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Measuring the impact of unfamiliar transit travel using a university access survey
Abstract
A number of campaigns, policy initiatives, and research studies target promoting travel behaviour change in an effort to reduce automobile dependency. However there is scant, if any, research about the actual experience of new travel behaviours and their potential importance. Yet research in psychology has shown first impressions to be integral to all attitude development due to a phenomenon referred to as the ‘primacy effect’. However the ‘primacy effect’ concept has never been explored in the context of urban transit, one of the key modes targeted for individuals to use in place of cars.
This paper explores the experience of unfamiliar travel and its potential importance by comparing first trip experiences (which in this study context refers to individuals' first time using public transport to travel to a university campus) with perceptions of overall trip experiences through a university access survey. The results show that unfamiliar travel by transit tended to be more negative experience than familiar travel. ‘Ease of navigation’ (wayfinding), ‘emotional state’, ‘ease of navigating transfer’, and ‘ease of ticketing’ were particularly negative aspects of first trips. Unfamiliar travel was found to be significantly correlated with overall ratings of transit suggesting a strong basis for the ‘primacy effect’ in public transport. Results also suggest that first trip experiences are significantly correlated with subsequent transit usage but only for ‘choice travellers’ i.e. those with access to a car and not for ‘captive’ transit users.
This is a novel research area with important implications for travel behaviour and user attitude research. Suggestions are offered for future research and practical applications for transport practitioners and organisations with an interest in reducing automobile reliance.
... web or mobile) as the primary information distribution method for pre-trip journey planning (Spitadakis and Fostieri (2012)). It is likely that journey planners are the primary method for distributing travel information because they are capable of providing it with more relevance to the traveller's specific travel enquiry, and offer the traveller the ability to compare available travel options (Schmitt et al., 2015, Schmitt et al., 2013. Munyama et al. (2015) found that travellers in London particularly valued the TfL's journey planner because the information is managed and presented by the originating operator, whereas other similar planners such as Traveline are developed by third-party distributors with access to open data channels. ...
... The results demonstrated that the desire to continue using a journey planner waned over time, as did the traveller's initial positive attitude towards the journey planner. Finally, Schmitt et al. looked at the suitability of journey planners and suggested that the reason that these tools have yet to reach their potential is the way in which they are designed for both reduced and significant wayfinding ability travellers (Schmitt et al., 2015, Schmitt et al., 2013. This may explain why information provision is prevalent, but sustainable interest is weak. ...
... The reason for selecting keyword descriptive terms was due to literature encapsulating specific characteristics about travellers' information-seeking behaviour into similar terms 12 (e.g. Schmitt et al., 2013, Schmitt et al., 2015 and that other literature uses keywords terms as a consistent approach for measuring the desirability of information systems from the user's perspective (Benedek and Miner, 2002). This meant that each source was reviewed according to a thematic analysis: (1) familiarisation with contents produced from each method 13 described separately; ...
Every day, UK towns and cities are full of different traveller types, each with a different level of exposure to the environment around them, which is made up of the local landscape and transport system operations. For example, the travellers that are most comfortable with the information around them and can respond accurately to it are those who travel regularly and are familiar with the environment. However, other travellers unfamiliar with these things will need a little more help in understanding it and the available information relating to it.
In some cases, service providers and key stakeholders turn to external information systems to resolve pressure points caused by a lack of local familiarity. These include journey planners used to help travellers gain an understanding of day-to-day operations within that landscape. These external systems focus on distributing the available travel information and not on the user’s primary travel information needs relating to their journey. Little research has addressed how travel information should be presented to travellers to inform effective action. In essence, giving an individual access to relevant information and advice means the production of accurate travel plans that correctly match the local landscape and transport operations in a clear and understandable way.
This thesis established a broad view of the different traveller type personas based on their level of familiarity and the stages of information use. That knowledge was captured in a Traveller Planning Types (TPT) framework conceptualised through a triangulation study comprised of a contextual review, focus groups and a literature review collated using thematic analysis. The TPT framework was confirmed as an appropriate framework using a Delphi study of these key stakeholders of external information provision systems. The TPT framework was then used to establish a new method of measuring pre-trip travel information needs for familiar or unfamiliar
journey planning situations using probing and process observation techniques using a screen monitoring system.
The results show that there is a statistically significant difference in how travellers feel when pre-planning a familiar or unfamiliar journey, especially with regards to translating that information into accurate travel plans and the confidence to conduct the pre-planned journey. The research has identified that pre-planning travel information has yet to meet the standards set by the fourth rule of citizenship. Specific strategic guidelines were developed to guide future development of such external information systems to take into account user’s travel information needs.
... Previous research shows that travel habits can act as a barrier to travel behavior change (e.g. Verplanken et al. 1994;Verplanken and Aarts 1999;Klockner and Matthies 2004;Ramadurai and Srinivasan 2006) and that new use of transit can be associated with some negative characteristics such as increased anxiety and difficulty with wayfinding (Schmitt et al. 2013(Schmitt et al. , 2015. Some research also examines instances when habitual travel is disrupted, such as freeway closures (e.g. ...
