Multimodal travel behaviour, attitudes, and cognitive dissonance

Multimodal travel behaviour, also termed multimodality, refers to as the phenomenon of an in-dividual using more than one mode of transport in a given period. Studies indicate that encouraging multimodality may provide a solution to induce modal shifts towards sustainable transport. In this research, we investigate the distribution of mode-specific attitudes and attitude -mode use incompatibilities across clusters and levels of multimodality using the Netherlands Mobility Panel. We find that the most positive attitude does not necessarily correspond to the mode with the highest level of use. Attitudes towards car use are most positive, independent of the cluster membership and levels of multimodality. We also find that multimodal public trans-port users (compared with car-dominant users) and those with a higher level of multimodality are more likely to be attitudinally incompatible with frequently-used modes and the composition of their existing mode sets of travelling. This suggests that multimodal individuals may tend to experience cognitive dissonance with their mode use. Our findings also help uncover the psy-chological mechanism underlying a recent important finding that multimodal individuals are inclined to change their mode use patterns over time.

Automated summary

The study found that although people have a positive attitude towards car use, it does not necessarily mean they use cars the most frequently. Multimodal travelers and those with higher levels of multimodality are more likely to have attitude-mode use incompatibilities, which may lead to cognitive dissonance.