01340880

Component

Spitsmijden is a new travel demand measure introduced in the Netherlands. It is based on rewarding frequent car commuters for avoiding the rush-hour, using monetary incentives. Although previous analyses revealed much of the factors influencing car users’ responses to rewards, their decision to participate and the order of magnitude of rush hour travel reduction, questions remained regarding participants motivations to participate and avoid the rush hour, and how their behaviour and motivations develop throughout the reward period. Qualitative research methods (semi-structured interviews) were applied to tackle these questions. The analysis, involving 12 participants, suggests their motivations and behaviour are not stable and that a process takes place in which the rewarding gradually leads to behavioural change. Although the reward is the initial motivation to enroll and avoid the peak, many Spitsmijden (peak avoidance is Dutch) is a new travel demand measure introduced in the Netherlands. It is based on rewarding frequent car commuters for avoiding the rush-hour, using monetary incentives. Although previous quantitative analyses had revealed many of the factors influencing car users’ responses to rewards, their decision to participate and the order of magnitude of rush hour travel reduction, several questions remained regarding participants motivations to participate and avoid the rush hour, and how their behaviour and motives develop throughout the reward period. Qualitative research methods (semi-structured interviews) were applied to tackle these questions. The analysis, involving 12 participants, suggests their motivations and behaviour are not stable and that a process takes place in which the rewarding gradually leads to behavioural change. Although the reward is the initial motivation to enrol and avoid the peak, many participants find travel options that are in themselves rewarding, leading to intrinsic motivation to sustain their behaviour. Some eventually choose a single new travel option (stabilisers), while others optimise their choice using dynamic traffic information (flexibles). Those who do not find attractive alternatives do not develop intrinsic motivation and fall back to their old behaviour when the reward ceases (relapsers). From a methodological point of view, the qualitative method used has significant added value to quantitative methods applied earlier in the sense that processes can be identified in which motivational, behavioural and contextual factors interact, leading to richer descriptions and improved insights into the behavioural adaptation process in response to congestion management measures.

01329018

11-0635

English

21p

2011

Transportation Research Board 90th Annual Meeting

DVD

Figures (1) ; References (34) ; Tables (2)

Behavior; Commuters; Incentives; Peak hour traffic; Qualitative analysis; Travel behavior; Travel demand

Automobile travel reduction; Driving avoidance

Netherlands

Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2011 Paper #11-0635

TRIS, TRB

Feb 17 2011 5:31PM