Abstract
© 2018 WIT Press. The leading source of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations in Bristol, United Kingdom is road transport, and Bristol exceeds the annual mean national air quality objective of 40 µg/m3 for NO2 in many locations around the city. Understanding the reasons for residents' modal choice is an important element in managing air quality in the city. The ClairCity Project approach provides insight into how to reduce overall transport demand and identify incentives that will be effective in creating modal switch away from higher polluting private motorised vehicles. From the ClairCity Project survey subset of commuters (n=442), 45% of respondents used cars or vans at least occasionally for their journey to work, with 28% of the total number of commuters relying exclusively on private motorised transport. The majority of these car users (65.6%) said they would prefer not to travel by car to work in the future. Their responses showed a mix of negative perceptions of public transport, geography and health as key motivations. Family responsibilities, lack of safe cycling and walking spaces, poor health and disability, distance, requirements to transport goods as well as themselves and the need for flexibility were all given as barriers to modal switching. This suggests that for car commuters, well-targeted policy interventions could provide practical alternatives that would appeal to those who currently rely on private motorised transport. Understanding citizens' perceptions, behaviours and activities is a key element in decision-making to reduce transport related air quality emissions and concentrations.
Highlights
With 90% of the global population breathing polluted air, poor air quality is affecting populations in rural and urban areas across the developed and developing world [1]
The Bristol ClairCity data set from the “Round One Delphi Survey” [n=500] had 57% female respondents, and the respondents were slightly more highly educated than the city average (69% with a degree or above in our data, compared to 62% of residents in the last census) [21]
The themes of public transport availability, family responsibilities, costs, safety and work responsibilities mirror the findings of other studies on UK transport choices [8]
Summary
With 90% of the global population breathing polluted air, poor air quality is affecting populations in rural and urban areas across the developed and developing world [1]. The UK continues to exceed the Ambient Air Quality Directive (2008/50/EC) (AAQD) annual mean limit value for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in at least thirty-seven areas of the country under the UK government’s 2015 analysis of the situation [2] Amongst these locations is Bristol, in the south west of England, a city with a population of just over 450,000 and ongoing exceedances of NO2 [3]. The importance of identifying clusters and differences within identified groups is of value as “the same behaviour can take place for different reasons and that the same attitudes can lead to different behaviours” [7] In this context, analysing the current choices, future preferences and differentiating the reasons that people give for these choices adds to an understanding of the complexities and patterns in travel decision-making by citizens. The current research compliments these datasets with new insights into individual preferences, and why individuals feel they cannot travel using the mode they would prefer (often more sustainable modes) and thereby giving us a better understanding of how behaviour and choice impacts on air pollution, carbon emissions and public health
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