Influences of Commuters' Personality and Preferences on Travel Intention in Developing Countries: A case of Bangkok

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1 Influences of Commuters' Personality and Preferences on Travel Intention in Developing Countries: A case of Bangkok Akkarapol TANGPHAISANKUN Transportation and Logistics Advisor Habitus Co., Ltd. 338/212 Soi.Ladpraw80, Wangthonglang, Wangthonglang, Bangkok, 10310, Thailand Tel: x.akkarapol@gmail.com Toshiyuki OKAMURA Associate Professor Graduate School of Engineering Yokohama National University 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya, Yokohama Japan Fax: tokamura@ynu.ac.jp Chiemi OSADA Graduate student Graduate School of Engineering Yokohama National University 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya, Yokohama Japan Fax: chiemi01c@hotmail.com Fumihiko NAKAMURA Professor Graduate School of Engineering Yokohama National University 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya, Yokohama Japan Fax: f-naka@ynu.ac.jp Rui WANG Research Associate Graduate School of Engineering Yokohama National University 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya, Yokohama Japan Fax: wang-rui@ynu.ac.jp Abstract: Travel intention can directly or indirectly affects travel choices as well as personal attributes such as car ownership and income that important for future transportation planning of developing countries. This study hypothesized that the real travel intention is influenced by travelers personality and preference which are free from constraints. Car preference and two types of personality, environmental concern and frugal lifestyle, were selected as the important factors influencing travel intention of travelers especially in developing countries. High level of car preference induced commuters to choose faster travel modes, car and mass transits. Eco-friendly commuters had high intention to travel by environmental friendly modes. Conventional public transports are preferable modes of commuters who have higher level of frugal lifestyle. The intention to refrain from car use is higher for the commuters who have both eco-friendly and frugal personality. Besides, personality and preference also affected attitudes to travel of the commuters. Key Words: personality, preferences, travel intention, developing countries 1. INTRODUCTION The rapid growth of economic, urbanization and motorization in developing countries inevitably differ greatly in economic, demographic characteristics and income that have induced varieties of people. These variations brought about various needs of commuting, perceptions and attitudes to transport modes, and travel choices. Private vehicles - car and 370

2 motorcycle - have become preferable modes to high-income people and those who can afford. Low-income people, generally, have been forces to rely on conventional public transport such as bus and various types of paratransit. They generally have to confront with deficiency of public transport services witnessed in many developing countries. However, most individuals prefer using a car regardless their income status. Most of car users in developing countries are revealed that they gradually act as car-dependent riders notwithstanding the fact that public transport improvements and mass rapid transits have been implemented. Only few of car riders are choice riders and they might have intention and willingness to use public transport and Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) systems in the future as MRT projects have been continuously inaugurated and developed. The travel intention - how individual consider the preferable travel mode - has rarely been studied. Besides, it might not effectively be explained by using mode choice models. Most of mode choice models explain present travel behavior and the explanations are subjected to various attributes of travelers and transport modes such as age, income and car ownership that could hide the real intention of commuters. The travel intention of travelers probably resulted from other driving factors apart from personal demographic and socioeconomic attributes, modal attributes and attitudes to travel modes which are comfort, convenience and safety. The factors influencing the real travel intention of each individual are supposed to be inbred perceptions. The factors mentioned in this context are personality and personal preferences or beliefs that difficult to change in the short period and hard to be altered. Personality is described by the ways that individual behaves, feels and thinks. Preference means an action when you like or give an advantage to something more than another thing. These driving factors can directly activate motivation to perform action and behavior as explained in the value-belief-norm (VBN) theory (Stern et al., 1999). Also, the motivation to use particular travel mode is essential for a deliberate travel mode selection (Eriksson et al., 2008; Bamberg and Schmidt, 2001; Bamberg and Schmidt, 2003). Diverse personality and preferences could generate different intentions to use travel mode regardless present habit of commutes. Current car riders and commuters who have strong car habit might intend to shift to public transport if they have potent concern to preserve environment, where as present public transport passengers would be potential car users if they give an advantage to private car and they can afford in the future. Thus, understanding these instinctive ways of thinking must be considered enormously especially in middle-income and high-income developing countries such as Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta. These cities are in the high level of developments of economic and urbanization and in the transition state of being automobile cities or transit cities as explained by Barter (2000). The primary purpose of this study, therefore, aims to investigate and understand the influences of personality and preferences on commuters travel intention. Better understanding the tendency of commuters travel choice and the relationships between primitive driving factors and the real travel intention could provide informative value and validity to urban transportation planning in the near future of developing countries.. In addition, this study observes the influence of personality and preferences on commuters attitudes to levels of service of transport modes. This study focuses mainly on megacities of the developing countries categorized as middle-income class (World Bank, 2010). It is from the fact that these cities have high potential to implement Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) systems while economic growth makes middle-income people ready to afford and use cars. Questionnaires are carefully developed in order to grasp commuters car use preferences and personality regarding ecology and economy. The general hypothesis, research methodology, key research findings and conclusion are provided in the following sections. 371

