paper first discusses these differences from a theoretical point of view, and then compares model estimates based on different well-being conceptualisations and using objective and subjective spatial variables. To this end, a survey was held in the Utrecht province in the Netherlands that focused on this issue. We find that significant differences in cognitive and affective wellbeing and mental health are observed between neighbourhoods, which can be explained from both neighbourhood characteristics and personal characteristics of the inhabitants. We find that life satisfaction and affective well-being are more affected by subjective spatial variables, and mental health more by objective variables. In particular, life satisfaction and affective well-being are mostly affected by neighbourhood attractiveness and social safety, whereas mental health is positively associated with a newer housing stock. In general neighbourhood characteristics appear to have greater impact on different forms of well-being than accessibility variables on the urban level.

This article investigates the impact of the running environment on perceived satisfaction, restoration, and running participation based on a questionnaire distributed to 1,581 novice runners. The most frequently experienced impediments on running routes are poor lighting, unleashed dogs, and encounters with cyclists and cars. Regression analyses reveal that attractiveness and restorativeness are positively associated with the quality of the running surface and running in parks or outside towns and negatively by running on public roads in town, by running in larger cities (>250,000 inhabitants), and by other road users. However, attractiveness and restorativeness of running routes play only a minor role in the decision of how frequently to run. Practical considerations (proximity, threats) appear to have a larger impact on running frequency. Importantly, the most frequently mentioned impediments (poor lighting, cars, unleashed dogs) do not affect running frequency, whereas infrequent impediments (threats by other people) significantly affect running frequency.

Previous studies on the association between the availability of sports facilities and sports participation have neglected the influence of subjective constraints that individuals experience with regard to sports participation. This paper investigates to what extent constraints experienced by sports participants are associated with their spatial circumstances and whether these subjective constraints or objective spatial circumstances have a greater impact on sports frequency. Based on a survey among 776 adults in urban and rural municipalities in the Netherlands, regression analyses revealed that constraints were related to neighbourhood liveability and distance to indoor sports facilities and swimming pools. Time constraints had a strong negative effect on sports frequency, but the effect of distance to indoor facilities and swimming pools was even more important. Our results furthermore indicate a growing need for flexibility in the spatiotemporal organization of sports activities and an increased import...

Incentive-based travel demand management strategies are gaining increasing attention because they are generally considered more acceptable by the traveling public and policy makers. This study presented a detailed analysis and modeling effort aimed at understanding how incentives affected traveler choices by using data collected from a reward-based experiment conducted in 2006 in the Netherlands. The incentive-based scheme analyzed in this study included monetary rewards or credit toward obtaining a smartphone with a view to motivating commuters to change their choice of departure time out of the peak period or to shift their mode of travel. The mixed panel multinomial logit modeling approach adopted in this study was able to isolate the impacts of incentives on behavioral choices while accounting for variations in such impacts across socioeconomic groups that might have been due to unobserved individual preferences and constraints. The model also shed light on the effects of behavioral inertia, in which individuals were prone to continue their past behavior even when it was no longer optimal. Finally, the study offered insights on the extent to which behavioral changes persisted after termination of the incentive period. In general, it was found that incentives were effective in changing behavior and overcame inertial effects; however, individuals largely reverted to their original behavior when the rewards were eliminated. This finding suggests that incentives need to be provided for a sustained period to bring about lasting change.

Introduction: Travel behavior research has only started to address how travel affects emotional wellbeing. The development of measurement methods is an important goal of this research.Methods: A re ...

A considerable amount of studies have indicated that people to some extent select themselves in specific neighbourhoods allowing them to travel in their desired way. Although a lot of studies analysed the degree to which travel preferences affect the residential location choice, few studies looked at the effect of a residential relocation on people's travel behaviour and attitudes. A new residential context has the potential to disrupt previous travel choices and could potentially change people's attitudes. This study – using 1539 recently relocated residents in the city of Ghent (Belgium) – analyses self-reported changes in mode frequency and travel attitudes after a relocation, and uses a cohort approach to look at mode frequency and attitudes at different times after the relocation took place. Results suggest that (i) travel attitudes often influence the residential location choice, and (ii) both travel attitudes and travel mode choice change after a relocation, albeit in different ways depending on the current (urban versus suburban) and previous residential neighbourhood (more/equally/less urbanised). This study also suggests that a (possible) dissonance between travel attitudes and the residential neighbourhood is partly a temporal situation, as attitudes can gradually change in accordance with the new residential environment.

