THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES INSTITUTE OF ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF URBAN TRAVEL BEHAVIOUR A Thesis submitted in the fulfillment of the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Supervised by Associate Professor Mark Diesendorf (UNSW) and Professor George Paxinos (UNSW) JACQUELINE HICKS November 2012 Page 1 of 308 Page 2 of 308 Abstract The blueprint for achieving a modal shift from car use to public transport and active transport has remained an elusive part of the endeavour towards more sustainable urban transport. This could partly be due to a lack of extensive research into the factors that influence people to use certain modes of transport, but rarely or never use other modes. Until now most research into travel behaviour has been based on economic rationalism and other quantitative studies, which limits the factors that can be considered. To address this gap a framework has been developed to scope the various influences related to transport that people are exposed to in society, referred to as ‘social influences’. This thesis examines how social influences encourage or discourage the use of different modes of transport. This is done by firstly examining the issues, processes and perspectives that currently frame the way transport is considered. It then considers how people are exposed to social influences related to urban transport. This involves researching the determinants of behaviour found in psychological and sociological literature along with developing an understanding of the characteristics of travel behaviour that may affect the perceived importance of different determinants of behaviour. In order to understand how social influences affect these determinants of behaviour, the thesis investigates the way messages are developed, portrayed and interpreted. By combining an understanding of the influence of messages, with the influence of other determinants of behaviour, a framework, which consists of causal links between transport-related messages and travel behaviour, is developed. This framework is then applied to prominent ways people receive transport-related messages. This includes a focused study of messages within mass media. The development and application of this framework leads to a number of recommendations to assist the design of future policy options for encouraging a greater use of sustainable transport modes, namely public transport and active transport. These include taking into account the way messages portray images of transport use; the prevalence of transport use; the proximity of people to the use of different modes of transport; the framing of transport problems, solutions and responsibility; the portrayal of a sense of fairness and power; and the way messages lead to competency to deal with the complexity and variability of transport. The potential for existing strategies to address these issues is examined, where existing strategies come from sustainable transport or other public health campaigns such as anti-smoking. The work in this thesis is complementary to the development of infrastructure and services for active transport Page 3 of 308 and public transport. By addressing social influences, it is expected there will be improvements to the support and use of such infrastructure and services. Page 4 of 308 Acknowledgements This thesis benefited from the inspiration and support of many people. I have learnt just as much through these amazing people as I have through the many books, articles and reports that I have read. My supervisors, Mark Diesendorf and George Paxinos, have been with me all the way and watched (sometimes nervously) my thesis evolve from the work of an engineer to a piece which draws on many disciplines I knew very little about before I started. I am lucky to have their faith and enthusiasm and their ability to persist through my ‘rainbow’ of ideas, my occasional stubbornness and through my long sentences. (But don’t worry; most of these have been cut down in size now.) I have had the opportunity to work alongside some brilliant PhD students who have stimulated me through interesting discussions and kept me going with words of encouragement. I have made some amazing friends that kept inspiring me with their research. To thank you, I dedicate my little PhD poem to all of you. I hope it will give you some giggles during stressful times (see the last page of the thesis). Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends who have been there when required. They have taken on roles of counsellor, editor extraordinaire, masseur, motivator, they have kept a roof over my head and, when needed, they have been a great source of distraction. A special thanks to my cousin Yolande, who has been able to give me both reality checks and grammar checks. Page 5 of 308 Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. 5 Contents ................................................................................................................................... 6 Glossary .................................................................................................................................. 12 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 16 1.1 Background ............................................................................................................. 16 1.2 Traditional transport policy and planning in Sydney ................................................. 18 1.3 The research question ............................................................................................. 23 1.4 Previous social science studies examining urban transport ...................................... 25 1.5 Research approach of this thesis.............................................................................. 30 1.6 The plan of this thesis .............................................................................................. 37 2 Urban transport context.................................................................................................. 39 2.1 The political and cultural context ............................................................................. 41 2.2 The material and energy context ............................................................................. 47 2.3 The economic and industrial context ....................................................................... 51 2.4 The urban planning context ..................................................................................... 57 2.5 The psycho-social context ........................................................................................ 61 2.6 The public health context ........................................................................................ 71 2.7 Summary and implications of contexts for travel behaviour ..................................... 79 3 Determinants of Travel Behaviour ................................................................................... 84 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 84 3.2 Key determinants of behaviour ................................................................................ 86 Page 6 of 308 3.3 Implications for travel behaviour ...........................................................................116 3.4 Summary ...............................................................................................................121 4 Implications of messages ...............................................................................................122 4.1 Content of message ...............................................................................................122 4.2 Conveying messages ..............................................................................................131 4.3 Interpreting messages ...........................................................................................133 4.4 Lessons learnt and contributions for methodological framework ...........................146 5 Transport-related messages ..........................................................................................150 5.1 Introduction...........................................................................................................150 5.2 The messages noticed: travel information diary .....................................................152 5.3 Primary sources of messages .................................................................................155 5.4 Secondary sources of messages .............................................................................168 5.5 Summary ...............................................................................................................182 6 Mass media as a social influence ...................................................................................184 6.1 Introduction...........................................................................................................184 6.2 Influence of media messages .................................................................................188 6.3 Media Analysis .......................................................................................................193