What explains active travel behaviour? Evidence from case studies in the UK

Walking and cycling are considered to be healthy and environmentally friendly modes of travel that can mitigate the harmful effects of motorised journeys. This study aims to reveal the individual and built environmental characteristics that are associated with these behaviours by examining the curre...

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Main Authors: Song, Y, Preston, J, Brand, C
Other Authors: iConnect consortium
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Pion 2013
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author Song, Y
Preston, J
Brand, C
author2 iConnect consortium
author_facet iConnect consortium
Song, Y
Preston, J
Brand, C
author_sort Song, Y
collection OXFORD
description Walking and cycling are considered to be healthy and environmentally friendly modes of travel that can mitigate the harmful effects of motorised journeys. This study aims to reveal the individual and built environmental characteristics that are associated with these behaviours by examining the current level of walking and cycling for transport in three UK case-study areas. Obligatory and discretionary journeys were separately modelled under the assumption that different factors would affect mode choice. Over 70% of respondents incorporated walking and/or cycling into their weekly travel and about 15% had ridden bicycles at least once for nonrecreational purposes during the last seven days. We also found that more walking journeys were made for discretionary purposes compared with obligatory journeys whilst cycling was more common for obligatory journeys. Using the concept of the active travel share, we developed models analysing active travel behaviour. The results confirmed that both personal and household characteristics had clear associations with the tendency for nonmotorised travel. In particular, age, physical fitness, and vehicle ownership were significantly associated with active travel in all models. The built environment, on the other hand, had significant associations with active travel only for obligatory journeys with the exception of distance to the main activity site, which was found to be significant for both journey types. © 2013 Pion and its Licensore.
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spelling oxford-uuid:92711886-f6c0-44b5-b07d-ce9c5b3f92b02022-03-26T23:25:30ZWhat explains active travel behaviour? Evidence from case studies in the UKJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:92711886-f6c0-44b5-b07d-ce9c5b3f92b0EnglishSymplectic Elements at OxfordPion2013Song, YPreston, JBrand, CiConnect consortiumWalking and cycling are considered to be healthy and environmentally friendly modes of travel that can mitigate the harmful effects of motorised journeys. This study aims to reveal the individual and built environmental characteristics that are associated with these behaviours by examining the current level of walking and cycling for transport in three UK case-study areas. Obligatory and discretionary journeys were separately modelled under the assumption that different factors would affect mode choice. Over 70% of respondents incorporated walking and/or cycling into their weekly travel and about 15% had ridden bicycles at least once for nonrecreational purposes during the last seven days. We also found that more walking journeys were made for discretionary purposes compared with obligatory journeys whilst cycling was more common for obligatory journeys. Using the concept of the active travel share, we developed models analysing active travel behaviour. The results confirmed that both personal and household characteristics had clear associations with the tendency for nonmotorised travel. In particular, age, physical fitness, and vehicle ownership were significantly associated with active travel in all models. The built environment, on the other hand, had significant associations with active travel only for obligatory journeys with the exception of distance to the main activity site, which was found to be significant for both journey types. © 2013 Pion and its Licensore.
spellingShingle Song, Y
Preston, J
Brand, C
What explains active travel behaviour? Evidence from case studies in the UK
title What explains active travel behaviour? Evidence from case studies in the UK
title_full What explains active travel behaviour? Evidence from case studies in the UK
title_fullStr What explains active travel behaviour? Evidence from case studies in the UK
title_full_unstemmed What explains active travel behaviour? Evidence from case studies in the UK
title_short What explains active travel behaviour? Evidence from case studies in the UK
title_sort what explains active travel behaviour evidence from case studies in the uk
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AT brandc whatexplainsactivetravelbehaviourevidencefromcasestudiesintheuk