Margareta Friman

Karlstads Universitet · Service Research Centre

The occurrence of life events increases the likelihood of changes in travel behaviour and these are often discussed as windows of opportunity for interventions aimed at improving sustainable travel. Hence, theoretical knowledge of the process of change due to life events is important for enabling the development of interventions suited to these nat...

This study demonstrates the value of integrating different analytical perspectives to identify significant factors and characterize their importance. Specifically, we combine three analytical methods-partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), necessary condition analysis (NCA), and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQC...

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented numerous, significant challenges for elderly in their daily life. In order to reach a deeper understanding of the feelings and thoughts of the elderly related to their possibilities to travel and engage in activities during the pandemic, this study takes a qualitative approach to exploring the views of the elderl...

Based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour, this study explains sharing economy platform usage intention. Our results based on PLS-SEM estimations with survey data (N = 655) from the carpooling context show that sharing orientation (i.e. sharing usage instead of owning/buying), grassroots engagement (i.e. non-profit organisation driven by volunteers)...

COVID-19 has brought severe disruption and demand suppression to mobility, especially to public transport (PT). A key challenge now is to restore trust that PT is safe again. This paper investigates pandemic impacts on PT safety and stress perceptions in three Nordic cities, drawing on 2018 and 2020 survey data analysed in structural equation model...

In order to effectively manage transportation systems, and improve the attractiveness of public transport, public authorities, policymakers and researchers need a better understanding of the conditions necessary for improving attractiveness and those that can be considered sufficient. The purpose of this study is to expand the analytical toolbox of...

In order to effectively manage transportation systems, and improve the attractiveness of public transport, public authorities, policymakers and researchers need a better understanding of the conditions necessary for improving attractiveness and those that can be considered sufficient. The purpose of this study is to expand the analytical toolbox of...

We organized this Special Issue on “The Environmental and Behavioral Consequences of Interventions for Sustainable Travel” with the aim of attracting interdisciplinary perspectives on the environmental and behavioral consequences of different interventions for sustainable travel [...]

This introductory paper to the Special Issue “Shared Mobility” aims (1) to present and differentiate the diversity of practices and services that constitute the shared mobility sector; (2) to emphasize the contribution of each published article; and (3) to identify knowledge gaps of knowledge and provide further research avenues. With the contribut...

A cycling campaign was assessed that used three different nudging conditions to progress people’s stage of motivation to make travel behavioral changes. The results of three waves of survey data showed that this cycling campaign generally strengthened their stage of motivation to reduce car use and that this stage-change, in turn, reduced actual ca...

The ability to live the life one wants with public transport is one of the key factors of sustainable and inclusive societies. Given the current trend in the transport domain, providing accessible public transport is necessary in order to allow people to participate in their day-to-day activities without using a car. Using survey data obtained from...

There were errors in the original article [...]

Previous findings have established that satisfaction with public transport service quality attributes (reliability/functionality, information, courtesy/simplicity, comfort, safety) relate to overall travel satisfaction. Recent studies propose that the importance of these attributes for travel satisfaction varies in different contexts and call for n...

In order to constitute a realistic option to existing travel modes, carpooling needs to be able to offer adequate levels of accessibility. Insights into how carpooling services affect perceived accessibility up until now remain unexplored. In this study we explore carpooling experiences of 122 users in Sweden and examine a number of possible determ...

How to drive modal shift is one of the primary issues in creating a sustainable society. By encouraging people to migrate from private car use to public transport, city planners can prepare for a super-aged society, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and mitigate negative externalities of private car use such as congestion, accidents, and noise. To a...

Introduction The aim of the present study was to examine differences in public transport use, quality perceptions, and travel satisfaction and their relation to life satisfaction across five generations. Methods Self-report questionnaires (online or by phone) were collected from 3257 respondents (aged 16–90) with varying degree of public transport...

Social interaction with friends is an important contributor to children’s well-being, but how transport affects this is rarely studied. For two or more children (not of the same household) to have social interaction where they are physically present (i.e. face-to-face), requires at least one of them to make a trip. Qualitative work has found that c...

