Background: Changes in modal choice is argued to be one way to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. Increasing modal choices in favour ofmore environmentally friendly travel modes requires a better understanding of how these choices are actually made. The first aim of this study istherefore to examine how modal choice is related to subjective experiences as perceived accessibility, perceived satisfaction, and habit, both beforeand after an intervention promoting public transport. The second aim is to examine how modal choice is affected by the intervention. Finally, thethird aim is to examine how subjective experiences as perceived accessibility, perceived satisfaction, and habit are affected by the intervention.Method: The design used is a before- and after-study with free public travel passes as the intervention (30- or 14-days free travel pass). Altogether, 52travelers – distributed on two intervention groups and one control group – participated in the study. The 30-days free travel pass group constitutes18 participants, the 14-days free travel pass group constitutes 19 participants while the control group constitutes 15 participants. During the beforeperiodthe participants were asked to register their modal choice using a digitalized application downloaded on their smart phones (the TravelVuapp), to complete a short app-based questionnaire, and a web-based questionnaire. During the after-period, they were once again asked to registertheir modal choice and to complete a web-based questionnaire. All data collected were analyzed by variance or correlation analyses using thechange between before- and after period as the dependent variable.Results: The results show that walking was more common than the use of public transport and car, which in turn were more common than the use ofbicycle. Perceived accessibility, perceived satisfaction, general health, life quality as well as habit were all rated fairly high. Over time, the use ofpublic transport increased while the use of car decreased overall. With increased use of public transport, the perceived accessibility decreased, buton the other hand, the life quality increased. There was no difference in perceived accessibility, perceived satisfaction, or habit between the threegroups, but the participants became overall more satisfied with the standard of their experiences of their everyday travel (cognitive evaluation). Atthe same time, they became less reflective of their choice of travel mode and less interested in trying out new alternative travel modes during theafter- compared to the before period.Conclusion: The intervention did not affect the modal choice or the subjective experiences. Over time, the participants did however increase their useof public transport and their cognitive evaluation of their everyday travel overall, while they decreased their use of car and became less reflectiveand less interested in trying out new alternative travel modes. These changes might be attributed to their participation in the present study.

In recent years, accessibility to services and activities using sustainable transport modes has become an important goal for land use and transport planning policies. Traditional approaches rely on objective measures, such as travel time, distance, costs, and other spatial data, overlooking personal preferences, experiences, demographic features, and socio-cultural and economic dynamics. Attributes that affect perceptions of accessibility require attention but our understanding of the factors influencing perceived accessibility is inadequate, particularly in Australia’s expanding suburbs. Through a literature review and questionnaire surveys, this study aims to take into account various travel characteristics and enhance the understanding of how perceived safety and service quality impact mobility behaviour and perceived accessibility within the Australian context. The study found that perceived safety and service quality have significant impacts on perceived accessibility and hence influence the use of public transport. We have identified critical factors that require proper consideration in transport and land use planning and policies to enable a better contribution from public transport to the liveability and well-being of residents in Australian suburbs.

Accessibility is commonly defined and operationalised through objective measurements,such as travel time and physical distance to destinations; however, there is a lack of empirical studiescapturing perceived accessibility from individual perspectives. With the aim of sustainable transportfor inclusive communities, it is crucial to investigate the impact of socio-economy and travel modeon perceived accessibility and key driving factors of perceived safety and service quality. Throughthe collection of primary data from one of the fastest-growing suburbs in Melbourne, this studyexamined variation of perceptions towards accessibility, safety, and service quality among diversesocial groups and travellers using different modes of transport. The findings of this study wouldassist transport planners in making informed decisions in creating inclusive transport networks thatcan improve community health and well-being.

