26 research outputs found
Linear, non-linear, bi-directional? Testing the nature of the relationship between mobility and satisfaction with life
No full textTravel is one of the most important facilitators of life and has been widely acknowledged as a prerequisite for economic and social activity. Research developing in recent decades has found that limitations to mobility and accessibility can reduce satisfaction with life. To date, research in this field assumes a linear and one-way relationship between the two—i.e. that ‘more mobility’ results in ‘more life satisfaction’. Yet diminishing marginal returns on happiness are found in many related fields such as economics, and there is always the possibility that happier people travel more than unhappy people. To the authors’ knowledge, this paper presents the first attempt to look for evidence of a non-linear relationship between mobility (measured as trip-making) and life satisfaction, and the first to test the direction of causality between the two factors. It uses a sample of some 1500 adults in the Netherlands Mobility Panel. Linear and segmented regression models were used to associate trip-making with satisfaction with life, when controlling for income, age, self-rated health and other demographics. Counter to expectations, five different model specifications suggest that the relationship between trip-making and satisfaction with life is linear. Furthermore, a structural equation model found that the relationship between mobility and satisfaction could run in either direction. This study questions many of the assumptions made about the relationship between transport and subjective well-being. Given the increasing prominence of this topic, much research is needed to further explore these complex relationships.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Transport and Logistic
MPN_Trips_wave5_access_health_anon_PNAS.sav
No full textThis is a sub-set of the Netherlands Mobility Panel (MPN) a longitudinal household travel survey. It includes a three-day travel diary. This sub-set includes over 1,500 adults from across The Netherlands who filled out a supplementary survey that included a measure of satisfaction with life and self-rated health.<div><br></div><div>This version of the dataset has been anonymized so that individuals cannot be identified. It has largely been translated into English.</div>
The influence of weather on travel behaviour - a multi-method analysis
No full textSocietal and political attention to the effects of climate change and possible mitigation and adaptationpolicies has increased sharply in the last decades, resulting partly from increasing awareness about therole of humanity and partly from the ever more noticeable changes in our world caused by climatechange. This societal interest has highlighted a lack of knowledge about the effects that a changingclimate will have on many aspects of our lifes, one of which is the transport section. To understand theimpact climate change will have on our transport system we need to know how travel behaviours areaffected by weather circumstances, which is the main topic of our research.We focus on four aspects of the relationship between weather and travel behaviour: (1) how weatheris taken into account in the decision-making process (2) if the influence of singular weather variables(such as temperature) depend on the value of other parameters (3) if the influence of weather is differentfor urban and rural areas and (4) whether there are groups of people whose response to travelbehaviour are distinctly different from one-another. This knowledge can be used for climate changeadaptation measures, such as ensuring that our supply of travel infrastructure will be able to copewith changes in travel demand resulting from a changed climate, and mitigation measures, such asincreasing the number of people that use more sustainable travel options like the bicycle.For our analyses we use travel data provided by the KiM Netherlands Institute for Transport PolicyAnalysis, which is the result from a travel diary survey held in autumn. We use weather data asmeasured by weather stations, provided by the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI).This data is used to estimate the influence of weather on travel demand and mode choice in the Netherlands,using regression and choice models respectively. Within our analyses we try to find factorsthat moderate the relationship between weather and travel behaviour, such as urban density and sociodemographics.With respect to the four aspects identified above, we report the following findings:(1) that people use a general perception of the weather during the whole day for their mode choicetravel decisions, which contrasts with the most common practice of using the weather at the trips’departure time.(2) by accounting for the fact that meteorological variables always co-occur in our models we areable to more accurately capture its effect on travel behaviour. The difference with the current practiceof estimating separate effects for each weather variable is particularly stark for days at the extreme endof the observed range of weather variables.(3) The influence of weather on travel behaviour differs more qualitatively between rural and urbanareas: the total effect size of the weather similar, but they are brought upon by different weathervariables. The difference is also very specific to travel modes. For bicyclists the effects of wind speedseem to be more sizeable in urban environments, whilst temperature, rain, and sunshine have smallereffects in urban environments.