This article introduces the concept of 'therapeutic servicescapes' to the retailing and services discipline. In the health literature, therapeutic landscapes emerge when physical and social conditions in a geographically bounded space combine to produce an atmosphere that is conducive to human well-being. Traditionally, therapeutic landscapes have...

Introduction Travel behavior research has only started to address how travel affects emotional wellbeing. The development of measurement methods is an important goal of this research. Methods A review and assessment of methods of measuring travel-related emotional wellbeing is presented guided by a conceptual framework specifying what is measured...

Service quality in public transport is proposed as a key determinant of perceived accessibility, the ease to live the life one wants with the help of the transport system, as low service quality may be a barrier for use, decreasing the ease to participate in daily activities. The first aim was to validate the direct relationship between public tran...

The purpose of this Special Issue is to introduce and demonstrate the importance of daily travel in elderly people’s lives [...]

This presentation explores reasons why brick-and-mortar service and retailing organizations can succeed against Internet/e-commerce organizations. We make the case that the combination of a restorative servicescape and relational resources provide customers with a reason to approach and to remain committed to a brick-and-mortar organization.

In order to plan for, and achieve, a sustainable and accessible transport system, research and policies alike recognize a need to implement and enhance alternative transport options in favor of the private car. Moreover, these sustainable alternatives need to offer sufficient levels of accessibility regardless of where people live or work. We present...

Mobility as a service (MaaS), in this case study, involves the integration of different travel modes into a mutual service that handles bookings and payments for individual trips. In this chapter, the authors discuss how a public transport authority has developed a MaaS for rural areas by integrating a public transport service with carpooling. The...

Motorized transport has been around for over a century and has benefited people in various ways. As awareness has increased of the negative effects of car use, efforts to reduce pollution, congestion, noise, and accidents have increased. Some cities have taken drastic measures to reduce the number of cars. The starting point of this chapter is a ba...

People are living longer than they did previously, and the proportion of older people is increasing worldwide. This rapid development will have implications for the transport system, in general, and for travel behavior and accessibility to daily activities, in particular. In recent years, both research and politics have drawn the attention of the p...

Data set for work on Therapeutic Servicescapes

To understand children’s experiences of their daily travel, and the consequences of these experiences, it is essential that we directly address children. The Satisfaction with Travel Scale (STS) is a self-report instrument consisting of nine items divided into three subscales – two reflecting affective travel experiences and one reflecting cognitiv...

The present study examines temporary free public transport as an intervention for increasing public transport use, hence promoting sustainable mobility. The aims of the study are twofold: (1) to understand how psychological mechanisms relate to motivational stage-based models of behavioral change, and the role of such a model when implementing temp...

Carpooling can be viewed as a simple intervention to reduce congestion, environmental problems, and land use for parking spaces. The present study assembled 18 studies on carpooling from all over the world that were published during the last five years (2014–2018) for a meta-analysis. By calculating effect sizes of 20 different factors, the study a...

The present field study investigates the reduction of car use through a voluntary travel behavior intervention program that provides participants with temporary free public transportation. Three factors – self-efficacy, social support and satisfaction – have previously been shown to be important for behavior change during physical activity interven...

This research aims to revive the applicability of the exchange concept in the marketing domain. The authors draw on current exchange theories to show how members of an aquatic center receive relational, social support, and restorative resources from other center members and employees. They then empirically demonstrate that members’ loyalty to the c...

Accessibility has conventionally been measured and evaluated ignoring user perceptions in favor of focusing on travel time and distance to a number of pre-determined destinations. Acknowledging this gap, we recently developed a scale for perceived accessibility PAC (Lättman, Friman, & Olsson 2016b) aimed at capturing the individual perspective of a...

Travel satisfaction has been linked to life satisfaction for adults, but no evidence exists currently for children's travel. Children's travel differs from adult's in numerous ways including limitations related to independent travel and available transport options. Children's travel is often more local and their desire to explore and learn about th...

In this chapter, ideas and directions for future research are presented. Various interventions, as a means of counteracting mispredictions by the individual traveler and breaking travel habits, are discussed and illustrated. We elaborate upon what is known about individuals’ predictions and their accompanying thoughts about possible consequences re...

