Does a high level of multimodality mean less car use? An exploration of multimodality trends in England

Abstract

Some existing studies have suggested that a higher level of multimodality-the use of more than one transport mode within a given period of time-may be desirable to achieve societies less dependent on cars. The aim of this study was to investigate the trends in individual multimodality in England. In addition, we explored whether these trends were homogenous, i.e. similar between socio-economic characteristics, and whether changes in multimodality corresponded with changes in car use and the use of other transport modes. Our analyses showed that in contrast to reported trends in existing research, the level of multimodality in England decreased between 1995 and 2015. These trends stratified by income were diverging, which may imply that inequality in transport opportunities may be increasing. In contrast, the trends for age and gender were converging. In addition, we found that the car mode share remained fairly stable and absolute car use decreased since 2004, whilst multimodality decreased. This suggests that there is no necessary relationship between aggregate levels of car use and the average individual level of multimodality. Moreover, our analyses showed that these trends were very similarly independent of which indicator was applied. This indicates that for analysing trends in multimodality, the choice of indicator may not be that important, and indicators that are elementary to calculate and easy to interpret, e.g. number of modes used, highlight trends that are highly consistent with more sophisticated metrics. This paper finishes with a discussion of the implications of these findings.

Multimodality and CO2 emissions: A relationship moderated by distance

“…those that use a car on a regular basis). Increasing the level of multimodality in a population where car use dominates may simultaneously reduce car use, which reduces the total amount of CO2 emissions-although in the aggregate increases in multimodality do not necessarily go hand in hand with reductions in car use (Heinen & Mattioli, 2017).…”

“…We constructed two types of multimodality measures: on an individual level and on a trip level. For individual-level calculations, we followed previous studies on multimodality using the NTS data to prepare the data for the analyses (Heinen and Chatterjee, 2015;Heinen and Mattioli, 2017). The first step made use of the 'stages file' in the NTS.…”

“…We calculated all individual-level and trip-level multimodality indicators considering both three and eight modes, similar to other studies on the NTS data (Heinen and Chatterjee, 2015;Heinen and Mattioli, 2017).…”

“…The European Commission declared 2018 the 'year of multimodality', which in their words, reflects a commitment to reducing CO2 (Civitas, 2018). While the EC's definition of multimodality is 'the use of different modes of transport during the same journey', in the scientific literature, the term generally refers to the use of multiple modes by individuals in a given time frame, whether as part of the same trip or for separate trips (Heinen and Mattioli, 2017)-with the term 'intermodality' sometimes used to refer more specifically to the use of multiple modes on a single trip (Oostendorp & Gebhardt, 2018;Dacko & Spalteholz, 2014).…”

“…Recent findings, however, do not corroborate the assumption that higher levels of multimodality automatically result in less car use. For example, Heinen and Mattioli (2017) showed that the average multimodality level of individuals decreased between 1995 and 2015 in England using time-series data from the National Travel Survey. This decline occurred at the same time as a significant reduction in car use.…”