While previous chapters have looked at transport issues and policy responses across modes and over different spatial scales, these issues and responses are often not fully understood in terms of individuals’ transport behaviours and the psychological processes which underpin them. This Chapter, on people’s transport patterns and preferences, is concerned with aspects of what Potter and Bailey in Chapter 3 termed second-order impacts, “how societies and economies create and adapt to increasingly transport-intensive lifestyles” from the viewpoint of the individuals who find themselves living those lifestyles. Individual’s travel choices, and the transport experiences that result, are posited as involving the interaction of three factors: obligations (‘What journeys do I have to make?’), opportunities (‘How can I make those journeys?’) and inclinations (‘How would I like to make those journeys?’). This chapter looks at some of the factors influencing why people travel in the first place and, having made this decision, which transport modes they use. It examines current transport trends and developments from this perspective, presenting data on the amount and type of transport currently consumed — obligations and opportunities - and how these vary with characteristics of person and environment. It examines inclinations towards one private and one public transport mode (car and bus) and how attitudes, values, motivations, experiences and transport patterns vary across separable segments of the travelling public. The potential for the rapid adoption of information communication technology (ICT) to significantly alter travel decision-making processes and hence travel patterns is considered. The chapter concludes with an indication of how policy might take account of the ‘softer’ issues of transport psychology to influence ‘smarter’ transport choices leading to more sustainable individual travel patterns. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting