Speaker
Description
Sustainable transport is an elementary part of all climate change mitigation strategies. As one of the most prominent examples of climate-neutral efforts, the Green Deal of the European Commission explicitly strives for efficient, safe and environmentally friendly transport and mobility systems, in order to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement 2015.
In that context, a research cooperation between the Austrian chamber of labour (AK Wien) and the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) was established in order to explore the individual choice of transport modes for daily commuting in the Vienna city region and to provide insights into the determinants and driving forces of the given modal split. On the theoretical base of current literature on mobility behaviour, a big survey of more than 2000 commuters was set out to assess not only the actual choice of transport mode, but also requirements, limitations and reasons for these individual decisions. The results provide an interesting insight into the role of socio-economic characteristics (e.g. age, sex, education, branch of profession), local conditions (e.g density, transport infrastructure) and the quality of transportation services (travel costs and efforts) on the decision-making of commuters, how to get to their place of work. Furthermore, the data were used to implement a complex statistical model (Bayesian Structured Additive Regression), which aims at identifying the explanatory variables of the modal split in commuter traffic. For that purpose, realistic travel times of actual commuter relations in 3 transport modes considered (car, public transport, active mobility) had to be calculated by means of a GIS-based multimodal routing system. In that way, it was possible to provide a satisfying empirical base for assessing the influence of different travel times on the individual choice of the preferred transport mode.
Both the empirical analysis and the model results indicate several interesting insights in actual mobility behaviour of people on their way to work. These results can easily be transferred into recommendations for sustainable, energy-saving and climate-friendly transport policies, which could potentially be applied not only in the Vienna region, but also in other metropolitan areas.
References
Van Acker, V., Van Wee, B., & Witlox, F. (2010). When transport geography meets social
psychology: toward a conceptual model of travel behaviour. Transport Reviews, 30(2),
219-240.
Chidambaram, B., & Scheiner, J. (2021). Work-trip mode choice in Germany–Affected by individual constraints or by partner interaction? Travel Behaviour and Society, 24, 231-244.
De Witte, A., Hollevoet, J., Dobruszkes, F., Hubert, M., & Macharis, C. (2013). Linking modal choice to motility: A comprehensive review. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 49, 329-341.
Schwanen, T., & Lucas, K. (2011). Understanding auto motives. Auto Motives. Emerald
Group Publishing Limited, 3-38.
Widmer, P., Axhausen, K. W., Schmid, B., Becker, F., & Stein, P. (2020). Einfluss
nicht-verkehrlicher Variablen auf die Verkehrsmittelwahl (Vol. 1676). ETH Zürich.
| Keywords | modal spilt; commuter traffic; transport modes |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