For decades, accessibility – i.e. the ease of reaching destinations – has been an important concept in transport planning, resulting in many studies trying to measure it and put it into practice. Also walkability, a mode-specific type of accessibility referring to how easy it is to walk (to destinations) received increased attention in the last two decades. In recent years, a new focus has been on how people perceive their accessibility as this may be a stronger predictor of travel behaviour than objective elements of accessibility (such as built environment characteristics). Perceived walkability, i.e. how walk-friendly people experience a certain area, however, has only been explored by a limited number of studies. In this review paper, we give an overview of existing studies analysing perceived walkability, which mostly have focused on its effects on walking frequency/duration, physical activity and various aspects of mental well-being. Based on this literature review, a conceptual model is created, emphasising the determinants and effects of perceived walkability and how it is related to objective walkability. We end this paper by providing avenues for further research, including the introduction of a Short Perceived Walkability Scale (SPWS) and recommendations for data collection and analysis. Doing so can create new insights into perceived walkability and links with related elements, and therefore can contribute to stimulating walking trips and improving the experience of these trips.

In order to constitute a realistic option to existing travel modes, carpooling needs to be able to offer adequate levels of accessibility. Insights into how carpooling services affect perceived accessibility up until now remain unexplored. In this study we explore carpooling experiences of 122 users in Sweden and examine a number of possible determinants of the perceived accessibility of carpooling. Results show that carpooling is not perceived by the users as particularly accessible with low levels across the sample. Moreover, multiple linear hierarchical regression analyses show that simplicity of travel, population density, years of education, and school and work-trips appear to affect perceptions of accessibility of carpooling, whereas travel time and cost appear not to. The final model explains a third of the variance in perceived accessibility of carpooling, thus nearly two thirds of the variation is still unaccounted for. Future research should explore further possible determinants of perceived accessibility of carpooling in order to explain, understand, and counteract the low levels of accessibility that appear to be linked to this specific travel mode.

Service quality in public transport is proposed as a key determinant of perceived accessibility, the ease to live the life one wants with the help of the transport system, as low service quality may be a barrier for use, decreasing the ease to participate in daily activities. The first aim was to validate the direct relationship between public transport quality and perceived accessibility. Secondly, we analyzed the mediating role of safety perceptions to better explain the link between service quality and perceived accessibility. Public transport travelers (n = 4944) from five northern European cities were surveyed. Results from PLS-SEM modeling show that service quality has a significant and direct relationship with perceived accessibility, especially regarding functionality. An indirect relationship through travel safety perceptions was also observed, highlighting information and comfort as main drivers. High car use, low public transport use, increasing age, and being a woman were also associated with greater perceived accessibility. City comparisons yielded a number of significant differences. Our results contribute to the research literature by highlighting the importance of service quality in public transport for perceptions of accessibility in daily travel. In particular, we argue that functionality is the core attribute to focus on, and that attributes related to travel safety perceptions should be carefully considered when planning for sustainable transport.

Accessibility is commonly assessed using indicators calculated from spatial data. Comparatively perceived accessibility cannot be adequately reflected by these calculated measures because it involves the perception to participate in spatially dispersed opportunities. This highlights the need to understand and consider perceived accessibility for planning and evaluation of transport systems from a complementary perspective. Therefore, this study aims to offer a systematic review concerning the interpretations of perceived accessibility in transport, its concept, major social drivers, barriers, evaluation methods and key influencing factors. This review also highlights the importance of perceived safety and service quality in public transport and their relationship with perceived accessibility in daily travel. The paper argues that perceived accessibility with due consideration of perceived safety and service quality will contribute to the development from mobility-based to accessibility-based planning.

