Students’ mobility attitudes and sustainable transport mode choice

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to explore the propensity of university students to use different sustainable transport modes, taking into account individual and specific trip characteristics, as well as students’ psychological traits (i.e. attitudes). Design/methodology/approach Using the transport mode preferences of 827 students who responded to a travel survey, a two-step analysis is conducted. The first step examines the effects of individual characteristics, travel experience and origin or destination features on students’ stated preferences (i.e. self-selected values assigned to personal attitudes). The second step analyses students’ travel mode choices, given their intrinsic mobility attitudes. Findings The results suggest that informing students about environmental issues increases their propensity to use sustainable mobility, leading to an average decrease in private transport usage of 5.8 per cent. Interestingly, improving the public transport service and promoting sustainable transport mobility have different impacts on individual campus areas. For campuses located in the city centre and in the historical hamlet, improvements in public transport are found to decrease solo driving by 3.3 per cent and 5.3 per cent, respectively. In suburban areas, this value increases to 9.5 per cent. Originality/value This work makes two contributions to the literature. First, it focuses on an unexplored setting, namely, that of a multi-campus university, with districts located in three different areas. This is used to explain how students are influenced by their travel experience and the cultural framework in which they are embedded. Second, the two-step analysis leads to a deeper understanding of the differences between attitudes and “intrinsic attitudes”, and their relative influence on the preferred alternative.

Analysis of Interurban Mobility in University Students: Motivation and Ecological Impact

“…A questionnaire was developed for this study. In order to create this questionnaire, a bibliographic search was made of similar studies [ 1 , 18 , 23 , 24 , 25 ]. A brainstorming methodology was employed, in which 27 people participated, to determine the constructs that students would use to justify their choice of means of transport.…”

“…Previous work has reflected on the importance of using sustainable means of transport by the university community. In this respect, Mateo-Babiano et al (2020) analysed the use that Filipino university students made of a system of shared bicycles [ 18 ], and Cattaneo et al (2018) analysed the attitudes of university students towards various sustainable modes of transport [ 23 ]. In their work, the researchers revealed that the particularities of university campuses condition the type of student mobility.…”

“…Based on an analysis of transportation needs, they propose a mobility plan for the university that includes actions in infrastructure, transportation, and culture [ 1 ]. The evaluation of the current situation and the knowledge of the opinions of the users of the means of transport are fundamental for the definition of public policies that promote sustainable mobility [ 23 ].…”

(In)Equitable Accessibility to Sustainable Transport from Universities in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area, Mexico

“…First, students need STMs to commute to UFs, due to their limited incomes and transport choices [43,44]. Second, the promotion of STMs contributes to shifting the future travel behaviour of current students [45]. Third, the sustainable mobility paradigm promotes more equitable and livable cities [41,42,46,47].…”

“…In accordance with these global trends, the individual transport systems-e.g., assisted bicycles, segways, and scooters-have been integrated into public policies in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area (GMA), and they must operate in the city under the principles of accessibility, equity, and security [53,54]. University students' transport-related inequities have been studied in developed countries [43,45,[55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63]. Some authors have tackled the conceptual frame [5,6,8,14,16,17], while others have improved the concepts through empirical studies worldwide [4,60,[64][65][66][67] and in Latin America [34,68].…”