Car Use Habits: An Obstacle to the Use of Public Transportation?

Abstract

It is often claimed that many drivers use their private car rather habitually. The claim gains credibility from the fact that travelling to many everyday destinations fulfils all the prerequisites for habit formation: it is recurring, performed under stable circumstances and produces rewarding consequences. Since the decision is made quite automatically and only one choice alternative is considered (the habitually chosen one), behaviour guided by habit is difficult to change. The implications of car use habits for converting drivers to commuters using public transportation is analysed based on a survey undertaken in the Copenhagen area. The study reveals that a relatively low percentage of drivers (10–20%) consider commuting by public transportation in the near future, which is hardly a surprise. A hierarchical analysis, where reported use of public transportation is regressed on intentions to do so, car use habit, and the interaction between the two, confirms the theory-derived hypothesis that car use habits act as an obstacle to the transformation of intentions to commute by public transportation into action.

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