How to drive modal shift is one of the primary issues in creating a sustainable society. By encouraging people to migrate from private car use to public transport, city planners can prepare for a super-aged society, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and mitigate negative externalities of private car use such as congestion, accidents, and noise. To achieve these goals, city planners are required to understand whether public transport usage can be increased by improving the service quality and what roles user satisfaction and loyalty play in the process. The relations between service quality, user satisfaction, loyalty, and user frequency have been studied for a long time. However, most of the studies are based on cross-sectional analysis. Cross-sectional analysis is less powerful in detecting causality as it does not show pre-post relations or lagged effects between variables. To investigate causal and non-simultaneous relations among quality, satisfaction, loyalty, and user frequency of public transport, we used data of theBenchmarking in European Service of Public Transportsurvey from 2001 to 2015 in four European cities, and applied vector auto regressive (VAR) analysis. The result shows that improvement of service quality has positive effects on user's satisfaction, loyalty, and user frequency and that better satisfaction leads to higher loyalty and user frequency. More importantly, the result also shows that behavioral modification (change in user frequency) occurs with time lag while psychological modifications (changes in satisfaction and loyalty) occur immediately after changes in service quality. The findings suggest that city/transport planners ought to keep improving the service quality of public transport and monitoring the achievement from a long-term perspective.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic presented numerous, significant challenges for older people in their daily life. In order to reach a deeper understanding of the feelings and thoughts of older people related to their possibilities to travel and engage in activities, this study takes a qualitative approach to exploring the views of older people themselves. The study focuses on experiences not only before and during COVID-19, but also on the perceived possibilities to travel in a future without the pandemic.

Methods: 14 in-depth semi-structured interviews with Swedish residents above 70 were conducted. Applied thematic analysis (ATA) was applied to, in a first stage, investigate meaningful segments of the data. In a second stage, identified segments were combined into themes to generate a descriptive and exploratory model

Results: Self-efficacy and health are important prerequisites for older peoples´ travel. When the pandemic hit older people felt they had nowhere to go anymore, and the importance of social interactions became clear during the pandemic. Some were able to adapt to the new circumstances but others could not and worried about their future.

Conclusions: The findings highlight the urgent need to develop a transport system that addresses the physical as well as the mental health of old people, with a particular focus on facilitating social interactions

The main purpose of this thesis is introducing and proposing perceived accessibility as an important and so far overseen complement to conventional, objective accessibility in sustainable transport. Perceived accessibility is defined as the possibilities and ease of engaging in preferred activities using different transport modes. Implications for sustainable transport planning along with possible social outcomes related to perceived accessibility are also discussed.

The thesis comprises two empirical studies. In Study I a psychometric measure (PAC) that captures perceived accessibility was developed and validated in three different datasets by exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. All data was collected in Karlstad, Sweden in 2013 and 2014 with a total of 750 participants (bus travelers). Perceived accessibility is suggested as a complement to objective accessibility by contributing with the traveler perspective.  Study II aimed at examining determinants of perceived accessibility focusing on service quality aspects, feelings of safety, age, and trip frequency. Study II used the same data as Study I in a conditional process model to look at the relations between perceived accessibility and its proposed determinants. Service quality and feelings of safety were found important predictors of perceived accessibility, and safety also explains part of the effect of quality on perceived accessibility. These relationships were not dependent on trip frequency (as in how often one travels by public transport). Age also predicted perceived accessibility, and a follow-up cluster analysis showed that elderly and people in their thirties experience significantly lower perceived accessibility than other age groups.

This thesis fills a gap in contemporary transport research and planning as it introduces perceived accessibility as a theoretical and methodological concept for incorporating the individual dimension of accessibility in current practice. Perceived accessibility is defined as “how easy it is to live a satisfactory life with the help of the transport system”, and is proposed as a complement to objective measures and understandings of accessibility.

The thesis includes three studies. Study I developed a measure for capturing perceived accessibility with a specific transport mode, based on theories and conceptualizations of accessibility. Study II looked at determinants of perceived accessibility, and Study III further developed the measure of perceived accessibility to include actual travel (combinations of transport modes), and explored the relation between perceived accessibility and objectively measured accessibility for the same geographical area in Sweden. In all, the thesis provides background ideas and theory on perceived accessibility, and a validated quantitative approach to capturing perceived accessibility in day-to-day travel. Empirical findings further support the complementary nature of the approach and results indicate that assessments of perceived accessibility may be helpful in determining where to direct interventions aiming at improving accessibility by evaluating different transport modes or different segments of individuals. The method developed for capturing perceived accessibility shows merit in contributing to further theory development on accessibility by its ability to identify determinants of perceived accessibility and its potential in identifying segments of the population that experience significantly lower accessibility than other groups, and thus are at risk of experiencing social exclusion or suffer from transport disadvantage.

