Browsing by Author "Kuisma, Salla"

Changes in the transport environment and the resulting need to manage transport demand require a better understanding of travel behaviour. The concept of mobility is defined as the potential for movement, and is well suited to this purpose. However, despite the definition, mobility has usually been measured in terms of realized travel indicators (descriptive data of past travel), because potential for movement is hard to capture. To make mobility easier to approach in practice, this work elaborates the mobility concept, describes a conceptual model for it, and implements a more comprehensive approach to it through a survey. The work was done in two parts: 1) The multidisciplinary literature was reviewed, and three specialists were interviewed to construct a conceptual mobility model that specifies the relevant factors comprising mobility. 2) A survey on daily travel was conducted in five Finnish cities. The survey focused on three issues of mobility: personal travel preferences (in terms of features), resources and experienced constraints. The results show that mobility is an amalgam of personal variables (background, life situation, personality, identity, preferences, needs, resources and routines), situation-specific and environment-related factors, decision-making processes, and realized travel. These are specified in the mobility model. The survey results show that when respondents were asked to rate sixteen travel features in terms of importance, those valued the highest on average were reliability, rapidity and freedom from transport timetables. The features were valued differently depending on the trip. On a grocery store trip, for example, reliability was not as important as on work or leisure activity trips, whereas boot space for goods was considered essential. Active users of cars, public transport and bicycles had different priorities than their non-active counterparts. Car drivers appreciated the rapidity, reliability, freedom from transport timetables, possibility to drive, avoiding walking, convenient boot space, privacy, and avoiding changing vehicles and going outdoors in bad weather, afforded by their vehicle. Users of public transport valued its environmental friendliness, low cost, possibility to focus elsewhere than on driving, and physical exercise. Understanding personal preferences has the potential to contribute, among other things, to smarter demand management. The results also show that over 90% of the respondents experienced some of the six defined constraints on their daily mobility: lack of time, lack of money, low energy or difficulty coping, safety concerns, lack of a suitable vehicle, or physical disability. Low energy or difficulty coping was the most common constraint, with 82% experiencing it at least slightly and 34% quite a lot or very much. The respective figures for lack of time, which was the second most common constraint, were 65% and 32%. The constraints were related to personal variables, which supports earlier findings. The results indicate that the personal-resource perspective can increase our understanding of mobility. In particular, the mental resources needed for travel seem to be a relevant issue in mobility that is rarely considered and therefore requires greater attention.