... Potential participants were recruited from a pool of respondents to a survey on access to the Monash University campus (Schmitt et al. 2013). Some 121 survey respondents indicated they were willing to participate in further research and of those, a total of 30 interviews were conducted, one with each of 30 participants, and each interview was approximately 20 min in length. ...
... This study provides a rich, in-depth understanding of the process of undertaking unfamiliar transit travel and habituating to familiar travel. The experience was largely characterized by increased uncertainty and anxiety, which supports previous quantitative research on the topic (Schmitt et al. 2013(Schmitt et al. , 2015. The implication is that it is important for practitioners to implements measures that make unfamiliar travel experiences as positive as possible and reduce anxiety. ...
Travel behavior change has become an area of interest in many cities around the world, particularly to encourage people to change from car use to transit use. Previous research indicates that habits can act as a barrier to travel behavior change and that new use of transit can be associated with some negative characteristics such as increased anxiety and difficulty with wayfinding. However, thus far little research has focused on gaining an in-depth understanding of the process of travel behavior change from the perspective of the new transit user. The present research seeks to fill this gap through a rich qualitative exploration of the process of undertaking ‘new’ (to the participants) journeys on transit, how this experience differs from familiar or habitual travel, and the process of learning and habituation that is undertaken as unfamiliar travel is repeated and evolves into familiar travel. This is achieved by using Grounded Theory to collect and interpret data from 30 semi-structured interviews where participants described both familiar and unfamiliar trip experiences in their own words. The process of undertaking unfamiliar transit travel is characterized by a number of barriers and obstacles and it is characterized by uncertainty and anxiety. If unfamiliar travel is repeated, a change process occurs which includes a number of cognitive processes and adaptations to streamline the process of travel. From the findings, a number of recommendations to support long term travel behavior change are identified.
... In a multifaceted process, travellers not only rely on visual information but also on other aspects to orient themselves: architecture, human interactions, the internet, physical maps, and digital maps Rüetschi, 2007 . Several studies have found significant links between the use of public transit services and the wayfinding experiences of first-time commuters Datu, 2011;Hutchinson, 2009;Imaz et al., 2015;Schmitt et al., 2013Schmitt et al., , 2014Schmitt et al., , 2015 Based on this framework, this study attempts to understand the impact of wayfinding on first-time commuters in PMPML's bus services. All five participants were students, between the ages of 18 25, from Symbiosis School of Economics, Pune. ...
... Due to unclear instructions or signage, users might face a delay or travel to the wrong destination. Regarding emotional impact, navigation mistakes can increase users' feelings of embarrassment and anxiety Schmitt et al., 2013Schmitt et al., , 2015 Ruddle & Lessels 2006 evaluate wayfinding in virtual environments using three parameters: " 1 users' task performance (time taken, distance travelled, and the number of errors made), 2 physical behaviour (locomotion, looking around, and time and error classification), and 3 decision making (i.e., cognitive) rationale (think aloud, interview, and questionnaire)". These metrics can be incorporated with the user's "situational literacy" Kamran, 2021 and their familiarity with the area in which they are travelling L. Schmitt et al., 2015 to create metrics that evaluate wayfinding in physical environments. ...
This study evaluates the wayfinding experience of first-time users of Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML) buses, a public transit service in Pune, India. Five participants were asked to make an unassisted trip by bus, and their journey was observed and followed by an interview to understand their experience and challenges. Using qualitative methods, including unstructured interviews and observational data, the study identified pain points in PMPML’s wayfinding system and areas for improvement. This study is one of the few evaluations of the wayfinding experience of public transit services in India to date.
... For travellers unfamiliar with a public transport system, poor information and/or signage at transfer points can lead to wandering, stress, and uncertainty, which can exacerbate the stress that some public transport users experience in comparison to other modes of transportation (Legrain et al., 2015). Passengers may experience anxiety if they are unable to find their route, and these perceptions of unfamiliar travel might influence their general opinions about public transportation services and their intention to use such services in the future (Schmitt et al., 2013;Schmitt et al., 2015). ...
This study aims to explore the behavior of Bangkok Metropolitan Region residents when using transport and to examine the factors affecting their travel. The population comprise commuters residing in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region who use transportation in their daily lives. The data were collected through an online survey conducted between December 2021 and March 2022 from a sample of 618 commuters, selected by convenience sampling. The analysis is divided into three parts. In the first part, we explore commuters’ transportation behaviors using descriptive statistics, and in the second and third parts, using a multivariate analysis of variance, we examine the factors that influence travel in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region in terms of private cars use and number of transfers required on public transportation. The findings show that only a small percentage of people used public transport only; most people used private vehicles or both public and private transport. Commuters spent 36.24% of their monthly living costs on transportation. Furthermore, type of residence, whether a commuter took the bus, and income were all significant factors that influenced travel behavior. The results suggest that, in order to increase the number of public transportation users, public transportation charges should be lower than parking fees and vehicle maintenance expenditures, and the operation and amenities of buses must be enhanced to meet the passengers’ demands.
... The first trip therefore represent a potential window of transition from habitual travel to establishment a new travel behaviors. Public transport services that cater for unfamiliar users may also encourage car users to make a mode shift to transit [16]. Last stage of passenger travel demands information on how to reach his ultimate destination (directional signs with important places), possibility of return journey, stop environment (correctly marked exit roads, city map). ...
