Going soft: on how Subjective Variables Explain Modal Choices for Leisure Travel

By Veronique Van Acker, Patricia L. Mokhtarian, Frank Witlox. European Journal of Transport and Infrastructure Research, 2011

121 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Most studies on the link between the built environment and modal choice characterize and model this relationship by objectively measureable characteristics such as density and diversity. Recently, within the debate on residential self-selection, attention has also been paid to the importance of subjective influences such as the individual’s perception of the built environment and his/her residential attitudes and preferences, resulting in models that take account of both the objective and subjective characteristics of the built environment. However, self-selection might occur on other points than residential location as well. Expanding the analysis to also include both objective and subjective characteristics at other model levels (i.e., not only stage of life characteristics but also personal lifestyles; not only car availability but also travel attitudes, not only modal choice but also mode specific attitudes) is the purpose of this paper. To this end, a modal choice model for leisure trips is developed using data on personal lifestyles and attitudes, collected via an Internet survey, and estimated using a path model consisting of a set of simultaneously estimated equations between observed variables. While controlling for subjective lifestyles and attitudes, the effects of the built environment and car availability on modal choice can more correctly be determined and thus insights into self-selection mechanisms can be gained. Moreover, we compared the results of a model with and without these subjective influences. The results show that subjective characteristics at various model levels are important decisive factors of modal choices for leisure travel.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, Transportation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/174d74ccb1ce0e0e823050d6a2b50b57a19cb9a0

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Citations in the corpus

Do satisfying walking and cycling trips result in more future trips with active travel modes? An exploratory study (2019, background): “…likely that a cyclical process between travel-related attitudes and mode choice exists; a positive stance towards a certain mode can increase the use of that mode, while using that mode frequently might improve the attitude towards that mode (Bohte, Maat, & van Wee, 2009; Van Acker et al., 2011).”
What cognitive mechanisms predict travel mode choice? A systematic review with meta-analysis (2017, background): “Two studies measured attitudes towards the use of active modes, for example, cycling (Haustein & Hunecke, 2007) and walking/cycling (Van Acker et al., 2011) as separate variables in addition to PT use.”
The influence of residential dissonance on travel behavior (2012, unknown): “The original survey (2007), on lifestyle and mobility, was (mainly) distributed among staff members and students of the University of Antwerp and the Faculty of Sciences at Ghent University (Van Acker et al., 2011a, 2011b).”
Lifestyle Practices and Proenvironmental Technology (2012, background): “Although potentially useful in representing a paradigmatic shift in attitudes and understanding regarding the environment (Cordano et al., 2003; Dunlap, 2008), pro-environmental attitudes are only a weak predictor of pro-environmental behavior (Gill et al., 1986; Oskamp et al., 1991; Scott and Willi”
Mood and mode: does how we travel affect how we feel? (2014, background): “Van Acker et al. (2011) do not study psychological traits like baseline affect directly, but do make the important point that the causal relationship between ideas and travel behavior likely flows in both directions.”