Researcher at ISOE:
Stephanie Schubert
Head of Project:
Frank Zinn, SFZ
Cooperating Institution:
Secretariat for Futurology (SFZ), Gelsenkirchen
With assistance from: M. Hunecke, University of the Ruhr, Bochum
Funding:
Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Housing (BMVBW)
Duration:
January 2002 – March 2003
Field of research
about the Institute
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Which factors, motives, wishes and attitudes determine mobility behavior? A
sustainable transportation policy will accomplish little without a
detailed understanding of mobility behavior. This is the focus of this
project, carried out in cooperation with the Secretariat for Futurology.
The goal of this research project is to develop a method that one can use
to collect data on various groups of individuals and their specific
mobility needs. Within the population, mobility needs are becoming ever more
differentiated. Societal processes of individualization and growing
differences in personal life styles determine the variegated mobility
orientations of different groups of individuals. These determining factors
will be taken into account to a greater degree in this project. Without
knowledge about this kind of personal data it is impossible to adequately
implement strategies for moving in the direction of a sustainable
transportation policy.
With the help of special target group typologies, intervention strategies
will be developed on the basis of the results of the project, which can be
aimed directly at the variables studied in the project that influence the
mobility behavior of the various groups of individuals .
A representative poll in the Federal Republic of Germany forms the
basis for determining target groups and their mobility needs. This will
provide a quantitative data base, which can be used to determine the
potential for shifting traffic onto local public transport and
non-motorized means of transportation, as well as reducing traffic
(raising the occupation level of private autos).
The project has been able to develop an attitude-based target group
model, an approach which is characterized by an integration of
psychological and social-ecological mobility concepts, and which also
allows for theory building. Such theory building provides two advantages.
First of all, the differences in behavior between the various mobility
types under investigation are made maximally clear; and, secondly, a
theoretical and empirical approach permits the comparison of research
results.
Moreover, two further arguments may be made at the practical level:
first, behavioral relevance and, second, intervention orientation.
The behavioral relevance of various approaches may be assessed
statistically in a direct manner. The approach used in this project, a household approach and a life
phase approach were each analyzed to determine which means of
transportation was selected within each type. It was shown that, although
significant differences were apparent within all three types, the clearest
differences appeared in this project, followed by the life phase model and the
household approach.
In addition, the approach used in this project is also characterized by
its intervention orientation, in particular in terms of soft-policy
measures. If, in the course of building attitude-based target group
models, information becomes available about the content of evaluation and
decision processes, then, by means of appropriate communication
strategies, desirable orientations can be strengthened and use barriers
influenced by attitudes can be removed.
It is important to note that an attitude-based target group model can,
of course, be also used for a target group specific organization and
improvement of the supply of means of transportation. These improvements
should orient themselves either directly toward the attitudes of the types
or toward their well-known social-demographical characteristics.
To sum up: the project ZIMONA-model has not only proven itself because of it
behavioral relevance but also because of its intervention orientation. The
six ZIMONA types – the public transport oriented, the public transport sensitized,
the pragmatists, the public transport skeptical, the public transport
rejecting and the
uninterested have provided further information about the central motives
for using and not using public transport. Thus, the six-type
differentiation that ZIMONA provides, represents a pragmatic instrument for
shaping soft policy measures to encourage the use of public transport.
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