New challenges of urban transport are connected to sustainability, the growing urban population globally, life quality and quality of urban environment, reduction of pollution and energy consumption. Sustainable urban mobility is no more dependent only on passenger transport efficiency, but also on transport accessibility of commuting services, acceptable level of comfort, safety and security of urban public transport and many more. Although a huge amount of data are available from modern communication services, the question of how to use those big data efficiently to improve urban mobility is unknown. Positive changes of mobility attitudes and travel behavior of citizens are going slowly, which means that personal motivation do not follow big data availability. This motivation is dependent on quality of public transport offer and services, among which information services are suspected to play a crucial role. Modern ICT methods of transport information delivery are based on Internet and social media, which through commonly used mobile devices are available at every stage of journey. In this article authors try, based on the pilot survey, to check how young Krakow citizens use social media in every day travels and commuting. The overall goal of the author’s study is to answer the question: how to use big data coming from ICT in order to upgrade urban transport sustainability.
... Previous research by the authors found that compared to familiar public transport travel made to a University campus, unfamiliar travel was associated with more negative experiences including increased anxiety and trouble with wayfinding, transferring and ticketing (Schmitt et al. 2013). Impressions of unfamiliar travel (or 'first trips') were also found to influence overall attitudes about services particularly for non-captive users (those with the option to drive). ...
Attracting and retaining public transport users is fundamental to a number of land use and transport policy objectives which seek to reduce single-occupant vehicle travel. Understanding the psychological processes underlying unfamiliar public transport use may assist in achieving this aim. This paper explores unfamiliar transit travel using a survey conducted through an online travel planning website in Melbourne, Australia. The survey obtained ‘before and after’ travel data and explored the circumstances of unfamiliar travel, travel experiences, and the impact of these experiences on attitudes and behavior. A total of 3,537 ‘before’ responses and 658 eligible ‘after’ surveys were obtained including 152 unfamiliar transit journeys. Compared with familiar travel, unfamiliar travel was more commonly associated with: life events, less time living in Melbourne, travel companionship, visiting new locations, and non-work-related trip purposes. Unfamiliar travel experiences were rated more negatively for ‘navigation’ and ‘emotional state (level of anxiety)’ and more positively for ‘expected versus actual travel time’ and ‘level of comfort’. Analysis of travel attribute ratings and intention to re-patronize services indicated that there was a significant relationship between positive trip experiences and intention to re-patronize services for all users, and particularly for unfamiliar travelers. These results suggest that unfamiliar public travel experiences are quite different to familiar travel and are important to optimize to encourage re-patronization and help grow public transport markets.
Conventional wisdom in public transport planning suggests that transfers should be minimized because of the negative perceptions associated with them. However, little is known about how transferring affects overall satisfaction levels. This study aims to answer the following three research questions: (1) Are people that require transfers on their daily commute less satisfied with their trips compared with their non-transferring counterparts? (2) How many transfers appear to be too many transfers to remain satisfied with a trip? (3) Do mode-specific transfers have different impacts on overall satisfaction levels? Using data from a 2017/18 commuting survey of students, faculty, and staff at McGill University, Montreal, Canada, this study tries to answer the above questions through two statistical models, general and mode-specific. The general model showed that compared with trips involving zero transfers, no statistical difference in trip satisfaction was observed for one-transfer trips, whereas trip satisfaction declines by 32% when a rider must transfer at least two times. The mode-specific transfers showed that transferring between bus routes, and between a bus and subway, negatively affects trip satisfaction. However, transferring between subway lines did not show an impact in the models. These results show that transferring between high-frequency routes does not affect total trip satisfaction levels in the same way as transfers involving low-frequency services. Findings from this study are expected to contribute to both scholarly and practical discussions of the relationship between transferring and customer satisfaction.
Este artigo apresenta uma revisão sistemática da literatura envolvendo trabalhos com a
temática de escolha modal em campi universitários. O método de revisão englobou artigos de revistas científicas indexadas nos bancos de dados da Science Direct e do congresso anual Transportation Record Board (TRB) no período entre 2000 e 2017. Com relação às abordagens metodológicas, a maioria dos trabalhos utilizou a aplicação de questionário online e realizou uma análise de dados baseada em técnicas estatísticas. Algumas abordagens se destacam como as técnicas de árvore de decisão, de análise espacial e modelos de equações estruturais. Observou-se que os trabalhos mais recentes têm utilizado abordagens que relacionam a escolha modal da comunidade universitária com questões como o ambiente construído, a forma dos campi, as questões de gênero, os hábitos familiares e as redes sociais. Destacam-se também trabalhos que tratam de programas de gerência da demanda.