Background

The study aim was to validate the relationship between different aspects of service quality, safety perceptions, and perceived accessibility of public transport. Perceived accessibility refers to the ease of living the life one wants by help of the transport system(s). Low service quality and low perceptions of safety may be barriers for the use of specific modes, such as public transport, and thus affecting the ability to use these modes for participating in daily activities (e.g. accessibility). In the transition toward sustainable travel, determinants of perceived accessibility become increasingly important to address in order to find ways to counteract inaccessibility and related outcomes, such as social exclusion, low well-being and inequality.

Method

We analyzed survey data from 2018 of 4944 participants, aged 16-65, from 5 European cities (Helsinki, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo, Bergen), on self-assessed levels of perceived accessibility, 4 service quality dimensions (functionality, comfort, information/staff, and price), travel safety perceptions, mode use, age, gender, and car-use.

Results

PLS-SEM modeling show that all the service quality dimensions directly and indirectly (through safety) influence perceived accessibility, with a stronger direct link from functionality and stronger indirect links for comfort and information/staff on perceived accessibility. Price and gender are more moderately related to perceived accessibility (weaker links). Public transport use has a negative relationship with perceived accessibility, except in Helsinki, where, surprisingly, the relationship is positive.

Conclusions

Service quality is an important attribute of public transport, which also affects perceptions of accessibility and safety. The higher the quality, the higher the feelings of safety and perceived accessibility. Safety in turn, appears to be an important mediator between service quality and perceived accessibility. Safety in turn, appears to be an important mediator between service quality and perceived accessibility. Thus, both service quality and safety are significant aspects to consider when designing for accessible public transport systems that promote sustainable mobility.

Perceived accessibility has been acknowledged as an important aspect of transport policy since the 70s. Nevertheless, very few empirical studies have been conducted in this field. When aiming to improve social inclusion, by making sus-tainable transport modes accessible to all, it is important to understand the factors driving perceived accessibility. Un-like conventional accessibility measures, perceived accessibility focuses on the perceived possibilities and ease of en-gaging in preferred activities using different transport modes. We define perceived accessibility in terms of how easy it is to live a satisfactory life with the help of the transport system, which is not necessarily the same thing as the objec-tive standard of the system. According to previous research, perceived accessibility varies with the subjectively-rated quality of the mode of transport. Thus, improvements in quality (e.g. trip planning, comfort, or safety) increase the per-ceived accessibility and make life easier to live using the chosen mode of transport. This study (n=750) focuses on the perceived accessibility of public transport, captured using the Perceived Accessibility Scale PAC (Lättman, Olsson, & Fri-man, 2015). More specifically, this study aims to determine how level of quality affects the perceived accessibility in public transport. A Conditional Process Model shows that, in addition to quality, feeling safe and frequency of travel are important predictors of perceived accessibility. Furthermore, elderly and those in their thirties report a lower level of perceived accessibility to their day-to-day activities using public transport. The basic premise of this study is that sub-jective experiences may be as important as objective indicators when planning and designing for socially inclusive transport systems.