In this chapter, ideas and directions for future research are presented. Various interventions, as a means of counteracting mispredictions by the individual traveler and breaking travel habits, are discussed and illustrated. We elaborate upon what is known about individuals’ predictions and their accompanying thoughts about possible consequences regarding wellbeing when performing a travel mode change. It is argued that one overall goal of every transport policy should be providing sustainable travel, accompanied by sustained or increased wellbeing. The authors conclude that, while there is a vast amount of research on judgment and decision making, there is still a need for knowledge of how to aid people’s judgments as regards switching to sustainable alternatives. Specifically, researchers are urged to unveil how to prevent a loss of, or support a gain in, wellbeing when switching to sustainable travel.

In this chapter, we provide an introduction to the topic and a brief overview of Quality of Life and Daily Travel. A short background of why it is relevant to study travel and wellbeing, along with definitions and concepts related to quality of life research – such as objective and subjective outcomes, and hedonic and eudaimonic outcomes – will be followed by an overview of the chapters of the book arranged in three parts: theoretical perspectives and conceptualizations, case studies, and future directions. The aim of this book, Quality of Life and Daily Travel, is to compile current knowledge into one edited volume, where several areas of research are integrated – including traffic and transport psychology, transport planning and engineering, transport geography, transport economics, consumer services, and wellbeing research – in order to discuss the various facets of the links between travel and wellbeing. The importance of mobility, accessibility, experiences and emotions for the wellbeing of people will be highlighted.

This article investigates the influence of both mobility events and household events on modal shift decision for bicycle commuting using data collected from a retrospective survey in the Netherlands. The results from a mixed-logit analysis illustrate the influence of several life events on commute modal shifts in addition to changes in commute time and sociodemographic variables. Job characteristics such as changes in work status and employer, mobility resource, long-term mobility events, and household events are seen to influence commuting decision by bicycle.

Objectives This paper proposes a conceptual model of the complex relationships between travel behaviour and health. In addition it gives a research agenda providing an overview of challenges for future research. Methods We review the relevant literature in the areas of public health, land use and transportation that address issues related to health and travel and their underlying mechanisms. We do not aim to give a full review of the literature but to underpin the conceptual model. Results and conclusions We conclude that research can easily come to the ‘wrong’ conclusions if the complex causal relationships that exist between relevant factors are overlooked. In particular, ignoring contradictory effects for specific socio-demographic groups, (residential) self-selection effects, substitutions of different forms of activity, and reverse causalities may lead to overestimation of the effect of policies. For example, travel-related physical activity might interact with other physical activity, self-selection effects may influence the complex relationships between travel behaviour and health, and people׳s health may influence their walking or cycling behaviour. Based on the conceptual model we present a research agenda. A first research challenge is to explore the combined effect of travel behaviour related determinants for health effects (physical activity, air pollution intake, injuries, and subjective well-being) on health. A second challenge is exploring the interactions between travel-related physical activity and other physical activity. Thirdly, the importance of attitudes and attitude formation, specifically health-related attitudes and self-selection processes related to travel behaviour, is an important research topic. Fourthly, it is important to explore the relationship between cycling levels and injury risks, because risks seem to be correlated with cycling levels: the more people cycle, the lower the injury risks. Fifthly, we think it is important to study the relevance of walking and cycling related self-selection effects. A sixth challenge relates to transport innovations.

This paper investigates travel time attributed to non-work stops in multi-purpose commuting trips. Travel time is explained by socio-demographics and spatial attributes, mode shift is also included to analyze the extra travel time, and its trade-off with activity time for four types of non-work stops—eating out, shopping, leisure/social activities, and family/personal/other. Data come from the “Daily Activity and Travel Survey of Beijing 2012”. Descriptive analysis shows that almost 20% of the multi-purpose commuting trips include a mode shift toward a more motorized transport mode than their direct counterparts. Regression results indicate that extra travel time due to detours is significantly related to the activity durations. Regardless of the activity type, longer work duration reduces the travel time. Furthermore, the interaction terms between personal/trip/spatial factors and activities durations show the impacts differ across the activity types. Gender difference is found only for eating out, which suggests that male commuters travel longer for the same amount of activity time. Concerning spatial factors, a greater mix of facilities near workplaces helps to reduce the extra travel time invested for a time unit of shopping and family/personal/other activities. Compared with public transit users, active mode users have shorter travel time for eating out. Timing, work duration and commuting duration as time-budget-related variables show negative impacts on the extra travel time for eating-out, shopping and family/personal/other activities. However, mode shift does not show any significant impact as the hypothesis proposed. Instead of rebalancing the trade-off between travel and activity time, commuters may relocate activity with an expanded opportunity choice set given by a higher mobility level.