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This study aims to identify the determinants of transport mode choice and the constraints on shifting freight in New Zealand (NZ) from road to rail and/or coastal shipping, and to quantify the trade-off between factors affecting shippers’ perceptions, to assist in increasing the share of freight moved by non-road transport modes.

A revealed preference survey of 183 freight shippers, including small and medium enterprises and freight agents in NZ, is used to investigate whether freight shippers’ characteristics affect their ranked preference for attributes related to mode choice and modal shift. Additionally, a rank-ordered logistic (ROL) model is estimated using the ranking data.

The results reveal several distinct types of transport mode choice behaviour within the sample and show how the preferences for timeliness, cost, accessibility, damage and loss, customer service, and suitability vary between industry groups and business types. Also, the ROL method allows us to identify heterogeneity in preferences for mode choice and mode shift factors for freight within NZ.

The results imply that NZ shippers ranked transport time as the most significant constraint upon distributing goods by rail, while accessibility and load size were the most significant constraints upon using coastal shipping. The study also identifies how NZ shippers’ modal shift constraints vary according to the firm’s individual or logistical characteristics.

This study informs freight transport policy makers about the needs of NZ shippers by providing quantitative measures of the intensity of preference for the various mode choice factors.

Those involved in freight transport have a better basis for formulating transport policy.

This paper sought to uncover the intrinsic determinants of the choice of transport modes in Nigeria's capital city, Abuja, based on commuters' perceptions on different modes of transport. The ultimate goal of the study was to come up with suitable multifaceted measures to deter private car usage, while refocusing society's mind-set towards alternative forms of transport, thereby keying into some transport-related sustainable development goals (SDG) goals.

The study adopted qualitative methods: 320 commuters were surveyed at bus stops and car parks around the city, and respondents were identified using multistage sampling, aided by purposive/convenience sampling, and this number was reached by saturation of themes. Focus group discussions were held with eight screened public officials from relevant (transportation and environment related) agencies/unions in the city. NVivo 10 software was used to thematically analyse the data gathered from a relativist and an interpretive stand point.

The study found transport mode choice to be intrinsically more motivated by socio-economic forces serving as a basis for other socio-psychological factors. Multifaceted measures, including spatial, socio-economic, environmental and public relation measures, were found suitable to break car-use motives in the study area towards adopting alternative modes of transport, thereby achieving some transport-related SDG targets.

The study was unique as it looked at the intrinsic mode choice determinants from a Sub-Saharan African capital city perspective and provided suitable multifaceted best practiced measures that deemphasised car use while emphasising alternative modes, thereby shifting commuters' mind-set towards environmentally sustainable modes of transport.

Transport is the European Union (EU) sector that produces the second highest amount of greenhouse gas emissions. In its attempts to promote the environmentally sustainable development of transport, the EU has focussed on intermodal transport in particular – but with limited success. It is important to understand how freight transport is selected, which criteria are used and what role environmental sustainability and intermodal transport play in the selection. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the role of environmental sustainability and intermodal transport in transport mode decisions. The authors look at this issue from the perspective of logistics service providers (LSPs) and buyers, as they are important stakeholders in guiding this process.

To gain a holistic view of the current state of research, the authors have conducted a systematic literature review of the role of environmental sustainability and intermodal transport in transport mode decisions. The authors have further examined the findings concerning requests for quotations (RfQs), tenders and transport contracts, as these are also linked to decisions on transport choice.

The findings from the literature review include the results of descriptive and structured content analysis of the selected articles. They show that the discussion on environmental sustainability and intermodal transport as a sustainable mode, together with the transport mode selection criteria, RfQs/tenders and transport contracts, is still a rather new and emerging topic in the literature. The main focus related to the selection of transport mode has been on utility and cost efficiency, and only recently have issues such as environmental sustainability and intermodal transport started to gain greater attention. The findings also indicate that the theoretical lenses most typically used have been preference models and total cost theories, although the theoretical base has recently become more diversified.

There is still a need to extend the theoretical and methodological base, which could then lead to innovative theory building and testing. Such diverse application of methodologies will help in understanding how environmental sustainability can be better linked to mode choice decisions.

The findings will be of interest to policy makers and companies opting for environmentally sustainable transport solutions.

If the EU, shippers and LSPs take a more active stance in promoting environmentally sustainable transformation models, this will have long-lasting societal impacts.

It seems that this systematic literature review of the topic is one of the first such attempts in the current body of literature.

This study aims to explore the propensity of university students to use different sustainable transport modes, taking into account individual and specific trip characteristics, as well as students’ psychological traits (i.e. attitudes).

Using the transport mode preferences of 827 students who responded to a travel survey, a two-step analysis is conducted. The first step examines the effects of individual characteristics, travel experience and origin or destination features on students’ stated preferences (i.e. self-selected values assigned to personal attitudes). The second step analyses students’ travel mode choices, given their intrinsic mobility attitudes.