3 2. GENERAL HYPOTHESIS AND SCOPES Travel behavior and travel mode decision are currently explained by travelers demographic, socioeconomic, modal attributes and attitudes regarding travel. However, travel decision primarily depends on personal demographic and economic attributes that somehow obliterate real travel intention of each individual. The real intention is supposed to be compelled by travelers personality and preferences or beliefs. Hence, this study, firstly, hypothesizes that individual personality and preferences might be the factors that considerably affect travel intention of commuters in the middle and upper middle-income megacities of developing countries like Bangkok and Jakarta. Apart from demographic characteristics and rational consideration regarding modal attributes and service quality, the instinctive ways of thinking, individual personality and preferences, would directly propel people to decide their travel modes. In this study, several types of individual personality were observed in the dimensions of ecology and economy. It is because a sustainable transportation specifically the aspect of environmental preservation is currently promoted and considered important in the future worldwide. Additionally, due to the economic situation becomes one of the serious matters in developing countries, travel expense and efficiency of travel modes are important propensity factors affecting travel choice. In terms of personal preferences, car preference is also accounted in this context as a driving factor, because using car is not only convenient but also reflects social-orderliness and becomes an important instrument. Secondly, this study also hypothesizes that the individual personality and preferences might influence attitudes to travel modes, one of the explanatory factors of mode choice model. This study is carried out in Bangkok, Thailand. Bangkok is categorized as middle-income city based on World Bank s classification method. Rapid progress in social and economic development increases incomes of the public and generates rapid growth of urbanization and motorization. Though infrastructure development especially transportation and mass rapid transit also accumulates, the progress is slower than urbanization and motorization. This unbalanced development causes public transport inferior to private car and car becomes preferable travel mode, notwithstanding several MRT projects are already inaugurated and under the development process. Besides, large diversity of people in Bangkok induces different travel intentions in the urban areas (Tangphaisankun et al., 2010). Different individuals also have various perceptions, preferences and willingness to use transport modes, although they belong to the same economic status and they are using the same travel mode at present. Therefore, it is crucial to carefully develop questionnaire instrument in order to effectively grasp large divergences of commuters that is very important for the survey in developing countries (Sivakumar et al., 2006) 2.1. Study area The 3-kilometer catchment areas along mass transit corridors in Bangkok, Thailand, were selected to conduct this study. Bangkok is a mega city comprising 50 districts with the total area of 1, km2 and registered population of million in It is also the centre of many activities that generate many travel demands in the urban areas. At present, there are varieties of public transportation modes provided in Bangkok; however, the two main public transits are (1) bus and passenger van, and (2) rail transit systems. Bus and passenger van are operated by Bangkok Mass Transit Authority (BMTA) that could handle around million passenger-trip/day (OTP, 2009). Rail transits consist of 23-km elevated rail system, namely BTS, and 20-km subway line, called MRT. From the data of Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning in 2009, these two rail systems handled around million passengertrip/day. As a result of traffic congestion, low level of bus service, and small coverage areas 372

