Massive use of motor vehicles has caused serious problems of accessibility, quality of city life, and environmental quality. Reducing car use is difficult, however, because of great individual benefits running up against cumulative collective problems. Problem awareness, possible behaviour change, and the evaluation of policy measures for reducing car use were studied through in-depth interviews with 539 car owners selected as living within 7 kilometres, between 7 and 15 kilometres, and more than 15 kilometres away from the centres of Amsterdam, Eindhoven, and Groningen. These three Dutch cities have rather different mobility profiles. Within each geographic condition, respondents received systematically different amounts of prior information in a brochure. It was expected that the more people are confronted with the problems of car use in densely populated areas, in city centres, or via advance information, the higher would be their problem awareness, the greater their willingness to reduce car use, and the more positive their evaluation of policy measures. Data analysis reveals a significant regional variation in problem awareness. This is related to willingness to change and policy evaluation, as hypothesized. On average, people perceive car use as 'a problem'. However, most people are not willing to reduce car use. Respondents evaluate current Dutch policy measures as rather ineffective, but acceptable. (A)
Abstract