Planifier un itinéraire est une tâche réalisée quotidiennement pour nos déplacements. Bien que cette tâche soit routinière, les recherches dans le domaine de la résolution de problème et de la cognition spatiale ont révélé nombre de stratégies adoptées et de ressources cognitives (e.g. mémoire de travail, capacités spatiales, fonctions exécutives) nécessaires à sa réalisation. Différents modèles cognitifs décrivant la planification en différentes étapes avec ou sans compétition entre stratégies ont été proposés pour expliquer la formation des plans de voyage (Cuntini, Di Fernando, Basso, Bisiacchi et Zorzi, 2008 ; Gärling, Säisä, Böök & Lindberg, 1986). L'étude plus écologique de la planification, c’est-à-dire en situation réelle, montre la mise en jeu de facteurs supplémentaires tels que les critères de sélection, des facteurs individuels et contextuels. Cependant à ce jour, peu d'études se sont intéressées à la planification d'itinéraire en transports en commun, alors que la valorisation de ces modes est cruciale pour répondre aux préoccupations environnementales et de congestion du réseau routier des grandes villes. Dès lors, une question est de savoir si les processus de planification et de choix d’itinéraires sont modifiés du fait de la spécificité des itinéraires en transports en commun (modes variés et changements de modes) et quels sont les facteurs cognitifs, psycho-sociaux, et contextuels impliqués. Pour répondre à cette question, nous avons mené quatre études pour explorer différentes dimensions de cette activité à l'aide de paradigmes et techniques variés tels que les mouvements oculaires (étude 1), l'entretien (étude 2), des choix forcés (étude 3) et la réalité virtuelle (étude 4). Ces études ont permis de mettre en évidence que la planification d'itinéraire à partir de cartes de réseaux de transports s'effectue en deux temps et qu'elle se complexifie avec l'augmentation du nombre de changements de lignes (étude 1). De plus, l'analyse de l'expérience des usagers (étude 2) et les résultats de mises en situations expérimentales (études 3 et 4) ont montré que le choix d'itinéraire dépend du contexte et du profil de l'usager (défini par ses capacités spatiales, préférences, attitude, etc.). Les résultats permettent donc de proposer des préconisations pour adapter les aides à la planification en considérant les différents profils d'usagers afin de favoriser l'utilisation de ces modes. Enfin, sur le plan théorique, nos études montrent que la prise en compte uniquement de l'aspect cognitif pour modéliser la planification n’est pas suffisante et que considérer les différents profils d'usagers permet une modélisation plus complète de ce processus complexe.
To retain and grow ridership, transit agencies continuously survey riders to learn how to improve services and understand what leads to rider satisfaction. Nevertheless, transit riders are not a homogeneous entity and understanding the distinctions between transit riders can help transit agencies in their efforts to provide satisfactory service to retain existing riders and attract new ones. To uncover how diverse aspects of bus services can differentially impact satisfaction of different riders, we use data from a large-scale, multiyear bus satisfaction survey from London, UK. Specifically, we model satisfaction using logistic regressions to learn how encumbered riders and riders with physical disabilities value different features of bus services compared to other types of riders. For riders traveling with large items, shopping bags, or children, we find that satisfaction depends on the presence and condition of a bus shelter and the availability of a seat. Satisfaction of riders with disabilities depends on information availability at the bus stop, as well as trip speed and reliability. Our findings indicate that improving waiting area conditions and providing information at the stop can increase the satisfaction of riders with encumbrances and disabilities, respectively. Findings from this paper can be of benefit to transit planners and policy makers as it offers new insights about the determinants of satisfaction of two groups of bus riders not often considered in the public transport literature.
Urban transport authorities worldwide face difficult trade-offs in collecting information on public transit users. The costs of data collection can be high, and the technical challenges in understanding complex travel patterns require substantive survey resources. However, rapid technology advances have yielded improved traveler information tools. The improved tools enable the encoding of complex travel requests in transit journey planners, which are now a common feature of transit passenger information websites (TPIWSs). This paper describes the experience of developing an online survey tool in the journey planner section of a TPIWS as a new mechanism to undertake research in an effective and inexpensive way. The approach integrates information collated from the journey planner outputs and explores passengers' experiences of journeys made on the basis of online surveys. Journey planner outputs were first recorded along with the answers to two simple poll questions. Respondents were then invited to undertake a follow-up survey after they had completed the trips for which they had used the journey planner. A total of 3,537 polls were submitted, and 658 follow-up surveys were completed. The samples users were in general younger and had characteristics different from those of the general transit market. However, overall the tool proved to be a powerful, easy-to-use, and inexpensive means of collecting information about complex travel behaviors. The lessons learned are described, and approaches are suggested for how on-screen polling could be improved, including computing approaches to manage web pop-up blockers, which are thought to have reduced sample sizes and possibly affected the demographic composition achieved. Implications for industry practice and opportunities for future research in this area are identified.
The research question focused on in this study is whether complaint and compliment contain different service quality attributes. A sample of 236 complaints and 69 compliments collected by a public transport company were analyzed by means of the critical incident technique. The results of previous research were confirmed and showed that perceived service quality attributes in public transport involve employee behavior, reliability, simplicity and design. It was further concluded that reliability of service causes frequently more complaints than compliments. How customers are treated by the employees was found to be more frequent in compliments.
Research dealing with various aspects of* the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1985,
1987) is reviewed, and some unresolved issues are discussed. In broad terms, the theory is
found to be well supported by empirical evidence. Intentions to perform behaviors of different
kinds can be predicted with high accuracy from attitudes toward the behavior, subjective
norms, and perceived behavioral control; and these intentions, together with perceptions of
behavioral control, account for considerable variance in actual behavior. Attitudes, subjective
norms, and perceived behavioral control are shown to be related to appropriate sets of salient
behavioral, normative, and control beliefs about the behavior, but the exact nature of these
relations is still uncertain. Expectancy value formulations are found to be only partly
successful in dealing with these relations. Optimal rescaling of expectancy and value
measures is offered as a means of dealing with measurement limitations. Finally, inclusion of
past behavior in the prediction equation is shown to provide a means of testing the theory*s
sufficiency, another issue that remains unresolved. The limited available evidence concerning
this question shows that the theory is predicting behavior quite well in comparison to the
ceiling imposed by behavioral reliability.
