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Title:

Exploring the Impact of Unfamiliar Transit Travel on Attitudes and Behavior

Accession Number:

01475232

Record Type:

Component

Availability:

Transportation Research Board Business Office

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Abstract:

Past research has found that unfamiliar travel on public transport can be an unpleasant experience while research in psychology has shown first impressions to be integral to all attitude development due to a phenomenon referred to as the ‘primacy effect’. However the ‘primacy effect’ concept has never been explored in the context or urban transit. This paper explores the experience of unfamiliar travel and its potential importance by comparing first trip experiences, which in this study context means first time using public transport to travel to a university campus, with perceptions of overall trip experiences through a university access survey. The results show that unfamiliar travel by transit tends to be a more negative experience than familiar trips. ‘Ease of navigation’ (wayfinding), ‘emotional state’, ‘ease of navigating transfer’, and ‘ease of ticketing’ were particularly negative aspects of first trips. Unfamiliar travel was found to be significantly correlated with overall ratings of transit suggesting a strong basis for the ‘primacy effect’ in public transport. Results also suggest that first trip experiences are significantly correlated with subsequent travel behavior but only for ‘choice travelers’ i.e. those with access to a car and not for ‘captive’ transit users. This is a novel research area with important implications for travel behavior and user attitude research. Suggestions for future research are relevance to transport practitioners are made.

Supplemental Notes:

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADB10 Traveler Behavior and Values.

Monograph Accession #:

01470560

Report/Paper Numbers:

13-0946

Language:

English

Corporate Authors:

Transportation Research Board

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Authors:

Schmitt, Lorelei
Currie, Graham
Delbosc, Alexa

Pagination:

11p

Publication Date:

2013

Conference:

Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting

Location: Washington DC, United States
Date: 2013-1-13 to 2013-1-17
Sponsors: Transportation Research Board

Media Type:

Digital/other

Features:

Figures; References (26) ; Tables

Subject Areas:

Public Transportation; Safety and Human Factors; I70: Traffic and Transport

Source Data:

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2013 Paper #13-0946

Files:

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Created Date:

Feb 5 2013 12:17PM