In order to plan for, and achieve, a sustainable and accessible transport system, research and policies alike recognize a need to implement and enhance alternative transport options in favor of the private car. Moreover, these sustainable alternatives need to offer sufficient levels of accessibility regardless of where people live or work. We present and discuss an approach for capturing and evaluating perceived accessibility, with the ability to differentiate between individuals. Levels of perceived accessibility are compared before and after a fictive car use restriction, and between residential areas, using data from 2711 residents of Malmö, Sweden. A main conclusion is that levels of perceived accessibility become significantly lower for car users when they are limited in their options for daily travel. The difference is more substantive for frequent car users, who already travel less by sustainable modes today. There are also significant differences in levels of perceived accessibility in the restricted scenario, depending on where individuals live. These novel findings may not come as a surprise, but they emphasize the importance of including and analyzing perceptions of car users when designing accessible and sustainable transport systems. The paper ends with a discussion on how to facilitate the transition from current transport systems to an inclusive and accessible system.

This study explores the concept of transport justice through the lens of perceived accessibility, highlighting the importance of individual experiences in transport planning and evaluation. It reveals that both gender- and age-based disparities exist in perceived accessibility and travel satisfaction, with women and the young experiencing lower accessibility and satisfaction due to a greater reliance on public transport. The study suggests that improving public transport quality and reducing car use attractiveness could address these inequalities. It also notes that increasing local activity hubs could enhance transport justice by reducing the need for frequent travel. The findings underscore the potential of perceived accessibility as a tool to unveil transport injustices and guide future research and policy-making toward a more equitable transport system.

Accessibility has conventionally been measured and evaluated ignoring user perceptions in favor of focusing on travel time and distance to a number of pre-determined destinations. Acknowledging this gap, we recently developed a scale for perceived accessibility PAC (Lättman, Friman, & Olsson 2016b) aimed at capturing the individual perspective of accessibility with a certain travel mode. In this paper, we 1) further develop the PAC measure of perceived accessibility in order to capture how easy it is to live a satisfactory life with the help of the transport system, 2) compare levels of perceived accessibility between residential areas and main travel modes, and 3) compare residents’ perceived accessibility to the objective accessibility level for the same residential area. Data from 2711 residents of Malmö, Sweden show that perceived accessibility is consistently different from objective accessibility across 13 residential areas, with minor differences in levels of perceived accessibility between areas. Surprisingly, bicycle users rate their accessibility significantly higher than those who mainly use the car or public transport for daily travel, contrary to objective accessibility assumptions. These differences point at the importance of including perceived accessibility as a complementary tool when planning for and evaluating transport systems.

People are living longer than they did previously, and the proportion of older people is increasing worldwide. This rapid development will have implications for the transport system, in general, and for travel behavior and accessibility to daily activities, in particular. In recent years, both research and politics have drawn the attention of the public to issues affecting the opportunities of the elderly to participate in everyday life. The debate has so far mostly focused on health issues, with limited work having been done on the ability of the elderly to live the lives they want to considering how they travel. With this view, a theoretical model, grounded in a model of travel and subjective wellbeing was developed to explore the role of perceived accessibility in satisfaction with travel and life satisfaction. Empirical data were collected from a sample of 2950 respondents (aged 60–92) from five cities in Northern Europe (Stockholm, Helsinki, Oslo, Copenhagen, Bergen) and analyzed using partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings confirmed the link between perceived accessibility, travel satisfaction, and life satisfaction. The findings also showed the role of sociodemographic and travel attributes in perceived accessibility and satisfaction with travel, as well as the moderating effects of different age groups. We conclude that this moderating role played by age clearly indicates that we should not treat the elderly as a homogenous group in research and transport planning.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented numerous, significant challenges for elderlyin their daily life. In order to reach a deeper understanding of the feelings andthoughts of the elderly related to their possibilities to travel and engage in activitiesduring the pandemic, this study takes a qualitative approach to exploring the viewsof the elderly themselves. The study focuses on experiences during the COVID-19pandemic. A number of in-depth semi-structured interviews with elderly aged 70and above, were conducted in June 2020. Applied Thematic Analysis (ATA) wasapplied, as a first stage, to investigate meaningful segments of data. In a second stagethese identified segments were combined into a number of themes. This studyreports the outcome of the ATA analysis. More specifically we report experiences,motivations and barriers for travel and activity participation, and discuss how theserelate to the health and well-being of elderly, and vice versa. These findings highlight the strong need to develop a transport system that to a higher extent addresses thephysical as well as the mental health of old people, with a particular focus onfacilitating social interactions.