To date, most research on travel behavior has been limited to studying utilitarian appraisals of car users and users of public transport. Studies on affective experiences are usually limited to commuter stress. A survey among university employees revealed that in support of previous research, car commuters find their journey more stressful than other mode users. The main sources of this stress are delays and other road users. Users of public transport also “complain” about delays; however, this results in stress as well as boredom. Walking and cycling journeys are the most relaxing and exciting and therefore seem the most optimum form of travel from an affective perspective. The affective appraisals of the daily commute are related to instrumental aspects, such as journey time, but also to general attitudes toward various travel modes. These findings have implications for sustainable transport policy initiatives that aim to persuade people to abandon their car.
This study focuses on the impact of life-course events on car ownership and, ultimately, on travel behavior to provide a basis for measures influencing people toward a more sustainable mobility. The theoretical background for the analysis is the mobility biographies approach. This approach assumes that travel behavior is mainly habitual, and therefore, only relatively seldom do windows of opportunity open for behavioral changes when travel decisions are considered more intensively. Car ownership is used in the analysis as a proxy for actual travel behavior. Hence, the results may deliver some insight on the effect of key events in a person's or household's life on travel behavior and, further, the potential of soft policy intervention measures to change daily mobility. The German Socioeconomic Panel is used for the empirical analysis. The results show the importance of life-course events for travel behavior. Besides the household status variables of age, number of cars, and weighted monthly income, four key events have a strong impact on car ownership growth: the changing number of adults in a household, birth of the first child, changing weighted monthly income, and change of residence from a regional core to a regional core area. Expected influences from relocations with a spatial structural change have not been proved so far.
A better understanding of how public transport can be rendered more attractive to motorists is needed. This paper presents findings from recent studies of the psychological dimensions underlying respondent ratings of car and public transport use. Automobile users obtain autonomy as well as mobility from driving. There are two aspects to this autonomy-a sense of personal identity and a sense of independence-with feelings of control, confidence and safety a core component of both. Analysis of ratings of ten features of bus and rail services showed, for both modes, two underlying dimensions of judgement, service availability and service attractiveness. Analysis of 16 aspects of interchanging bus and rail journeys found separate factors representing psychological needs (saving effort), journey needs (saving time) and cost considerations (saving money). All journeys require expenditure of physical, cognitive and emotional effort. Current car commuters see a public transport alternative involving interchange as requiring unwelcome additional expenditure of physical and emotional resource. Analysis of bus and train traveller ratings of 16 journey demands found separate factors for in-trip anxieties, personal vulnerability concerns, in-trip and pre-trip information load. Focusing on these sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction should assist those marketing public transport alternatives to car use.
Habit is often treated as a construct of marginal interest in the literature on attitude–behaviour relations. We argue that this is undeserved, particularly given the current interest in principles of automaticity in social psychology. Basic features of habits, such as goal-directed automaticity, their dependency on situational constancy, and functionality, as well as the measurement of habit strength, are discussed. Research is reviewed that contrasted habit with deliberate action, as approached from the theory of planned behaviour, spontaneous vs. deliberate attitude–behaviour processes, implementation intention theory, and decision-making models. Habits thus appear as boundary conditions of the validity of models of planned behaviour and rational decision-making. A habit seems to be accompanied by an enduring cognitive orientation, which we refer to as “habitual mind-set”, that makes an individual less attentive to new information and courses of action, and thus contributes to the maintenance of habitual behaviour. Focusing on habitual mind-sets and automatic cue-response links, rather than on statistical associations between past and future behaviour, makes habit an interesting construct for future research.
We argue that habit is a psychological construct, rather than simply past behavioral frequency. In 4 studies, a 12-item index of habit strength (the Self-Report Habit Index, SRHI) was developed on the basis of features of habit; that is, a history of repetition, automaticity (lack of control and awareness, efficiency), and expressing identity. High internal and test-retest reliabilities were found. The SRHI correlated strongly with past behavioral frequency and the response frequency measure of habit (Verplanken, Aarts, van Knippenberg, & van Knippenberg, 1994). The index discriminated between behaviors varying in frequency, and also between daily vs. weekly habits. The SRHI may be useful as a dependent variable, or to determine or monitor habit strength without measuring behavioral frequency.
Two experiments demonstrated that the encoding of a repeated object is biased toward the attributes of its first presentation.
In Experiment 1, subjects saw objects five times each, but either the first presentation or the fifth presentation was the
mirror reverse of the standard orientation seen on the other four trials. When recognition was tested with both orientations
simultaneously, subjects reported seeing only the single mirror-reverse orientation more often if it was the first presentation
than when it was the fifth presentation, and seeing only the standard orientation more often if it was presentations 1–4 than
when it was presentations 2–5. A second experiment demonstrated that this primacy effect generalized to size changes. This
pattern of results is consistent with the hypothesis that top-down biases affect what subjects learn: The first representation
established for a stimulus is likely to influence the encoding of subsequent repetitions.