In this chapter, we provide an introduction to the topic and a brief overview of Quality of Life and Daily Travel. A short background of why it is relevant to study travel and wellbeing, along with definitions and concepts related to quality of life research – such as objective and subjective outcomes, and hedonic and eudaimonic outcomes – will be...

In this paper, we argue that the current focus on cycling must not neglect the need to improve public transport services for the large number of people who do not want to or are unable to cycle. An attractive public transport service is currently therefore the most important component of a sustainable transportation system. The question we address...

This study investigates which variables drive intention to reduce car use by modelling a stage of change construct with mechanisms in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Norm Activation Model (NAM). Web questionnaires (n = 794) were collected via 11 workplaces. The socio-demographics, work commute, stage of change, attitudes to sustainable tra...

In this chapter, we first address two questions: why are automobiles purchased, and why are automobiles, after being purchased, used to such a large extent? We argue that instrumental and economic factors (including time savings) play important roles. Yet, psychological factors appear to also play a decisive role. Following a brief overview of fact...

Previous research has investigated satisfaction with work commutes. We extend this research by investigating whether satisfaction with all daily travel (including work commutes, school, leisure, and shopping trips) is related to life satisfaction and emotional well-being. A random sample of 367 participants was recruited from three urban areas in S...

Children's school journeys have changed vastly during recent decades: More children are being driven to school in private cars instead of walking and cycling, with many who are entitled to a free school bus service still being driven. Earlier research into travel mode choice has often investigated how urban form impacts upon mode choice regarding s...

We investigate whether travel mode, travel time, and activities during travel influence children’s satisfaction with their travel to school, their current mood, and their cognitive performance after arriving at school. A sample of 344 children (165 girls) between the ages of 10 and 15 years were recruited at five public schools in Värmland County,...

Public services have been subjected to processes of deregulation, competition, and privatization in many countries worldwide. One popular reform has involved focusing on competitive procurement. This context, where public and private organizations jointly deliver the service in a dyad, makes the market orientation of public services highly complex....

This study addresses the question of how work commutes change positive versus negative and active versus passive mood experienced after the commutes. Analyses are presented for 230 time-sampled morning commutes to work, made by 146 randomly sampled people in three different Swedish cities, asking them to use smartphones to report mood before, direc...

Incidental social interactions such as seeing a known person while travelling are theorized to contribute to community connections and social capital. It is argued in such work that walking may be a critical factor, but the frequency of such interactions is generally unknown. For children, these community connections may increase independent travel...

Background Recent research on travel has theoretically and empirically explained how everyday travel contributes to people’s life satisfaction. Most of these studies have been conducted with adults and mainly focused on the commute to work, with little known about how travel might affect children’s life satisfaction. Children and young people also...

This study aims to identify the relevant empirical work, to synthesize its findings, and to thus attain a general understanding of the application of the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) in transport behavior research. An integrative literature review was used to determine whether or not the implemented interventions impact the stages and processes of...

Understanding children’s travel is an important part of drawing a complete picture of over-all well-being in society. Children’s active travel to school, independent travel, transport and physical activity, and crashes have been reviewed, yet it may not be a complete picture. If research on children’s travel has the ultimate goal of improving child...

This study examines the effects of season and weather on mood (valence and activation) and travel satisfaction (measured by the Satisfaction with Travel Scale). Analyses are presented of 562 time-sampled morning commutes to work made by 363 randomly sampled people in three different Swedish cities asking them to use smartphones to report their mood...

Events in a sequence may each be evaluated as good or bad. We propose that such good-bad evaluations evoke emotional responses that change current mood. A model of recurrent updating of current mood is developed and compared to a model of how a sequence of events evoking emotional responses is evaluated retrospectively. In Experiment 1, 149 undergr...

This study clarifies the marketing discipline's conceptualization of place by presenting a revised perspective and conceptual framework of place, referred to as REPLACE. Drawing from resource exchange theory and attention restoration theory, the framework problematizes the assumption that places are merely physical locales by foregrounding how plac...

Some Swedish cities are planning for an expansion and improvement of the public transport service. The aim is to make it more attractive, safe and convenient to use. A national "test bed" of a BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) inspired system is planned in Karlstad. Necessary investments are under way and an implementation is scheduled for 2016. Part of the...

