Travel Demand Management Targeting Reduced Private Car Use: Effectiveness, Public Acceptability and Political Feasibility

2007/02/16 by Tommy Gärling, Geertje Schuitema · 411 citations
Engineering · Social Sciences · #Business #Demand management #Economics #Engineering #Environmental economics #Finance #Opposition (politics) #Order (exchange) #Political science #Politics #Public economics #Public transport #Risk analysis (engineering) #Transport engineering #Transportation Planning and Optimization #Transportation and Mobility Innovations #Urban Transport and Accessibility

paper · doi:10.1111/j.1540-4560.2007.00500.x

published in Journal of Social Issues 63(1), 139-153 (Wiley)

openalex publication_date 2007/02/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

The private car is fast, comfortable, and convenient. However, worldwide massive car use causes serious environmental problems. Although breakthroughs in clean automobile technology may be under way, reducing car use seems necessary in order to achieve a sustainable transportation system. Several travel demand management (TDM) measures have therefore been proposed and some have been implemented with this aim. The article reviews research addressing the question of how effective, acceptable to the public, and politically feasible such measures are. The conclusion is that noncoercive TDM measures alone are unlikely to be effective in reducing car use. Therefore, coercive TDM measures such as increasing cost for or prohibiting car use may be necessary but are difficult to implement because of public opposition and political infeasibility. If combined with noncoercive TDM measures providing attractive travel alternatives and communicating the benefits of car‐use reduction to the public, coercive TDM measures are likely to become more effective, acceptable, and politically feasible.

Citations

• New Environmental Theories: Toward a Coherent Theory of Environmentally Significant Behavior
• Incentives, Morality, Or Habit? Predicting Students’ Car Use for University Routes With the Models of Ajzen, Schwartz, and Triandis

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• What Drives Them to Drive?-Parents' Reasons for Choosing the Car to Take Their Children to School. [europepmc]
• Integrating Norm Activation Model and Theory of Planned Behavior to Understand Sustainable Transport Behavior: Evidence from China. [europepmc]
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• COVID-19's impact on older adults' cycling behaviors in a small, auto-centric urban area. [europepmc]
• InterMob: a 24-month randomised controlled trial comparing the effectiveness of an intervention including behavioural change techniques and free transport versus an intervention including air pollution awareness-raising on car use reduction among regular car users living in Grenoble, France. [europepmc]
• Do citizens support the transformation of urban transport? Evidence for the acceptability of parking management, car lane conversion and road closures from a German case study. [europepmc]

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