Using an expanded version of a psychological theory of attitude-behaviour relations, namely the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), scores on factor analysed multidimensional attitude statements were used to segment a population of day trip travellers into potential 'mode switchers' using cluster analysis. Six distinct psychographic groups were extracted, each with varying degrees of mode switching potential. Each group represents a unique combination of preferences, worldviews and attitudes, indicating that different groups need to be serviced in different ways to optimise the chance of influencing mode choice behaviour. Socio-demographic factors had little bearing on the travel profiles of the segments, suggesting that attitudes largely cut across personal characteristics. The evidence clearly shows that the same behaviour can take place for different reasons and that the same attitudes can lead to different behaviours. The paper asserts that commonly used a-priori classifications used to segment populations based on demographic variables or simple behavioural measures may oversimplify the structure of the market. Cluster analysis is rarely used in studies of travel behaviour but this study demonstrates its utility in providing a way of extracting naturally occurring, relatively homogenous and meaningful groups to be used in designing targeted hard and 'soft' transport policies.

The aim of the present study is to understand how private car drivers' perception of vehicle attributes may affect their intention to adopt Electric Vehicles (EVs). Data are obtained from a national on-line survey of potential EV adopters in the UK. The results indicate that instrumental attributes are important largely because they are associated with other attributes derived from owning and using EVs including pleasure of driving (hedonic attributes) and identity derived from owning and using EVs (symbolic attributes). We also find that people who believe that a proenvironmental self-identity fits with their self-image are more likely to have positive perceptions of EV attributes. In addition, perceptions of EV attributes were found to be only very weakly associated with car-authority identity.

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This paper examines the relative importance that people attach to various instrumental and affective journey attributes when travelling either for work or for a leisure day trip and presents how journeys by various travel modes score on these attributes. Although not a comparative paper, data are presented for two studies which used some identical measurements: one on commuter journeys and one on leisure journeys. The results show that for work journeys, respondents tend to attach more importance to instrumental aspects, and especially to convenience than to affective factors. For leisure journeys, however, respondents appear to attach almost equal importance to instrumental and affective aspects, particularly flexibility, convenience, relaxation, a sense of freedom and 'no stress'. Each study also examines (i) how regular users' evaluate their own mode and (ii) how car users perceive the performance of alternative modes compared to their importance ratings. This 'gap' analysis reveals on which modes and for which attributes the greatest deficiencies in performance lie. The data for both the work and leisure studies shows that for car users, alternative transport modes are inferior on the salient attributes such as convenience and flexibility even though car users rate modes such as walking and cycling as performing well, if not, better, on less important attributes such as the environment, health and even excitement. Nevertheless, for those who cycle and walk regularly, satisfaction with their own travel mode as measured by the gap between importance and performance on salient attributes is better than for those who mostly use the car. Conclusions are made as to how greater attention to affective factors may improve our understanding of mode choice. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

In recent years, there has been growing interest in a range of transport policy initiatives which are designed to influence people's travel behaviour away from single-occupancy car use and towards more benign and efficient options, through a combination of marketing, information, incentives and tailored new services. In transport policy discussions, these are now widely described as 'soft' factor interventions or 'smarter choice' measures or 'mobility management' tools. In 2004, the UK Department for Transport commissioned a major study to examine whether large scale programmes of these measures could potentially deliver substantial cuts in car use. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the approach taken in the study, the types of evidence reviewed and the overall conclusions reached. In summary, the results suggested that, within approximately 10 years, smarter choice measures have the potential to reduce national traffic levels by about 11%, with reductions of up to 21% in peak period urban traffic. Moreover, they represent relatively good value for money, with schemes potentially generating benefit: cost ratios which are in excess of 10:1. The central conclusion of the study was that such measures could play a very significant role in addressing traffic, given the right support and policy context. Acknowledgements: The support of the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund, which has enabled the preparation of this paper, is very gratefully acknowledged. In addition, the authors wish to gratefully thank the client team at the Department for Transport, all the different experts and practitioners working in this area who contributed to the study and the reviewers of this paper for their helpful comments.

This paper seeks to develop a deeper understanding of the research on climate change mitigation in transport. We suggest that work to date has focused on the effects of improvements in transport technologies, changes in the price of transport, physical infrastructure provision, behavioural change and alternative institutional arrangements for governing transport systems. In terms of research methodologies, positivist and quantitative analysis prevails, although there are signs of experimentation with non-positivist epistemologies and participatory methods. These particular engagements with climate change mitigation reflect mutually reinforcing tendencies within and beyond the academic transport community. We first draw on a revised version of Thomas Kuhn's philosophy of science to explore the path dependencies within transport studies, which are at least partly responsible for the predisposition towards quantitative modelling and technology, pricing and infrastructure oriented interventions in transport systems. We then employ the governmentality perspective to examine how transport academics' engagements with climate change mitigation depend on and align with more general understandings of climate change in UK society and beyond. The analysis makes clear that ecological modernisation and neo-liberal governmentality more generally provide the context for the current focus on and belief in technological, behaviour change, and especially market-based mitigation strategies. While current research trajectories are important and insightful, we believe that a deeper engagement with theoretical insights from the social sciences produce richer understandings of transport mitigation in transport and briefly outline some of the contributions thinking on socio-technical transitions and practice theories can make.

With the emergence of behaviour change on political and intellectual agendas in passenger transport, the question of how to understand and intervene in habitual carbon-intensive travel practices has become crucially important. Building primarily on the philosophies of Félix Ravaisson and John Dewey, we outline an approach to travel habits that is more affirmative than prevailing psychological perspectives. Rather than as the automatically cued, repetitive behaviour of individuals, habit is understood here as a generative and propulsive capacity brought about through repetition and belonging to body-mind-world assemblages that exceed the human individual as conventionally understood. The implications of the proposed conceptualisation of habits for behaviour change are also explored. We argue that widespread, durable behaviour change is unlikely to result from the displacement of automaticity by reasoned action alone but instead demands changes in collective customs.Additionally, a narrow focus on breaking carbon-intensive travel habits should be avoided.Not only should the formation of low-carbon habits and associated forms of embodied intelligence be stimulated; it is also important to capitalise on the potential for subtle change immanent to carbon-intensive travel habits in situations where individualised vehicular travel is the only realistic transport option.

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