The experiment described here addresses itself to the serial position effect of recall, and in particular to the cause of
primacy. Two of the three theories discussed here (selective rehearsal and proactive interference) postulate competition between
items during the storage interval as a cause of primacy, acquisition being assumed to be equal for all items. The third theory
(differential perceptual processing) places the locus of the effect prior to the storage stage, and does not hold interactions
between items to be essential to the effect after encoding. The experiment used this distinction between the two classes of
theories, storage of the whole presentation (and hence interactions during storage) not being required. Only one word from
each list was recalled, and this item was indicated to S on presentation, thereby eliminating the necessity to attempt to
encode all items. The storage-interaction theories predict no primacy for the recall of individual items in this experiment,
but the initial member of the list was recalled more often than the third member. This example of primacy lends support to
the argument that the trace strengths of items are not always equal immediately after presentation.
In five experiments, we investigated the primacy effect in memory for repetitions (DiGirolamo & Hintzman, 1997), the finding that when participants are shown a study list that contains two very similar versions of the same stimulus, memory is biased in the direction of the version that was presented first. In the experiments reported, the generality of the effect was examined by manipulating the orientation and features of the repeated stimuli. The results confirmed that the effect is reliable when stimulus changes affect the accidental properties of the stimulus (properties of the stimulus that give information about distance or angle but do little to aid in identification). However, the effect was not found when changes were made to other aspects of the stimulus. The results suggest that the primacy effect in memory for repetitions is not robust across all stimulus changes and converge with previous findings that have demonstrated that such properties of stimuli as orientation and size are represented differently in memory than are other stimulus characteristics.
Combining the efforts of sociologists and psychologists, this work, originally published in 1952 and revised in 1966, embraces these two disciplines to show how social-psychological problems must be viewed in individual as well as general terms. Human interaction is, therefore, the main theme of this authoritative and rewarding volume, which offers a more comprehensive viewpoint than texts written from with a strictly psychological or a strictly sociological approach. Whenever it can be shown that interaction intervenes between individual and group variables, the authors carefully note the manner in which this occurs. Well written yet succinct, the chapters are closely integrated to present continuously developing concepts of the time. Research illustrations are set off typographically but skilfully woven into the related text. Three appendixes, one on the measurement of individual attitudes, a second on survey research, and a third on Bale's interaction process analysis, may be consulted without interrupting the flow of the other chapters.
Previous research indicates that our initial impressions of events frequently influence how we interpret later information. This experiment explored whether accountability-pressures to justify one's impressions to others-leads people to process information more vigilantly and, as a result, reduces the undue influence of early-formed impressions on final judgments. Subjects viewed evidence from a criminal case and then assessed the guilt of the defendant. The study varied (1) the order of presentation of pro-vs. anti-defendant information, (2) whether subjects expected to justify their decisions and, if so, whether subjects realized that they were accountable prior to or only after viewing the evidence. The results indicated that subjects given the anti/pro-defendant order of information were more likely to perceive the defendant as guilty than subjects given the pro/anti-defendant order of information, but only when subjects did not expect to justify their decisions or expected to justify their decisions only after viewing the evidence. Order of presentation of evidence had no impact when subjects expected to justify their decisions before viewing the evidence. Accountability prior to the evidence evidence also substantially improved free recall of the case material. The results suggest that accountability reduces primacy effects by affecting how people initially encode and process stimulus information.
Rethinking urban mobility involves various aspects, among which is the
optimisation of the use of all transport modes and the adoption of means of
policies aimed at improving quality and accessibility of public transit networks.
Nevertheless, in order to be effective, urban mobility policies need to use an
approach as integrated as possible, which combines the most appropriate tools to
each individual problem. To that end, it is important to have a clear knowledge
of urban mobility; data collection initiatives may help to fill the gap in statistics
related to the phenomenon.
In this paper, some considerations on a new culture for urban mobility are
presented. In the light of new exigencies, decision-makers should support
sustainable mobility-related measures to meet people’s expectations.
In addition, a survey on local public transport in Bari – a southern Italian city
– is presented and a random utility model has been used to investigate probable
transport users’ attitudes for the future. It provides indications on the needs of
public transport users and there are lessons that can be learned from the Bari
case.
Keywords: urban transport demand, users’ choice, random utility model.
One cause of negative attitudes towards public transport may be due to feelings of uncertainty that travellers experience. We argue that these negative feelings are due to a lack of information and that, in public transport, besides the regular service information, information should also be provided that helps to reduce uncertainty, i.e., information which supports the cognitive map of the traveller. This information should confirm that which is already present in the cognitive map, and should provide extra information about the transport system and the area in which it is used. We show the relevance of our argument by using research from several projects. Furthermore, we discuss the needs and wishes of travellers concerning travel information and the ergonomic principles involved in the design process of travel information.
