Time Pioneers and Travel Behavior: An Investigation into the Viability of ‘Slow Motion’

Abstract

This paper positions time in the center of spatial economic analysis, with a particular view on travel speed in transport behavior. The issue of ‘slow motion’ is at present very timely and has led to a new concept in transport analysis, viz. ‘time pioneer’. Such a person is prepared to give up part of his scarce time for other, as yet unknown purposes. This attitude might generate ‘slow motion’ behavior. The paper aims to critically review the concept of a time pioneer from a broad perspective on the socio‐economic meaning of time in our globalizing society. The viability of time pioneering behavior is next empirically tested by means of an extensive survey among travelers in the Netherlands. A new modeling experiment, viz. rough set analysis, is carried out in order to deal with empirical survey data in a smallsample context. On the basis of the empirical results, it is concluded that, while ‘slow motion’ is seemingly an appealing socio‐psychological travel mode, the share of time pioneers among actual travelers is rather low.

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