The results suggest that informing students about environmental issues increases their propensity to use sustainable mobility, leading to an average decrease in private transport usage of 5.8 per cent. Interestingly, improving the public transport service and promoting sustainable transport mobility have different impacts on individual campus areas. For campuses located in the city centre and in the historical hamlet, improvements in public transport are found to decrease solo driving by 3.3 per cent and 5.3 per cent, respectively. In suburban areas, this value increases to 9.5 per cent.

This work makes two contributions to the literature. First, it focuses on an unexplored setting, namely, that of a multi-campus university, with districts located in three different areas. This is used to explain how students are influenced by their travel experience and the cultural framework in which they are embedded. Second, the two-step analysis leads to a deeper understanding of the differences between attitudes and “intrinsic attitudes”, and their relative influence on the preferred alternative.

This study aims to contribute to a better understanding of environmentally friendly consumers. It examines differences in holiday transport mode choices by persons’ general level of environmental commitment across lifestyle domains. Adopting a marketing perspective, the study also explores transport mode perceptions and underlying product attribute preferences that may shape holiday transport mode choices.

The study adopted Kaiser’s (1998) General Ecological Behaviour scale to measure commitment to environmentally friendly behaviour. ANOVAs were run to examine differences in actual holiday travel behaviour and transport mode perceptions by level of environmental commitment. Pattern models were calculated to estimate differences in the relative importance of selected transport mode attributes (price, travel time, punctuality, accessibility, flexibility, comfort and environmental impact).

The study findings suggest that differences exist in transport mode choices for train and car use, but not for plane use, namely, train users tend to be more environmentally committed and car users less so. Differences were also noted in transport mode perceptions, with more environmentally friendly consumers holding more favourable views of the train. Those who are more environmentally committed also placed greater importance on environmental impact and less importance on comfort and time in mode choice.

The study applied an environmental scale thus far not used within tourism research. It also adopted a marketing perspective focused on product attributes to support the development of strategies to encourage environmentally friendly holiday transport mode choice.

Although the movement of goods by consumers represents a large proportion of the economic and environmental impact of the distribution chain, this topic has been insufficiently explored in the retailing literature. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of shopping travel-mode choice in the context of grocery shopping.

The paper presents findings from a Swedish national survey of 1,694 respondents that included questions regarding travel-mode choices and consumer characteristics, mobility conditions, shopping behaviours and environmental interests and engagements.

This paper shows how travel modes interrelate and how various consumer characteristics, shopping behaviours, mobility conditions and environmental interests and engagements relate to and affect travel-mode choice in grocery shopping. General travel patterns and distance to store are shown to be the most important factors in explaining the mode of transport for grocery shopping.

This paper presents data from a national representative survey and provides novel analyses of travel-mode choices in grocery shopping and the interrelationships among those choices, in addition to the interrelationship between travel-mode choice and the use of home delivery. This paper contributes to a further understanding of consumer mobility in the context of grocery shopping.

Using survey data of a developing country city, this study aims to examine the impact of different socio-demographic factors on the choice of less-polluting modes of transport for purposes other than work.

Stratified random sampling technique is employed and data on socio-demographic characteristics and mode of transport used is collected. Descriptive statistics complemented with a logit model of choice probabilities is implemented on the data obtained.

Majority of the population in the city uses motorized means of transportation irrespective of the socio-demographic changes existing among them. Women, the individuals belonging to the youngest age group, the least economically well-off group of people, the least educated and the non-working are the individuals more likely to use more of less-polluting modes and less of more-polluting modes for non-work purposes as compared to their counterparts.

The study also calls for the development of an efficient and secured system of public transportation and non-motorized transportation in the city in such a way so as to neither hamper the goal of sustainability nor the goal of empowerment.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time a comprehensive analysis of the influence of socio-demographic factors on choice of type of mode of transport is carried out in this region of the developing world. This analysis will facilitate the policy makers in catering to the transportation needs of different segments of the society.

Purpose — Study the causal effect of psychological factors on mode choice, using an instrument which gathered attitudinal, affective and habitual behaviour factors, with an application to a Canadian and Chilean sample.

Approach — Ad hoc questionnaire used to collect information related to psychological factors, studying the role of these factors upon mode choice using structural equation modelling, combining a measurement model and the latent variables.

Findings — Emotional (affective) factors have a strong influence on mode choice, as well as attitudinal and habitual factors. Car users have a strong positive emotion to the transport mode they use when compared with public transport users and transit utilization.

Research limitations — The inclusion of social factors, such as norm, role and self-concept, is desirable for a better understanding of people's behaviour regarding transport mode usage. The structural equation modelling was used to analyse the causal effects among factors, but it is not intended to model mode choice. An advanced approach would be to estimate a hybrid discrete choice model.

Practical implications — Realizing the real importance of personal psychological factors on mode choice is a key issue when intending to implement mobility and travel demand management strategies. The success of these strategies strongly relies on people's change of behaviour, which does not depend only on instrumental and socio-demographic factors, such as cost, time and income, but also on these very inner personal aspects.

Originality/value — Capture psychological factors through a comprehensive survey, which rests on a psychological framework and considers simultaneously attitudinal, affective and habitual personal factors, as well as instrumental and socio-demographic information. Make a comparison among cities belonging to different countries regarding the role of these factors, cities with a different cultural and social background.