Captivity to a choice is an aspect of the choice process that is not well understood in the transportation area. The current context of understanding of this phenomenon is superficial and covers only being physically constrained to a single choice. However, there are many related concepts and behavioral phenomena, as discussed in various other fields, such as brand or service loyalty, brand switching, resistance to change, and habit formation, that can contribute to the formation of some degree of captivity. Furthermore, a deeper under-standing of these phenomena is becoming important to the transportation industry because of high levels of competition. For instance, it has become important for airline companies to develop customer loyalty to survive in the industry, after the airline industry in the United States was deregulated in 1978. The main aim of this work, therefore, is to develop a broad framework for describing the fundamentals of captivity, i.e., what, how, and when the underlying processes bring about captivity, and to form a theoretical basis for it. After presenting a framework within which captivity can be described, a way of handling it through "stated choices" is tested by means of a modeling effort using intercity travel mode choice data from Saudi Arabia. The travel mode choice models calibrated for two trip purposes indicate the feasibility of this method. Finally, conclusions and the areas that need further research are presented.
The presented study analyses travel mode choice in a student sample on four frequent trips: To the university, to work, to the favourite leisure activity, and to the favourite shop. The decision to use the car in contrast to alternative travel modes is modelled for each individual trip using a two-level structural equation model with trip specific attributes on Level 1 and person specific attributes on Level 2. Data was gathered in an online travel survey on a student sample of the Ruhr-University in Bochum. Three thousand five hundred and sixty students reported their mode choice for 26,865 individual trips. On the person level a comprehensive action determination model was applied to explain variation in person specific car preference, whereas on the situation level car availability, trip duration, day of travel, disruption in public transportation, weather, daylight, and purpose of the trip were included as predictors. The proposed two-level model is supported by the data, Level 1 predictors explain 62% of Level 1 variation, the Level 2 model explains 48% of Level 2 variance. The intraclass-correlation of car preference is .535. In a final step, interactions between person and trip specific variables were explored.
Can good or bad mood influence the common tendency for people to form judgments based on first impressions? Based on research on impression formation and recent work on affect and social cognition, this experiment predicted and found that positive mood increased, and negative mood eliminated the primacy effect. After an autobiographical mood induction (recalling happy or sad past events), participants (N=284) formed impressions about a character, Jim described either in an introvert–extrovert, or an extrovert–introvert sequence (Luchins, 1958). Impression formation judgments revealed clear mood and primacy main effects, as well as a mood by primacy interaction. Primacy effects were increased by positive mood, consistent with the more assimilative, holistic processing style associated with positive affect. Negative mood in turn eliminated primacy effects, consistent with a more accommodative, externally focused processing style. The relevance of these findings for first impressions in everyday judgments is considered, and their implications for recent affect-cognition theories are discussed.
The research question focused on in this study is whether complaint and compliment contain different service quality attributes. A sample of 236 complaints and 69 compliments collected by a public transport company were analyzed by means of the critical incident technique. The results of previous research were confirmed and showed that perceived service quality attributes in public transport involve employee behavior, reliability, simplicity and design. It was further concluded that reliability of service causes frequently more complaints than compliments. How customers are treated by the employees was found to be more frequent in compliments.
The present study examines the hypothesis that car users’ affective forecasts of satisfaction with public transport are biased by a focusing illusion. In Study 1, 54 car users with a stated intent to change travel mode read descriptions of a positive, a negative or a neutral critical incident. They were asked to predict their satisfaction with public transport if the incident occurred. In Study 2, 38 car users with no stated intent to change travel mode read descriptions of a positive or a negative critical incident. They were asked to predict their satisfaction with the service if the incident occurred. The results from Studies 1 and 2 showed that focus on a negative critical incident significantly generated lower predicted satisfaction. Thus, the study show that predicted satisfaction is altered when car users focus on negative critical incidents.Research highlights► Car users overlook factors that will influence their satisfaction with PT. ► Predicted satisfaction is altered when negative critical incidents are in focus. ► Predictions about future satisfaction with public transport are biased by a focusing illusion.
Newspapers, book clubs, telephone services and many other subscription services are often marketed to new customers by means of a free or substantially discounted trial period. This article evaluates this method as a means to promote commuting by public transport in a field experiment and based on a solid behavioural–theoretical framework. By measuring important antecedents and mediators, the applied approach offers important insights not only on what behavioural outcomes were produced by the intervention, but why they were produced. Copenhagen car owners received a free month travel card, either alone or together with a customised travel plan or a planning intervention. A control group receiving no intervention was also included. Attitudinal variables, car habits and travel behaviour were measured before and immediately after the intervention and again six months later. The only intervention that had an effect was the free month travel card, which led to a significant increase in commuting by public transport. As expected, the effect was mediated through a change in behavioural intentions rather than a change in perceived constraints. As expected, the effect became weaker when the promotion offer had expired, but an effect was still evident five months later. Possible reasons and implications of this are discussed.
This paper deals with the question how habits can be integrated into a model of normative decision-making based on the work of Schwartz and Howard (1981). A field study was conducted in Bochum, Germany, involving 160 participants. After a personal interview the participant had to protocol the travel mode choice on their trips to work in a logbook for the period of 4 weeks. The data illustrates that on the trip to work there is no direct effect of car-choice habits on travel mode choice additional to the personal norm, but a moderating effect of habit strength on the relation between personal norm and travel mode choice. It is argued that different levels of specificity of habit lead either to a moderating effect of habit (strong specific habit) or an additional direct effect (weak specific habit).
