Preference Planning and Unsustainable Desires: A Hypothesis toward 'How' Contextual and Psychological Factors Influence Travel Attitudes through Qualitative and Quantitative Measures

Abstract

Counter to the prevailing view that sees travel attitudes as influencing neighbourhood location decisions, this dissertation sets out to examine if where individuals choose to live has an effect on travel attitudes. To achieve this, both a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the relationship between travel attitudes, place attachment and length of tenure is performed. An association between place attachment and travel attitudes would suggest that travel attitudes, and subsequent travel behaviours, are a result of neighbourhood location considerations rather than an influencing factor on them. This too is the case for an association between length of tenure and travel attitudes. While previous research identifies associations between contextual physical factors or psychological factors and travel behaviour, how these factors exert their influence is relatively undefined. With the proposition of an association between travel attitudes, place attachment and length of tenure, an underlying mechanism to these previous associates is tested. Because place attachment occurs over time and after a decision has been made to reside in a particular neighbourhood, and likewise because length of tenure is time dependent, a connection between either of these factors and travel attitudes supports the hypothesis that travel attitudes may just as likely be a result of residential location choices as they are an influence on them. For this reason, both of these variables are referred to as post-decision reasoning factors and are perceived as the mechanisms through which decisions are justified after they have been made. While travel behaviour literature is currently focused on the role latent travel attitudes have on residential location choices, housing choice literature consistently finds travel attitudes or neighbourhood factors a distant second to dwelling considerations. Dwelling size versus price, housing quality, yard and overall house size all have a greater influence on residential location decisions. Even when neighbourhood considerations are made in addition to dwelling characteristic factors, travel attitudes again rank lower than school quality, perceived safety and even the image of the neighbourhood. This dissertation is placed to add clarity to the discrepancy between travel behaviour and housing choice literature. An initial pilot study examined the relation between liveability and density and guided this dissertation toward travel behaviour, neighbourhood location decisions and the important role of attitudes to these two domains. Typically travel behaviour is compared between two neighbourhood typologies. These are either conventional or traditional. The former reflects status-quo land development with long winding cul-de-sacs, separated uses, a lack of centeredness and low connectivity. The latter is more akin to neighbourhoods developed before the Second World War and have higher densities, mixed uses, and are generally directed towards pedestrians rather than the automobile. Two traditional and two conventional neighbourhoods from Canada and New Zealand were used as case studies for the main research. Three-hundred households in each of the four case studies received a survey that inquired about residents' preferences toward travel modes and neighbourhood types and included psychological variables used for the prediction of travel behaviour as well as typical socio-demographic variables and the two post-decision reasoning factors of place attachment and length of tenure. This survey was analysed using multiple regression to determine the influence of post-decision reasoning variables. In addition to this quantitative survey, an on-line qualitative survey assessed residents' opinions for what motivates their travel and neighbourhood location decisions. The relative discourse patterns that developed from the qualitative survey provide a context against which the quantitative findings are interpreted. This provides validation to the quantitative findings as well as a theoretically robust method to infer causation. Findings indicated that attitudes were not correlated to post-decision reasoning variables but that they may still have formed after a neighbourhood selection decision was made and not prior. Here an unanticipated correlation between perceived behavioural control and travel attitudes was observed. Likewise, another unanticipated result suggests a greater mismatch between travel preferences and behaviours than previous studies have found. While the focus in environmental psychology is on segmenting survey populations into personality cohorts, with the aim of tailoring policy to these subgroups, the findings from the present study suggest a greater concentration should be paid to the context within which diverse populations develop. Here, both the qualitative and quantitative results indicate that rather than attitudes informing environmentally supportive behaviours, such as travel behaviour, an individual's social and physical context may afford them opportunities to hold environmentally supportive attitudes instead of the other way around. While the vast majority of research within this field appears satisfied with correlating varying attitudes to positive environmental behaviour rather than explaining why these differences exist, the present study explores a hypothesis toward this rationalization. Here, post-decision reasoning provides a reliable explanation of travel behaviour and this understanding further informs how to more effectively engage with groups and individuals toward increased sustainable behaviour.