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Traffic Psychology and Sustainability Transportation

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Transportation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2020) | Viewed by 14982

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Ralf Risser

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Guest Editor

Department of Psychology, Palacky University, 77147 Olomouc, Czech Republic
Interests: transport; traffic psychology and sociology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Matúš Šucha

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Guest Editor

Department of Psychology, Palacky University, Olomouc 77147, Czech Republic
Interests: traffic; psychology; mobility
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Many say that it is necessary to change people’s mode choice in order to achieve improvements concerning global warming. We adhere to this opinion and want to apply psychological work in order to achieve that goal. Transport is one of the sectors that contributes heavily to global warming. In order to achieve an improvement in this sector, hundreds of millions of citizens need to change their mode choice, to shift from using an individual car or another individual motor vehicle to more sustainable traffic modes, such as public transport, walking, cycling, or combinations of these. This will not be possible without the co-operation of citizens: as many of them as possible need to change their mode choice. To achieve this goal, we need to use psychological measures to motivate citizens to change. To rely on technology development will not suffice.

This Special Issue wants to promote psychological work that helps to find ways to achieve such a change in mode choice. This could be done, e.g., by recommending changes in the preconditions for mode choice that are appreciated by the citzens and lead to a change in mode-use, or by suggesting ways to communicate with citizens in order to increase the probability that larger portions of them will listen and act in the desired way. This desired way constitutes a change from individal motor-vehicle use to other more sustainable modes.

We want to invite interested colleagues to provide papers to this Special Issue that deal with a variety of topicsthat are connected to sustainable transportation, and psychology. In more detail, we expect papers dealing with behaviour and what lies behind this behaviour in the context of personal transportation choices, for example, analyses of the factors that lie behind private motor-vehicle use and make a change to other modes difficult, barriers to the use of alternative modes, and the recommendation and testing of measures regarding how to apply such analysis results effectively. Papers based on new empirical knowledge are preferred, although concerning papers recommending measures, theoretical articles that are based on convincing reasoning will be accepted.

Prof. Ralf Risser
Dr. Matus Sucha
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

What makes car use so attractive and resistant to change;
Barriers to the use of public transport, to walking, and to cycling;
Strong points of alternative modes that are appreciated by the citizens;
Understanding what changes of preconditions enhance changes in mode choice;
Successful awareness raising, persuasion to change mode choice—“mode change marketing”;
The role of psychological factors such as habits, personality, norms, and beliefs in mode choice and its modification.

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 691 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Revealing Motives for Car Use in Modern Cities—A Case Study from Berlin and San Francisco

by Sascha von Behren, Lisa Bönisch, Ulrich Niklas and Bastian Chlond

Sustainability 2020, 12(13), 5254; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12135254 - 29 Jun 2020

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2495

Abstract

Car use in modern cities with a well-developed public transit is more sophisticated to explain only through hard factors such as sociodemographic characteristics. In cities, it is especially important to consider motives for car use. Therefore, we examined two modern cities with a high modal share of non-motorized modes and public transit to answer the question: How do the affective and instrumental motives influence car use in such cities? The used data set was collected in Berlin and San Francisco. To investigate the role of motives, we applied an ordered hybrid choice model (OHCM) with a probit kernel. Based on the OHCM we explained more than 14% of the overall heterogeneity and gave further insights to the decision-making process. The affective motive had a strong influence on car use frequency, whereby the instrumental aspects did not matter. Furthermore, an effect resulting from age could not be determined for the affective motives in these cities. Results suggest people are more likely to use cars for affective motives despite the city’s adversities. For these people it is difficult to achieve a shift to alternative means of transport. The only way to intervene here is through regulatory intervention. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Traffic Psychology and Sustainability Transportation)

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9 pages, 257 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Intergroup Comparison of Personalities in the Preferred Pricing of Public Transport in Rush Hours: Data Revisited

by Antonín Pavlíček and František Sudzina

Sustainability 2020, 12(12), 5162; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12125162 - 24 Jun 2020

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1542

Abstract

Public authorities and administrations in the developed world are trying to reduce air pollution through the introduction and promotion of public transport. Typically, passengers are charged flat fares. However, with passenger numbers rising, this flat rate pricing model ceases to be sustainable, and a new trend arises—to charge more during traffic peaks as an incentive to even the load and travel outside of rush hours. However, it can be also argued that prices should be lower during rush hours due to poorer service quality—public transportation tends to be crowded and slow. Our on-line questionnaire did not discuss the logic of pricing models, having only measured the preferences of Czech university students (N = 256). The objective was to investigate whether there is a difference in demographic factors or in personality traits between respondents preferring a lower, flat, or higher pricing model. One-way analysis of variance was used for the intergroup comparison. The majority of respondents prefer flat pricing; higher pricing was the least preferred of the three considered models. The main findings were that men, narcissists and people who tend to find fault with others (i.e. lower in one facet of agreeableness) were in favor of higher prices during rush hours. In particular, the latter finding may be useful for policy makers, as it suggests that there ought to be no or only a little tension after higher rush hours prices are introduced. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Traffic Psychology and Sustainability Transportation)

