Changes of Private Car Use in Response to Travel Demand Management

Abstract

In times when reduction and changes in private car use is on the political agenda in urban areas, there is a need to better understand and forecast the process of change in car use. Traditional conceptualizations of travel choice in equilibrium may be insufficient to this end and need to be complemented. An alternative theoretical framework is therefore proposed based on goal setting and self-regulation theory in social psychology with the aim of analyzing responses to travel demand management (TDM) measures targeting reduced or changed car use. Such measures are assumed to lead to that car users set car-use reduction or change goals followed by planning of how to implement and implementing changes in car use to reach the goals. It is hypothesized that choices among change options are made sequentially according to a satisficing principle of minimizing psychological costs. As implied by an operationalization of this hypothesis, the result of a survey indicate that choices of mode switching correlate the strongest with the size of the car-use reduction goal, activity/trip suppression the next strongest, and efficient car use (trip chaining, car pooling, and choice of closer destinations) the weakest. The results of two additional followup surveys show that choice of number and frequency of adaptation alternatives as expected increase with the size of the car-use reduction or change goal. Taken together the results also suggested, however, that costs and effectiveness of adaptation alternatives may vary with trip purpose, the particular travel demand management measure, and household characteristics. Further research needs to incorporate such factors.

Exploring passenger anxiety associated with train travel

“…Substantial differences may exist between travel experiences based on personal characteristics such as age, sex, and disability (Gärling 2005;Stradling et al 2007). In terms of sex-based differences, Lynch and Atkins (1988) investigated the effects of women's fears and apprehension about being attacked and harassed on use of transportation facilities.…”

The impact of targeted outreach for parking mitigation on the UC Berkeley campus

“…Gä rling offers a conceptual framework for evaluating the effectiveness of TDM measures, suggesting that non-coercive TDM measures, such as public information campaigns, should be combined with coercive TDM measures-which can include increasing parking fees, or even removing parking entirely (Gä rling, 2005;Gä rling et al, 2002). Likewise Litman similarly argues that TDM programs are most cost effective when implemented with other strategies (Litman, 2010).…”

Social Marketing in Travel Demand Management

“…One suggested approach is de-marketing of the car, that is to attempt to reduce the car's attractiveness (Wright & Egan, 2000). Another approach would be to promote alternatives to travelling, for example, stay home and watch TV instead of going to the theatre or teleworking instead of commuting (e.g., Gärling, 2005;Møller-Jensen, Jensen-Butler, Madsen, Millard, & Schmidt, 2008). However, the most common approach -and probably also the most feasible in most cases -is to promote alternative modes of travel.…”