The ability to live the life one wants with public transport is one of the key factors of sustainable and inclusive societies. Given the current trend in the transport domain, providing accessible public transport is necessary in order to allow people to participate in their day-to-day activities without using a car. Using survey data obtained from Sweden, this study investigates factors that may have a negative effect on the perceived accessibility of public transportation in major city areas and other areas. Overall, regression analyses show that time and economic resources, organizational and temporal functions, frequent travel by public transport, and geographical context all act as accessibility barriers. These findings highlight the need not only to target increased mobility in urban environments, but also to turn the focus to the citizenry’s perceived accessibility. These findings point to implications for policies, planning and interventions targeted at accessible public transport. Adopting an accessibility-oriented approach to urban development, including the individual perspective, could be a pathway for creating a socially sustainable transport system.

Introduction: The aim of the present study was to examine differences in public transport use, quality perceptions, and travel satisfaction and their relation to life satisfaction across five generations. Methods: Self-report questionnaires (online or by phone) were collected from 3257 respondents (aged 16-90) with varying degree of public transport use, across five cities in northern Europe (Stockholm, Helsinki, Oslo, Copenhagen, Bergen). The data were analyzed in three steps: (i) explorative using Kruskal-Wallis Anovas, (ii) conceptual model testing using PLS-SEM, and (iii) analyses of generational differences regarding public transport quality dimensions, travel satisfaction and life satisfaction through Analyses of variance. Results: In line with our hypothesis and previous research, we find that satisfaction with travel had a positive relationship with life satisfaction, showing once again the importance of acknowledging people's travel satisfaction. Levels of satisfaction linearly increased with generation, but the effect of travel on life satisfaction did not, thus indicating that travel satisfaction is equally important to all. Security/safety was furthermore an important quality attribute directly related to both satisfaction with travel and to life satisfaction. We observed, using multigroup analyses, that the youngest generations are very similar with respect to the importance of quality attributes. People in these generations also travel frequently and have active lifestyles, and are hence very dependent on the transport system. Conclusions: It is concluded that, we need to improve travel experiences and emphasize secure and safe travel, especially for the young, as this is related to their life satisfaction.

Corrigendum to article published in Journal of Transport and Health (2021), Article nr: 100997. DOI: 10.1016/j.jth.2020.100997

This paper serves as a collaborative auto-ethnography of psychological researchers, engaged in a unique encounter with each other and with the streets, artefacts, history and ghosts of Vienna, the City of Dreams. This small international and interdisciplinary group engaged in four pre-planned exercises in this city, each geared towards developing the sensitivity of researchers to notions of embodied introspection. Participants were asked to recollect and diarise their internal dialogue and these voices were assembled according to the practice of bricolage. This paper aims to demonstrate how new forms of knowledge might be created, based on the material experience of place, and the assembling of the collective imagination of researchers. It also aims to demonstrate how this collective imagination might be written about in novel ways, with a decentred author capturing the atmosphere while it lasts.

Previous findings have established that satisfaction with public transport service quality attributes (reliability/functionality, information, courtesy/simplicity, comfort, safety) relate to overall travel satisfaction. Recent studies propose that the importance of these attributes for travel satisfaction varies in different contexts and call for new approaches for enhancing the understanding of these relationships. We address this call by using a configurational perspective and applying fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), to explore how satisfaction with service quality attributes relate to high travel satisfaction. By analyzing user survey data before and after an intervention in public transport services in a Swedish city, we: 1) find that high travel satisfaction occurs in the interaction between service quality attributes; 2) identify different configurations of satisfaction with service quality attributes leading to high travel satisfaction; and 3) show how context alters overall travel satisfaction. We conclude that using a configurational approach is useful for understanding the complexity of travel satisfaction.