Cycling is one of the most sustainable and ecofriendly modes of travel and a good form of exercise. Many government and public health authorities recommend cycling to stay fit as well as to reduce air and noise pollution, CO₂ emissions, traffic congestion, and other negative consequences of car use. In light of these benefits, a major challenge for researchers today is how to promote cycling. However, in countries where cycling is not common, apart from the need for proper cycling facilities, one major issue concerns people’s perception of cycling for sport or recreational activities rather than as a mode of transport. The aim of this paper is to explore the role of perception in the likelihood of the bike being used for utilitarian purposes. We focus on the perception of: the bicycle as a means of transport; bikeability (in terms of usefulness and safety) and of bike infrastructure. Hybrid Choice Models (HCMs) have been used to estimate the effect of people’s perception on the propensity to bike. The HCM also accounts for the serial correlation between error terms in the discrete and latent perceptions, to allow for agent-common unknown factors. Furthermore, we also validate the model results using a hold-out sample and discuss some policy measures aimed at changing travel behavior. The results suggest that, besides individual characteristics, latent aspects related to the perception of the context and of the bicycle as a means of transport strongly affect the propensity to cycle.

The objective of this research is to study the extent to which information on pollution and individual stress has on\ud the choice to shift from private car to Park and Ride. A Stated Preference experiment was built where the reduction\ud of CO2 and stress are attributes of the experimental design. Results showed that the utility to Park and Ride increases\ud with the level of awareness, 2) the more individuals consider receiving information about stress useful, the more\ud they tend to behave sustainably, 3) aspects associated with stress appear to have a greater influence on travel choice\ud than environmental aspects

The need to reduce private vehicle use has led to the development of soft measures aimed at re-educating car users through information processes that raise their awareness regarding the benefits of environmentally friendly modes, encouraging them to voluntarily change their mode choice behaviour (level-of-service characteristics being equal). It has been observed, though not scientifically demonstrated, that these measures can produce changes, being the result of mindful decisions. However, in some cases, as demonstrated by numerous environmental psychology studies such measures are not sufficient to overcome the effect of cognitive dissonance, one of the main factors hindering change. In fact it is not unusual to find discrepancies between attitudes and behaviour in travel behaviour research.The objective of the present work is to understand the relationship between awareness, attitude and behaviour in the context of mode choice and to measure the effect of awareness after the implementation of a soft measure after controlling for individual environmental attitudes. Using a dataset gathered in two weeks, before and after individuals are informed of the benefits of using park and ride (P&R) instead of their car, we estimated a hybrid mode choice model

The demand for urban mobility has seen a marked increase over the last few decades. The expansion of road networks, the increase in distance traveled and in the number of trips made has created car-dependent cities. One solution for achieving the switch from private car to public transport is the introduction of a new public transport line that improves the accessibility and frequency of service. However, an important behavioral process underpins travel choices and often a change in choice context is not sufficient to evoke behavior change. Voluntary travel behavior change (VTBC) programs were developed for heightening individuals’ awareness of the consequences of their travel choices and of the benefits to be reaped from using sustainable alternatives, through information provision and communication strategies. The objective of the present paper is to analyze the effect on travel mode choice of introducing a new light railway line into the choice set (hard measure) when implementing a VTBC program on a large scale, but with a high degree of personalization (soft measure). Although numerous studies have demonstrated the need to implement a (hard) measure that acts on the choice context, in combination with a (soft) measure that acts in a personalized way on demand, as far as the authors are aware, few have put this into practice. The first results have shown that a combination of hard and soft measures is more effective in evoking travel behavior change and personalized travel plans produce better results than generalized soft measures.

This paper presents the architecture of a technology platform constructed for the purpose of conducting personalised campaigns for promoting sustainable transportation. In particular, the proposed platform is designed to automate phases and activities of a Voluntary Travel Behaviour Change programme (VTBC), with a view to extending it to the large scale, reducing the resource commitment. A VTBC pilot test on a small convenience sample is also presented that aims to better define some features such as form and content of Personalised Travel Plans (PTP) and reinforcing messages provided to participants with a view to encouraging sustainable travel behaviour