Commuting travel mode choice among office workers: Comparing an Extended Theory of Planned Behavior model between regions and organizational sectors

Abstract

Little is known about how contextual factors influence psychosocial determinants of travel mode choice. The reported study examined the effect of organizational sector and geographical region on an Extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model of commuting travel mode choice. Multigroup structural equation model analyses were conducted to test for sectoral and regional differences using survey data from office workers of four organizations. The results indicate that intention was very strongly related to commuting travel mode choice. Attitude, descriptive norm, and perceived control were also consistently associated with intentions. Personal norm, injunctive norm, and habit did not have (consistent) significant effects on intention or behavior in the overall models of short-distance and long-distance commuting. Most commute-related beliefs varied between organizational sectors and regions. The relevance of psychosocial determinants in the extended TPB model was generally similar across sectors and regions, except for the effect of injunctive norm which differed between regions. The results suggest that organizational-level as well as regional-level interventions have potential to change commuting travel mode choice. Transforming attitude, descriptive norm and perceived control is likely to be equally useful across contexts, although the potential for change in psychosocial determinants might vary between contexts.