Exploring dynamic relationships between travel behaviour and attitudes using a psychometric network approach

Abstract

Attitudes towards transport modes have gained increasing attention in terms of their role in explaining travel behaviour. They are often included as latent variables in unidirectional modelling approaches that frequently overlook the bidirectional relationships between attitudes and behaviour. This study aims to understand better the complex dynamic relationships between travel behaviour and attitudes by separating between-person and within-person associations. We use a psychometric network approach operationalised within a panel multilevel graphic autoregressive model, which allows us to disentangle three types of associations: temporal predictions over time, contemporaneous correlations and betweensubjects relationships. Our analysis considers attitudinal variables from five waves of the Netherlands Mobility Panel Survey and a broader set of psychometric variables from three waves of a longitudinal behaviour change study in Denmark. Our findings provide insights into the bidirectional relationship between transport behavioural choices and attitudes regarding car, train, and bicycle, as well as electric vehicle adoption.