Unlocking transport sustainability: analysing resistance to modal transfer from cars

There is a general consensus that to effect a more sustainable transport policy, there is a necessity to reduce car use (especially for short trips). Resistance to modal transfer from cars has been shown to be embedded in various psycho-social obstacles which are not readily teased out in orthodox econometric studies of travel demand. We report on an empirical study which fuses psychometric (construction of coping scales) and econometric analyses (logit analysis) in an attempt to uncover the psychological and sociological factors influencing modal choice, as well as the usual range of economic and demographic factors. The study adopts an activity-based approach to analyse one specific short trip purpose that has persistently frustrated transport analysts (the journey-to-school trip in a compact urban area), trying to induce more walk, cycle, or public transport based trips. ______________________________________________________________________