The Search for Alternatives to Private Vehicles

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Individuals with access to vehicles tend to stick to their private vehicles. This reliance on private vehicles restricts the pursuit towards smart and sustainable transportation systems. Three interrelated perspectives of policy, information and communication technology (ICT), and psychology on transportation mode choice between private vehicles and the alternatives, are considered in this dissertation. In Chapter 2, the case of abrupt discontinuation of a high-occupancy vehicle restriction and its impact on the use of traditional alternative transportation mode is considered. This study adds to the understanding of the interconnected implications of policy change, and to the knowledge about abrupt policy discontinuation. The significance of the ICT-based sharing economy platform entrances on vehicle ownership is discussed in Chapter 3. This chapter demonstrates nuances of the relation between access and ownership in the sharing economy domain. In Chapter 4, the significance of individual sense of psychological ownership towards one’s private vehicles is clearly shown in transportation mode choices involving shared transportation services. Furthermore, the inclination to use private vehicles remains strong, even when there are multiple transportation options and various trip-level information regarding each of these options, as shown in Chapter 5. The series of chapters in this dissertation, therefore, points to the complexity of transitioning to a smart and sustainable transportation system.