Can Negative Travel Habits Hinder Positive Travel Behavioural Change under Beijing Vehicle Restrictions?

Abstract

Given the rapid development of large cities, the residents faced with pressure both at work and in their personal lives tend to solidify their choice of transport modes and form personal travel habits, which in turn leads to higher requirements for urban traffic management. Based on the modified Theory of Planned Behaviour, the structural equation method is employed to explore people’s travel behaviour. It is found that policy attitude, perceived behaviour control, and subjective norms comprehensively affect the residents’ travel intentions under the Vehicle Restrictions in place in Beijing. The residents without private cars display a stronger intention to change their travel choices under the policies. When considering the mediating effect of travel habits between travel intention and travel choice, the impact of the restrictive policies is weakened. Compared with lower-income people, those with higher incomes demonstrate more stable travel habits in response to the effects of the restrictions. The higher the income, the greater the dependence on private cars exhibited by the residents. To summarize, people’s travel habits weaken to some extent the effects of the restrictive policies. Such policies should be created with the explicit aim of gradually changing the people’s habits.