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Travel satisfaction effects of changes in public transport usage

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Abstract

We study the effects of public transport use incentives on changes in travel satisfaction of participants that undergo behavior change. We use the results of an experiment conducted recently at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and requiring a temporary use of public transport for commuting to work by habitual car drivers. We observe an increase in the average level of satisfaction with the commute to work of participants who switch to public transport after the temporary intervention. This increase is sustained to some extent several months after the intervention. Moreover, participants’ dissatisfaction is almost eliminated. We conclude that public transport use incentives are promising not only for encouraging sustainable travel behavior but also for increasing people’s satisfaction.

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Notes

  1. In research that tries to test a hypothesis that was theoretically led, i.e. developed a priori, rather small sample sizes have been typically used as in various studies in psychology (e.g. Fujii and Kitamura 2003; Fujii and Gärling 2003; Haney et al. 1973). This research is of this type. The statistics that we calculate all consider the sample size.

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Correspondence to Maya Abou-Zeid.

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Abou-Zeid, M., Fujii, S. Travel satisfaction effects of changes in public transport usage. Transportation 43, 301–314 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-015-9576-3

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