12 pages, 1057 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Understanding Autonomous Road Public Transport Acceptance: A Study of Singapore

by Samuel Chng and Lynette Cheah

Sustainability 2020, 12(12), 4974; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12124974 - 18 Jun 2020

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 4365

Abstract

This study examines the perceptions of concerns and benefits surrounding autonomous road vehicles deployed for public transport, their relationships with public acceptance, and what the public prefers during its implementation. Surveying 210 participants in Singapore, we found a general acceptance of the deployment of autonomous road public transport in Singapore with agreement that introducing them would be beneficial, particularly in improving public transport reliability and accessibility. However, they reported concerns in the areas of technical-related issues and legal liability. Participants who perceived greater benefits were also likely to report greater acceptance, even after taking into account their concerns and sociodemographic backgrounds. Participants also reported preferences for human operators to continue playing an active role, the government to test the autonomous vehicles extensively before making them available for public use and greater clarity on the legal liability when accidents involving autonomous vehicles occur when autonomous road public transport is eventually implemented. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Traffic Psychology and Sustainability Transportation)

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11 pages, 281 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Need Safer Taxi Drivers? Use Psychological Characteristics to Find or Train!

by Kayvan Aghabayk, Leila Mashhadizade and Sara Moridpour

Sustainability 2020, 12(10), 4206; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12104206 - 20 May 2020

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2713

Abstract

Professional drivers play a key role in urban road network safety. It is therefore important to employ safer drivers, also find the problem, and train the existing ones. However, a direct driving test may not be very useful solely because of drivers’ consciousness. This study introduces a latent predictor to expect driving behaviors, by finding the relation between taxi drivers’ psychological characteristics and their driving behaviors. A self-report questionnaire was collected from 245 taxi drivers by which their demographic characteristics, psychological characteristics, and driving behaviors were obtained. The psychological characteristics include instrumental attitude, subjective norm, sensation seeking, aggressive mode, conscientiousness, life satisfaction, premeditation, urgency, and selfishness. Driving behaviors questionnaire (DBQ) provides information regarding drivers’ violations, aggressive violations, errors, and lapses. The standard linear regression model is used to determine the relationship between driving behavior and psychological characteristics of drivers. The findings show that social anxiety and selfishness are the best predictors of the violations; aggressive mode is a significant predictor of the aggressive violations; urgency has a perfect impact on the errors; and finally, life satisfaction, sensation seeking, conscientiousness, age, and urgency are the best predictors of the lapses. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Traffic Psychology and Sustainability Transportation)

Other

Jump to: Research

13 pages, 1379 KiB

Open AccessConcept Paper

Start Walking! How to Boost Sustainable Mode Choice—Psychological Measures to Support a Shift from Individual Car Use to More Sustainable Traffic Modes

by Ralf Risser and Matus Sucha

Sustainability 2020, 12(2), 554; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su12020554 - 11 Jan 2020

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 2967

Abstract

Transport is one of the sectors that contributes to global warming. To tackle this issue, one of the most important tasks is to enhance/support a mode shift from individual car use to more sustainable traffic modes. To achieve this, psychology-based measures are needed. We need to understand what keeps people from walking, and what motivates people who do walk to do so, or to define the barriers and the preconditions that are needed for walking or cycling. These preconditions are perceived in a different way by different people. As the motivation of individual citizens differs greatly, the preconditions have to be targeted precisely. In this paper a scheme is presented that deals with this issue—i.e., to enhance/support a mode shift to sustainable traffic modes with the following steps: To identify and improve the preconditions for walking; to communicate information, and; to provide opportunities or incentives. As a theoretical background we use a classical marketing model presented by Philip Kotler, which has strong connections with communication and social psychology. Through the case of supporting sustainable traffic modes—the product which will be “sold”—we present the different steps of the model (information, product, communication, incentives, and distribution). With all aspects we emphasize that a holistic approach (a combination of all these aspects and steps) is necessary for a successful marketing process that in fact makes citizens “buy” the idea of walking (more). The main suggestion of this paper is to implement the steps suggested in it in the frame of a pilot project in a city or a province and then to evaluate. Evidence that the suggested measures work when applied appropriately and—as strongly underlined—in a concerted manner can only be achieved by trying in practice. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Traffic Psychology and Sustainability Transportation)

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