A qualitative case study examining individuals’ perceptions of mode choice and the possibility to reduce car mileage for everyday leisure trips

In the transition to more sustainable travel behaviour, there is a need to reduce car mileage for all sorts of trips including everyday leisure trips for social and recreational purposes. In this case study, qualitative interviews were conducted to improve and deepen the understanding of transport mode choice for such trips. The analyses of factors affecting mode choice for everyday leisure purposes and how individuals reason about reducing car mileage for leisure trips reveal that factors matter to different extent depending on types of persons and trips. The interviewees’ descriptions of how reducing car mileage would be more or less possible resulted in the identification of four typologies, based on the two dimensions willingness to change and perception of feasibility. A segmentation based on these four typologies demonstrates that all kinds of measures are needed and helps identify policy measures that are relevant for and accepted by different groups of people. For example, the results imply that for the group with high willingness to change and low perception of feasibility a combination of soft and infrastructure ‘pull’ measures is appropriate, whereas the group with low willingness to change and high perception of feasibility needs a combination of both ‘pull’ and ‘push’ measures.