Exploring active travel behaviour of high-income immigrants in the Netherlands throughout the life course

Abstract

Walking and cycling are widely encouraged to improve safety, promote health and avoid externalities generated by other transport modes, such as air and noise pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. Many practitioners and policymakers turn to well-established active mobility cultures, such as the Netherlands, to identify best planning practices. However, walking and cycling rates remain low, and arguments are made that besides built environment characteristics, cultural contexts and social norms are also important in encouraging walking and cycling. While travel behaviour is found to be significantly influenced by socialisation factors (e.g. cultural and social norms), the processes of influence are mediated through an intermediate step of past behaviour. In order to understand the role of socialisation factors in changes towards active travel behaviour a whole view of an individual’s life is therefore needed. This study addresses this research gap by investigating the role of long-term socialisation factors and built environment characteristics in the active travel behaviour of high-income immigrants (e.g. expats) living in the Netherlands, using a qualitative, biographical approach. The findings demonstrate that walking and cycling behaviour can significantly change due to the presence of facilitating factors in the built environment, supportive social networks and the normalisation of walking and cycling as modes of transport. People who have grown up and lived in places with little tradition of walking and cycling, can change their travel behaviour if the environment, both physical and social, makes walking and cycling a viable and attractive option to travel instead of using motorised transportation.