In many countries strikes hit the public transport sector from time to time. Public transport strikes are important for transportation research because they can impact upon the perceived reliability of public transport services. Moreover, the traveller's most preferred alternative is removed from the choice set. The traveller is forced to make up his mind about his preferences; doing so may induce a shift from inert, habit-driven behaviour to rational behaviour. In this paper we review 13 studies of strikes in the public transport sector, discuss criteria that determine the kind and size of the effects of a public transport strike, and present the results of a survey carried out after a short, unannounced railway strike in the Netherlands. Our survey confirms the results of other studies. In the short-term mainly captive travellers are affected; these are mostly commuters without alternative modes of transport who are highly inflexible in their departure or arrival times. As a result, on average 10–20% of the trips are cancelled. Most travellers switch to the car (either as driver or passenger) and as a result road congestion increases. Longer-term effects include a decrease in market share for public transport, which various studies estimate to be between 0.3 and 2.5%. The effect of a strike on public transport rider-ship can be temporary or permanent, depending on the type of strike and the policy response to it.
Greater Manchester's Metrolink ‘light rail’ system was designed to attract more passengers than its ‘suburban rail’ predecessors by providing congestion-free access through the heart of Manchester's city centre. ‘Before’ and ‘After’ Surveys were used to measure the impact of Metrolink Phase 1 from Bury through Manchester to Altrincham. Control areas were used on similar continuing British Rail suburban lines to isolate Metrolink's impact from other temporal changes. Metrolink has attracted more passengers than forecast, especially in the off-peak periods, despite unemployment rising by half. Many more car users than forecast switched to Metrolink and car traffic volumes fell in the Bury corridor in the peak time and in both corridors in the off-peak.
The aim of the research was to investigate the effects of information, feedback and commitment on car use and attitudes related to car use. In a field experiment (N = 350) users of private automobiles in The Netherlands monitored their travel behavior for four consecutive two-week periods. The participants received information and individual feedback about the effects of their car use on the environment and/or on their own finances. Information on public transport applicable to their situation was provided as well. Moreover, a subset of the participants committed themselves to reduce their mileage. Separate and combined effects of self-monitoring, environmental feedback, financial feedback, and commitment were analyzed. Effects on travel behavior turned out to be absent. Effects on attitudes were in some cases opposite to what was expected from a theoretical point of view as well as what was considered desirable from a policy point of view. The underlying psychological processes are discussed in terms of the social dilemma, dissonance reduction and reactance. Consequences for information campaigns are discussed.
This study focuses on the role of habit in the process of information use underlying daily travel mode choices. Based on the ‘policy capturing’ paradigm, eighty-two students performed a multiattribute travel mode judgment task, in which they could use information about travel circumstances in order to make a number of judgments. Measures of information use were obtained by performing multiple regression analyses for each subject. It was found that habit reduced the elaborateness of information use in judgments of travel mode use. This effect was independent of effects of manipulated accountability demands.
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.
Data from positron emission tomography (PET) studies showed novelty activations--higher regional cerebral blood flow associated with perceiving novel rather than familiar stimuli. Regions in the right 'expanded' limbic system--hippocampal formation, parahippocampal gyrus, retrosplenial cortex, thalamus, subcallosal area, the border between cortical areas 32 and 10, anterior and inferior cingulate cortex, putamen, and medial prefrontal cortex--showed such activations for complex pictures. Because novel information is usually encoded for storage in memory, these regions can be seen as constituting components of a visual/spatial novelty encoding network. Insular, opercular and temporal regions (e.g. area 37) showed novelty activations not only for visual pictures but also for auditorily presented sentences, and can be thought of as components of a transmodal novelty encoding network.
Previous research has suggested that the choice between public transport and private car use is not solely based on utility considerations, such as time and cost. However, affective considerations tend not to be targeted in policy interventions to reduce car use. This may be due, in part, to a lack of clarity about which affective responses to car use are important and how they may affect willingness to switch to public transport. This study sought to clarify the role of affective responses in transport mode choice. An interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) of car users' accounts was conducted to (i) explore affect associated with decisions to drive or use public transport to get to work; and (ii) describe the role of affect on such transport decisions, and its relationship to utility considerations. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 car users employed at a medium-sized UK university. Four affect themes were identified: These were journey-based affect (JBA), personal space, autonomy and identity. Typical 'utility' factors such as time, cost and reliability had important affective effects, and these were considered alongside utility components (e.g. getting to work on time). However, these effects were not always additive, and the role of affect depended on participants' own assessment of their circumstances. Implications for interventions are discussed.
Consistency in Cognitive Social Behaviour: an Introduction to Social Psychology Research in a novel environment
- C J Mower-White
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Consistency in cognitive social behaviour: an introduction to social psychology. London
- C J Mower-White
Mower-White, C. J. (1982). Consistency in cognitive social behaviour: an introduction to
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Novelty encoding networks in the human brain: positron emission tomography data
- E Tulving
- H J Markowitsch
- S Kapur
- R Habib
- S Houle
Tulving, E., H. J. Markowitsch, S. Kapur, R. Habib and S. Houle (1994). "Novelty
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Neuroreport 5(18): 2525-2528.