Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Automobiles cause several problems in today's western industrialized society and there is wide agreement on the fact that automobile use needs to be reduced in this part of the world. Therefore, it is important to determine the incentives, arguments and polices that automobile users perceive to be most effective in making them drive less. It is also beneficial to identify which alternatives are likely to be attractive to car drivers. The majority of research and policy efforts in this field have been performed in Europe. However, the United States is the country that is most known for its automobile dependency. Consequently, the aim of this study was to identify useful incentives, arguments, policies, and alternatives for reducing automobile use, through survey research in the United States. The following sub issues were also considered: is there any public support for automobile use reduction and alternative modes of transportation in the U.S.? Is there a difference between Europe and the United States on the effectiveness of different incentives? Can religion be used as an argument to make Americans drive less?
A random sample of 411 college students at Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana) was obtained through "area probability sampling". A questionnaire containing 44 questions about how and why people drive, attitudes about driving and environmental problems, attitudes about different policies and incentives, and demographic factors was distributed to the respon-dents. The results showed that there is a potential for automobile use reduction and use of al-ternative modes in the United States. Europe and the United States were more alike than ex-pected, consequently results from European studies can be taken advantage of in the United States. The most effective incentives identified by this study were to improve alternative modes of transportation, increase fuel and parking prices, provide health related arguments, reduce the number of parking spaces, and offer positive incentives such as "pay-as-you-drive insur-ance", "parking-cash-out", and "tele-working". Furthermore, religion would not be an effec-tive argument to make students drive less. Specific recommendations for Purdue University would be to implement the existing "campus master plan" and reduce on campus traffic. In addition, Purdue University could focus on being a role model and create beneficial habits for the future.