Modelling Household Travel Behaviour to Promote Educational Values of Sustainability

Abstract

The emergence of concern about global sustainability raises questions about the nature of travel behaviour and its potential effect on the sustainability of households. This potential, generated through an understanding of what is meant by travel behaviour sustainability, must be addressed by way of education. The paper attempts to characterise this type of sustainability using a coarse multiattribute model that reduces the concept to five measurable attributes. These can be readily integrated with a public educational programme designed to enable households to assess and reflect on their behaviour as a result of a household sustainability index of travel behaviour. Results from a large survey of households in the Belfast City Region are presented to illustrate the tangibility of the modelling methodology (Belfast is the capital city of Northern Ireland).