Perceived accessibility has been acknowledged as an important aspect of transport policy since the 70s. Nevertheless, very few empirical studies have been conducted in this field. When aiming to improve social inclusion, by making sus- tainable transport modes accessible to all, it is important to understand the factors driving perceived accessibil...

Incidental social interactions such as seeing a known person while travelling are theorized to contribute to community connections and social capital. It is argued in such work that walking may be a critical factor, but the frequency of such interactions is generally unknown. For children, these community connections may increase independent travel...

Perceived accessibility, defined as “how easy it is to live a satisfactory life using the transport system”, is proposed to be a complementary measure to conventional, objective measures of accessibility. Aiming at capturing the subjective element of accessibility, as opposed to conventional accessibility that is based on the same objective attribu...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss how service, as an interdisciplinary area of research, can increase its potential for transdisciplinary contributions from the perspective of what signifies intra-, multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary research. Design/methodology/approach – The essay first discusses common perspectives on the ser...

This chapter discusses how travel by different travel modes is related to primarily subjective well-being but also to health or physical well-being. Studies carried out in different geographic contexts consistently show that satisfaction with active travel modes is higher than travel by car and public transport, and that satisfaction with travel is...

Purpose – The purpose is to provide directions for future research on: (1) broadening the role of customers in customer experience; (2) taking a practice-based approach to customer experience; and (3) recognizing the holistic, dynamic nature of customer experience across all touch points and over time. Design/methodology/approach – The approach i...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide directions for future research on: broadening the role of customers in customer experience; taking a practice-based approach to customer experience; and recognizing the holistic, dynamic nature of customer experience across all touch points and over time. Design/methodology/approach – The approach...

Background Since 2000, considerable research has focused on explaining children’s travel such as mode choice, with particular focus on physically active modes as a contribution to children’s physical well-being. However, much less research has looked at other domains of children’s well-being such as psychological. This research examines several que...

Background Reviews on children’s travel have previously examined topics such as active travel to school, independent travel, physical activity, and crashes. If research on children’s travel has the ultimate goal of improving children’s well-being, there is no general synthesis on the research linking it with transportation. This review takes a broa...

Incidental community connections are important for children’s travel in several ways. If known people are present in the community, this reduces parental anxiety about letting their children travel independently. Seeing people while travelling can lead to improved social capital and contribute to a child’s social well-being. However, the relationsh...

A descriptive qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews involving seven provincial Soccer Association referees was carried out in order to find out how referees experience threats and aggression directed to soccer referees. The Empirical Phenomenological Psychological method (EPP-method) was used. The analysis resulted in thirty categories which...

The potential effectiveness of soft policy measures aimed at reduced car use depends on how car users experience these. A common measure being implemented is a free monthly travel card valid for a limited period on public transport (PT). In this study, a total of 321 car commuters living in Värmland, Sweden were recruited into such a program. The g...

Current transportation systems that heavily entails > rely on car and air travel are unsustainable from an environmental and health point of view, primarily owing to that > because car and air travel produces greenhouse gases contributing to global climate change as well as causes local health hazards. Transport policies aiming to reduce car and ai...

We argue that people think more about the short-term individual benefits of personal motorized travel than the long-term societal costs. One explanation is that people are more concerned about their own wellbeing and the wellbeing of their close relatives than the well-being of unknown others. Another explanation is that people have less knowledge...

Fast motorized transportation of people and cargo is essential in contemporary societies with their specialization of functions at different locations. Cargo needs to be transported between different units in the manufacturing process as well as from manufacturers to retailers. People need to travel to and from work, shops and other locations. It i...

We argue that the general public and politicians think more about the short-term individual benefits of travel than they think about the long-term societal costs. One explanation is that they have less knowledge of the latter than they have of the former. Another explanation is that they like people in general are more concerned about their own wel...

This study aims to evaluate if children’s affective experience of every-day travel varies depending on travel mode and destination of travel. More specifically, what are children’s reported valence (unpleas- antness–pleasantness) and activation (deactivation–activation) while travelling to different destinations and does this experience have spill-...

Recent research suggests that travellers’ anticipated trip utility may differ from the utility they actually experience when making the trip. This implies that it is important to investigate not only the factors underlying trip decision making,