Citation

De Vos J. Transp. Rev. 2022; 42(5): 573-579.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/01441647.2022.2078537

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Travel behaviour studies taking into account attitudes have existed for a long time. At the end of the 1970s, studies discovered that attitudes and behaviour are mutually dependent on each other. For instance, Dobson, Dunbar, Smith, Reibstein, and Lovelock (1978) and Reibstein, Lovelock, and Dobson (1980) - using a sample of approximately 800 Los Angeles residents - found that the frequency of bus use and attitude towards bus use positively affect each other. At the end of the 1990s, a renewed interest in the link between travel attitudes and travel behaviour emerged. This interest was strongly influenced by the well-known theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991). According to this theory, attitudes (which are considered stable over time) are a strong predictor of behaviour. As a result, many travel behaviour researchers included attitudinal statements in their survey to capture travel attitudes, and mostly found strong effects of attitudes (e.g. mode-specific attitudes) on travel behaviour (e.g. travel mode choice) (e.g. Bagley & Mokhtarian, 2002; Bamberg, Ajzen, & Schmidt, 2003; Kitamura, Mokhtarian, & Laidet, 1997). From the middle of the 2000s, studies revealed that travel attitudes are not only linked to travel behaviour, but that travel attitudes also differ according to where people live. People living in suburban neighbourhoods often have positive driving attitudes, while those living in more urban-type neighbourhoods tend to have positive attitudes towards public transport use and active travel. These outcomes suggest that people select a neighbourhood enabling them to travel in a desirable way (i.e. with a preferred travel mode). Consequently, travel attitudes may influence the residential location choice, and the effect of the built environment on travel behaviour may be overestimated as attitudes may be the true predictor of travel behaviour (e.g. Cao, Mokhtarian, & Handy, 2009; Handy, Cao, & Mokhtarian, 2005).

Despite the focus on the effects of travel attitudes on travel behaviour and residential location choice, recent studies also took into account opposite effects...

Language: en