Abstract
It has been suggested that commuting behaviours become habitual and that changes to commute mode are more likely at the time of major life events. However, evidence to support this has so far been limited to analyses of small-scale samples. To address this evidence gap, we use two waves of panel data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (2009/10 and 2010/11) to identify and explain the prevalence of individual change in commute mode from year to year amongst a representative sample of the English working population (n=15,200). One third of those that cycle or get the bus to work, and one quarter of those that walk to work, are shown to change commuting mode by the following year. Car commuting is more stable, with only one in ten car commuters changing mode by the following year. Commute mode changes are found to be primarily driven by alterations to the distance to work which occur in association with changing job or moving home. Switching to non-car commuting becomes much more likely (9.2 times) as the distance to work drops below three miles. High quality public transport links to employment centres are shown to encourage switches away from car commuting and mixed land uses are shown to encourage switches to active commuting (walking and cycling). Switches away from car commuting are found to be more likely (1.3 times) for those with a pro-environmental attitude. The attitude orientation is shown to precede the behaviour change, demonstrating evidence of ‘cause and effect’. Overall, the study shows that changes in commuting behaviour are strongly influenced by life events, spatial context and environmental attitude.
Highlights
Transport policies in urban areas are often designed to encourage people to adopt non-car transport in order to reduce pressure on scarce road space and to improve the quality of the urban environment
Distance increases are more likely to prompt a switch to car commuting than distance reductions are to prompt a switch from car commuting
Past commuting behaviour is known to be a strong predictor of current behaviour (Dargay and Hanly, 2007), indicating that behaviours learnt in the past may exert a strong influence on how people adapt to new situations following life events
Summary
Transport policies in urban areas are often designed to encourage people to adopt non-car transport in order to reduce pressure on scarce road space and to improve the quality of the urban environment. It has been shown that daily car commuting becomes habitual and is repeated with little or no conscious consideration of alternatives (Gardner, 2009). For this reason it is a challenge to encourage people to adopt new commuting behaviours, even if improvements are made to public transport services or to walking and cycling environments. It is important to understand what prompts people to change commute mode if effective policies and measures are to be developed to influence commuting behaviours. This paper examines how the likelihood of changing commute mode is influenced by life events, while accounting for socio-demographics, transport resources, spatial context (urban form and transport supply) and environmental attitude. The results are presented before the paper finishes with a discussion of the implications for research and policy
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