(4)We find multiple groups of travellers whose responses to weather variations are different from oneanother. These differences seem to be caused by the set of travel modes that are used during averageweather conditions. People that only use the car during average conditions are not very affected, withonly enjoyable weather conditions prompting increased bicycle use. If the car and the bicycle are usedoften people swap between the modes, although use of the bicycle during inclement conditions isrelatively much higher than for the other two groups. The last group has a more multi-modal travelpattern, which results in the largest variations caused by weather. Inclement conditions favour bothpublic transport and the car, with car use increasing quite sharply during wet weather with high windspeeds.Additionally we find that weather variations account for differences in travel behaviour across boththe spatial and temporal dimensions. A particularly surprising finding is that the smaller number ofbike trips in the western provinces of the Netherlands can be fully explained by the fact that there arehigher average wind speeds and lower temperatures in this part of the country.Our results have several implications for the research community and policy makers. We advice researchersto account for the fact that the weather is perceived as a whole and thus that the effect ofone single variable (such as temperature) will depend on the values of other variables. We also foundinteresting subgroups with different reactions with regards to weather. We advice researchers to moreclosely investigate the effects of weather for the separate subgroups. Finally we find sizeable differencesin the effect of weather between different regions, even within the relatively small country of theNetherlands. Researchers studying a relatively large study area would do well to estimate separateeffects for regions within their study area, for example based on population density and geographicallocation.For policy makers our findings imply that there is a sizeable effect of weather that could be usedto improve the forecasts of future travel demand, both in the short- and long terms. Whilst policymakers obviously can’t control the weather, we have found that changing travel patterns or attitudesto travel modes will have repercussions for the effect weather has on travel behaviour. We think thatpolicies aimed at allowing commuters to gain experience with using the bicycle for their daily commuteduring summer, coupled with temporary financial incentives when weather conditions becomeless favourable, could be one way of achieving more cyclists during inclement conditions. Policy makerscould even target younger professionals specifically, as they are much more likely to have alreadydeveloped such habits during their education.Engineering and Policy Analysi
MPN_Trips_wave5_access_health_anon_PNAS.sav
No full textThis is a sub-set of the Netherlands Mobility Panel (MPN) a longitudinal household travel survey. It includes a three-day travel diary. This sub-set includes over 1,500 adults from across The Netherlands who filled out a supplementary survey that included a measure of satisfaction with life and self-rated health.<div><br></div><div>This version of the dataset has been anonymized so that individuals cannot be identified. It has largely been translated into English.</div>
Consumer mobility as a result of e-commerce: A structural equation modelling approach to estimate consumer mobility from shopping attitude and orientation preferences
No full textThe effects of e-commerce on consumer mobility are studied by means of a structural equation modelling analysis. Shopping value and orientation preferences directly affect shopping frequency in the online and offline environment, besides an indirect effect from shopping value via orientation preference to shopping frequency is found significant. The results are different for various product categories. Although the model was not found significant for explaining shopping trip frequency or kilometrage, the results for shopping frequency are a good starting point for evaluating the impact of e-commerce on consumer mobility. The main conclusion is that e-commerce may substitute for the functional part of shopping, however the activity of shopping as a form of leisure is highly valued by many consumers. For local authorities this appreciation of shopping should be respected when developing city centres
Workshop Synthesis: How to Collect and Use Longitudinal Data?
No full textThis paper is based on the presentations, papers and discussions of workshop “Longitudinal data” at the ISCTSC conference in Porto Novo in March 2022. The presentations and discussions are primarily based on three different panel surveys that represent different approaches and designations. All these surveys have to struggle with typical challenges. The paper discusses the analytical characteristics and the designation of longitudinal surveys, addresses the problems and challenges of longitudinal surveys and will sum up the discussed strategies, in which a long-term continuity of such surveys can be secured
Travel attitudes or behaviours: Which one changes when they conflict?
