The effects of attitudes and personality traits on mode choice

Vredin Johansson, Heldt, Johansson, 2006, in Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice

doi:10.1016/j.tra.2005.09.001

Location	Stockholm, Sweden and Uppsala, Sweden
Population	General
Sample size	811
Factor analysis type	MIMIC model, nan rotation
Stepwise regression	no
Removal of insignificant variables	no
Reviewed by	LCM

Abstract

We hypothesise that differences in people’s attitudes and personality traits lead them to attribute varying importance to environmental considerations, safety, comfort, convenience and flexibility. Differences in personality traits can be revealed not only in the individuals’ choice of transport, but also in other actions of their everyday lives—such as how much they recycle, whether they take precautions or avoid dangerous pursuits. Conditioning on a set of exogenous individual characteristics, we use indicators of attitudes and personality traits to form latent variables for inclusion in an, otherwise standard, discrete mode choice model. With a sample of Swedish commuters, we find that both attitudes towards flexibility and comfort, as well as being pro-environmentally inclined, influence the individual’s choice of mode. Although modal time and cost still are important, it follows that there are other ways, apart from economic incentives, to attract individuals to the, from society’s perspective, desirable public modes of transport. Our results should provide useful information to policy-makers and transportation planners developing sustainable transportation systems.

Factors

Variable	Loading
The respondent's appreciation of traveling in a calm, non-noisy environment (Comfort)	1
The respondent's appreciation of being able to rest or read while traveling to/from work (Comfort)	1.43
The respondent's appreciation of being able to move around while traveling to/from work (Comfort)	0.97
The respondent's appreciation of being able to move around while traveling to/from work (Comfort)	1.12

Variable	Loading
The respondent's appreciation of not having to wait for another travel mode while traveling to/from work (Convenience)	1
The respondent's appreciation of knowing how long the daily travel time to/from work is (Convenience)	1.79
The respondent's appreciation of having little or no variation in her daily travel time to/from work (Convenience)	1.53
The respondent's appreciation of avoiding queues and congestion while traveling to/from work (Convenience)	0.76

Variable	Loading
The respondent's habit of composting kitchen refuse (Environmentalism)	1
The respondent's habit of recycling non-deposit-refund glass bottles, jars, etc. (Environmentalism)	1.65
The respondent's habit of recycling newspapers and paper (Environmentalism)	1.3
The respondent's habit of recycling batteries (Environmentalism)	1.45
The respondent's habit of recycling metal (Environmentalism)	1.08

Variable	Loading
The respondent's appreciation of being able to shop or run errands while traveling to/from work (Convenience)	1
The respondent's appreciation of being able to leave/collect children at school or similar while traveling to/from work (Convenience)	2.88
The respondent's appreciation of being able to give children a ride to their leisure time activities while traveling to/from work (Convenience)	2.63

Variable	Loading
The respondent's habit of wearing a bicycle helmet when cycling (Safety)	1
The respondent's habit of adhering to prevailing speed limit when driving (Safety)	1.67
The respondent's habit of using a life jacket when in smaller boats (Safety)	1.37
The respondent's habit of using safety belts in cars (also in the rear seats) (Safety)	1.22

Models

Dependent variable	Mode choice
Model type	Multinomial probit
Sample size	811.0
R²	nan
Adjusted R²
Pseudo R² (nan)	nan
AIC	1.17
BIC	nan
Log-likelihood at zero	nan
Log-likelihood at constants	nan
Log-likelihood at convergence	-453.49

Car
Variable	Coefficient	p-value
Constant	-2.06	0.001
Gender (female = 1)	-0.2	0.194
Age in years	0.0	0.522
Presence of children in household (1 - yes)	0.34	0.03
Education in years	0.04	0.095
House tenure (1 = yes)	0.04	0.803
Number of days that respondent commutes per week	0.05	0.569
Need to own car for work at least one day a week (1 = yes)	1.07	0.0
Availability of car for work trips at least one day a week (1 = yes)	1.83	0.0

Train
Variable	Coefficient	p-value
Constant	-1.07	0.079
Gender (female = 1)	-0.14	0.374
Age in years	0.0	0.78
Presence of children in household (1 - yes)	0.2	0.201
Education in years	0.11	0.0
House tenure (1 = yes)	-0.14	0.412
Number of days that respondent commutes per week	0.0	0.976
Need to own car for work at least one day a week (1 = yes)	-0.13	0.704
Availability of car for work trips at least one day a week (1 = yes)	0.13	0.43

Variable	Coefficient	p-value
Travel time in minutes	-0.61	0.0
Travel cost in SEK	-0.23	0.0

Dependent variable	Mode choice
Model type	Multinomial probit
Sample size	811.0
R²	nan
Adjusted R²
Pseudo R² (nan)	nan
AIC	0.94
BIC	nan
Log-likelihood at zero	nan
Log-likelihood at constants	nan
Log-likelihood at convergence	-325.84

Car
Variable	Coefficient	p-value
Constant	-6.77	0.0
Gender (female = 1)	-0.69	0.15
Age in years	0.01	0.653
Presence of children in household (1 - yes)	0.07	0.881
Education in years	0.17	0.006
House tenure (1 = yes)	-0.01	0.984
Number of days that respondent commutes per week	0.15	0.472
Need to own car for work at least one day a week (1 = yes)	2.67	0.001
Availability of car for work trips at least one day a week (1 = yes)	4.07	0.0
Environmental	-0.02	0.976
Safety	1.27	0.215
Comfort	-3.68	0.0
Convenience	0.24	0.582
Flexibility	2.46	0.005

Train
Variable	Coefficient	p-value
Constant	-1.2	0.353
Gender (female = 1)	-0.83	0.028
Age in years	-0.02	0.259
Presence of children in household (1 - yes)	0.43	0.263
Education in years	0.16	0.002
House tenure (1 = yes)	-0.82	0.142
Number of days that respondent commutes per week	0.0	0.984
Need to own car for work at least one day a week (1 = yes)	-0.37	0.675
Availability of car for work trips at least one day a week (1 = yes)	0.24	0.418
Environmental	0.7	0.063
Safety	0.72	0.447
Comfort	1.22	0.015
Convenience	0.6	0.11
Flexibility	-0.16	0.81

Variable	Coefficient	p-value
Travel time in minutes	-1.07	0.0
Travel cost in SEK	-0.51	0.0