Research and analysis

Understanding geographic, demographic and micro-level influences on travel choices

Experiment to understand people’s travel preferences regarding short leisure trips made under different conditions.

• From: Department for Transport
• Published: 26 September 2024

Documents

Understanding geographic, demographic, and micro-level influences on travel choices – a discrete choice experiment

PDF, 2.88 MB, 61 pages

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Understanding geographic, demographic, and micro-level influences on travel choices – a discrete choice experiment: technical annexe

PDF, 1.67 MB, 48 pages

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Details

Study researching people’s travel preferences for short leisure trips made under different conditions. The study used a discrete choice experiment, a stated preference method presenting participants with a choices between option pairs.

The study results showed:

• consistent popularity of private cars across contexts and subgroups
• a high level of preference for rail and bus suggesting that use of public transport may be restricted by limited access
• shared transport, such as car club and rental cycle, were less popular choices although awareness of both modes was low and preferences could shift as awareness increases
• contextual factors did have an impact in travel choice but that these were not the same across the whole population

The research proved that discrete choice experiments were viable to explore factors affecting modal choices.

The study supplied insight on the influence of micro-factors, for example weather and time of day, for travel preference. This insight, in turn, will help the development of policy interventions to help meet the 2050 target of net zero carbon emissions.

Published 26 September 2024