No full textIn recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in the ‘disagreement’ or dissonance between travel attitudes and behaviours. This has shown that when people experience travel-related dissonance they are less satisfied with their travel experience. However, what remains unclear is whether people experiencing dissonance are more likely to change their travel attitude or their behaviour, so that they are more closely aligned. Moreover, it is unclear whether and how life events, such as having a child, interact with creating or reducing travel-related dissonance. Using data from a large and well-designed longitudinal study, this paper addresses these two gaps in the literature on travel-related cognitive dissonance through an exploratory study. The findings suggest that dissonant travellers are more likely to change their segment membership than consonant travellers. Furthermore, in line with the theory of cognitive dissonance, people may adjust either their attitudes or behaviours to achieve a state of consonance. This suggests that policymakers should not only focus on subtle nudges aimed at changing attitudes (and subsequently behaviours) in desirable directions but also on implementing policies aimed at directly influencing behaviours, assuming that attitudes will follow
MPN_Trips_wave5_access_health_anon_PNAS.sav
No full textThis is a sub-set of the Netherlands Mobility Panel (MPN) a longitudinal household travel survey. It includes a three-day travel diary. This sub-set includes over 1,500 adults from across The Netherlands who filled out a supplementary survey that included a measure of satisfaction with life and self-rated health.This version of the dataset has been anonymized so that individuals cannot be identified. It has largely been translated into English.</div
Assessing the E-bike trends and impact on sustainable mobility: A national-level study in the Netherlands
No full textOver the past decade, e-bikes have become increasingly popular, sparking interest in their potential replacement for car use and benefit for the environment. However, many studies on e-bike development and their substitution effects exhibit limitations. These include a lack of modeling on e-bike trend development, inadequate assessments of their impact on national-level mobility, a predominant focus on commuting, and a lack of foresight into future e-bike substitution effects. Our research introduces an innovative approach to model e-bike development, employing a multilevel Richards growth curve model fitted within a hierarchical Bayesian framework using the Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC) method. Further, we incorporate an intention-based method to delve into the potential of e-bikes in stimulating sustainable mobility in the Netherlands. Our findings highlight an ongoing increase in e-bike distance share, with marked gender and generational differences in growth patterns. Notably, women have higher e-bike usage than men, and this gap is narrowing for older age groups while widening among younger demographics, suggesting that younger people may adopt e-bike usage differently than older generation. E-bike ownership strongly reduces the conventional bicycle use and, to a lesser extent, car and public transport use, especially for commuting. This study provides insight into whether and to what extent e-bikes substitute for car use and other modes of transportation, and how the expected growth in e-bike use in coming years may impact national mobility in the Netherlands
Estimating post-pandemic effects of working from home and teleconferencing on travel behaviour
No full textLike in many other countries, the Dutch government instructed people to work from home where possible during the COVID-19 pandemic to halt the transmission of the virus. This policy seems to have resulted in a structural increase in working from home and teleconferencing that will outlast the pandemic. However, the longer-term effects on travel behaviour are still unclear. Making use of panel data collected using the Netherlands Mobility Panel, this paper has two main aims. First, it analyses developments in working from home and teleconferencing since COVID-19. Second, it estimates the expected post-pandemic effects on travel behaviour. The results show that compared to before the pandemic, the average number of hours that people work from home has doubled and roughly two-thirds of respondents indicate that they teleconference more often. We estimate that structural, post-pandemic increases in working from home and teleconferencing will result in a negative effect on distances travelled by train (-3% to -9%), by bus, tram, and metro (-1% to -5%) and car (-1 to -5%). The estimated effect on the distance travelled by bicycle (-2% to 0%), and walking (0% to +1%) is smaller or even positive, due to people making more complementary trips for other purposes when working from home. When interpreting these results, we should keep in mind that due to various other factors, such as population growth, total travel demand will still grow in the near future
