The ‘Four Dimensions of Behaviour’ framework: a tool for characterising behaviours to help design better interventions

This paper sets out the rationale and structure of a tool for assisting policy-makers and practitioners to understand behavioural challenges and open up thinking on the design of effective ‘behaviour change’ interventions. The ‘Four Dimensions of Behaviour’ (4DB) framework is based on the theoretical and empirical research in a range of policy domains including transport and pro-environmental behaviour more generally. The 4DB framework characterises multifaceted behaviours along dimensions of actor, domain, durability and scope. Its application in workshop or structured settings opens up diverse and non-exclusive discussion on designing interventions to match salient behavioural characteristics. The use of the 4DB framework in the transport domain is demonstrated for travel behaviours of interest to policy-makers using examples of buying plug-in vehicles (PiVs), commuting by bicycle, eco-driving and making business trips by train.     

The effect of attitudes toward cars and public transportation on behavioral intention in commuting mode choice—A comparison across six Asian countries

This study investigated the contribution of psychological factors in explaining the choice of transportation mode in six Asian countries. Data were collected from 1118 respondents in Japan, Thailand, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The dependent variable was the intention to use one of three modes for work travel after getting a job: car, public transit, or other modes. The explanatory variables were three attitude factors taken from a previous study, including: 1/symbolic affective, reflecting affective motives of travel mode use; 2/instrumental, referring to functional attributes of travel modes; and 3/social orderliness which represents for environmental friendliness, safety, altruism, quietness et cetera. Several logit model estimates were made using the samples from the six countries separately and together. We obtained three main findings. First, attitude variables about the car were all significant determinants for the entire sample from Asian countries. Second, the social orderliness aspect of public transit was a common concern of respondents from developing countries in selecting this mode for work trips. Third, in countries in which the intent to use a car was not very high, attitude factors about the car were found to be significant determinants of the behavioral intention to commute by car but were less significant in countries in which the desire to use a car was high.