Travel behaviour dynamics: a mobility biography study towards change
type: CreativeWork
description: Travel demand management (TDM) strategies continue to receive attention in recent years as a means of managing congestion in cities and promoting more sustainable transport systems. Most TDM measures focus on effecting travel behaviour change amongst commuters. Clearly such measures are likely to have the greatest impact when targeted at commuters most receptive to changing their travel behaviour at the right time. The study of commuters in order to understand their travel behaviour patterns, when they are most open to change and what causes them to change, is therefore imperative in drawing up effective TDM strategies. Also important is identifying the period within which commuters are deliberating and seeking information in order to change their mode of transport. Many studies have been conducted, in various contexts, to understand the dynamics of travel behaviour change. Some studies have argued travel behaviour to be rational, thus, an individual engage in active deliberation whenever there is a mode use choice decision problem. These studies suggest variability in travel patterns. Other studies have argued travel behaviour to be habitual in nature and characterised by non-deliberative repetition travel decisions. They argued that deliberate reappraisal of travel choices generally occur when triggered by 'key life course events’ or 'life shocks’. Such habitual behaviour suggests fairly stable travel patterns in a city’s transport network. The process through which the individual goes through in making a mode use change decision when triggered by 'key life course events’ however remain largely unexplored. This study, through the use of a qualitative mobility biography survey, firstly investigated the proposition that commuters in Cape Town engage for long periods of time in non-deliberative habitual mode choice behaviour while exhibiting considerable levels of intra-personal variability. These nondeliberative habitual mode use choice behaviours were posited to ch…
abstract: Travel demand management (TDM) strategies continue to receive attention in recent years as a means of managing congestion in cities and promoting more sustainable transport systems. Most TDM measures focus on effecting travel behaviour change amongst commuters. Clearly such measures are likely to have the greatest impact when targeted at commuters most receptive to changing their travel behaviour at the right time. The study of commuters in order to understand their travel behaviour patterns, when they are most open to change and what causes them to change, is therefore imperative in drawing up effective TDM strategies. Also important is identifying the period within which commuters are deliberating and seeking information in order to change their mode of transport. Many studies have been conducted, in various contexts, to understand the dynamics of travel behaviour change. Some studies have argued travel behaviour to be rational, thus, an individual engage in active deliberation whenever there is a mode use choice decision problem. These studies suggest variability in travel patterns. Other studies have argued travel behaviour to be habitual in nature and characterised by non-deliberative repetition travel decisions. They argued that deliberate reappraisal of travel choices generally occur when triggered by 'key life course events’ or 'life shocks’. Such habitual behaviour suggests fairly stable travel patterns in a city’s transport network. The process through which the individual goes through in making a mode use change decision when triggered by 'key life course events’ however remain largely unexplored. This study, through the use of a qualitative mobility biography survey, firstly investigated the proposition that commuters in Cape Town engage for long periods of time in non-deliberative habitual mode choice behaviour while exhibiting considerable levels of intra-personal variability. These nondeliberative habitual mode use choice behaviours were posited to ch…
author: Adjei, Eric
keywords: Civil Engineering
date published: 2019
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:22:47Z
provider: University of Cape Town
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Department of Civil Engineering

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/31369