Changes to Commute Mode: The Role of Life Events, Spatial Context and Environmental Attitude

It has been suggested that commuting behaviours become resistant to change and that changes to commute mode may be more likely at the time of major life events. This paper presents for the first time a robust quantification of the effect of life events on the likelihood of changing commute mode, controlling for demographics, socio-economics, spatial context and environmental attitude. This is conducted for a large, representative sample of the English working population using data from the first two waves of the UK Household Longitudinal Study. Changes in commute mode are found to be most strongly associated with changes in distance to work which occur in association with moving home or changing job. The distance relationship is asymmetric with increases in distance being far more likely to prompt switches to car commuting than reductions in distance are to prompt switches to non-car commuting. Residential relocations that involve an increase in population density and reduced journey times to employment by public transport are found to increase the likelihood of switching to non-car commuting. The results support a theoretical conception put forward in the paper of how travel behaviour is influenced by events over the life course and indicate there are opportunities for behavioural change interventions to be targeted at population groups experiencing life events.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADB10 Traveler Behavior and Values.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Clark, Ben
  • Chatterjee, Kiron
  • Melia, Steve
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2015-1-11 to 2015-1-15
• Date: 2015

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 25p
• Monograph Title: TRB 94th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Commuting; Modal shift; Mode choice; Travel behavior
• Identifier Terms: U.K. Household Longitudinal Study
• Uncontrolled Terms: Job change; Life events; Residential relocation
• Geographic Terms: United Kingdom
• Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01558137
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 15-5358
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 28 2015 5:26PM