4 of rail transits, a share of private car and motorcycle is around 8 million passenger-trip/day. The number of car was 2 million cars (1.8 cars per 10 persons) in 2006 and it was projected to rise to 3 million by 2011 (OTP, 2009). Currently, the number of bus users is decreasing. The statistic data of BMTA revealed that bus ridership is declining around 5% annually (BMTA, 2009). However, passengers of two rail transits are increasing and extension plans of rail transit are under the process. According to the modes serving in the study areas, several types of paratransit such as motorcycle-taxi and Songtaew (an adapted pick-up truck) are also taken into consideration Survey and Data The data used in this study are obtained from the previous study of Tangphaisankun et al. (2010). The details of survey and data will be explained in the following section. Both direct interview and pick-up & drop-off questionnaire surveys were conducted along BTS and MRT lines by using the methodologies of household survey and on-site survey during December 7 to 27, On-site survey was conducted mainly around the station areas in the evening (4.00 pm 8.00 pm) during commuters return trips in order to earn ease of participation and gather the commuters living in study areas. The target groups were commuters, public transport users as well as private vehicle users, who regularly traveled for work, studied, and lived within the catchment areas of 3 kilometers from mass transit stations. The surveys focused on capturing individual personality and preferences. How commuters considered their choice options and attitudes to public transport including paratransit as well as present travel patterns of all travelers were also collected. The questionnaire contained four main sections, specifically (1) present travel patterns and preferable travel choice, (2) attitudes to public transport and paratransit, (3) individual personality and preferences, and (4) general information. In the present travel pattern section, respondents were required to explain their daily trips to work or education (mode and frequency), travel time and cost. Also, they were required to state the most preferable travel choice for their regular trips. The choice options included all possible alternatives that are private vehicle, conventional public transport and mass transit systems. In the section 2, respondents were required to state their attitudes to public transport. In the third section, commuters personality was grasped based on ecological and economical aspects as explained above. The ecological personality is captured through respondent s daily life activities and intentions regarding environmental concern such as recycling activity and intention to preserve environment. The economical personality is observed from the questions regarding frugal life style. Also, each respondent was requested to evaluate their preferences on car use in order to capture personal behavior and preferences. The attitudinal questions were set in terms of reasons that discourage usage of public transit services. The questions regarding individual personality and preferences were captured in terms of level of agreement. All respondents were requested to rate their attitudes and agreements on a four-point scale, ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 4 = strongly agree with the purpose of avoiding the no opinion answer. In addition, all respondents had to provide demographic details in the last section, which were used to prepare the demographic profile. Due to the limited budget, survey duration and difficulties in approaching commuters houses, only 280 effective samples were obtained. Because geographically stratified random sampling was adopted, however, the maximum standard deviation of related variables carried the estimated margin of error within 10% for a 95% confidence level. 373

5 3. METHODOLOGY As hypothesized, it is very important to emphasize the influences of commuters personalities and personal preference on travel intention and the relationships between these influencing factors and commuters characteristics. This study, with anticipation, provides useful framework and contribution to transportation planning and development in the developing countries. The study framework consists two main parts that are (1) personality and preference categorization and (2) influences on travel intention investigation. For the personality and preference categorization, this study carefully designs the questionnaire in order to grasp commuters personality in terms of ecology and economy, and to obtain the preferences on car use. The effective questions are selected for capturing the several types of personality and car preference as explained in the survey and data collection. Then, the questions are categorized into three main factors according to ecological and economical personality and car preference by using a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) by SPSS. For the influence investigation, respondents are classified into different groups based upon their levels of personality and preferences categorized from the previous step. This study assigns the assessed levels into high level and low level by comparing with an average evaluation score. There are two main classifications in this study that are assigned by the basis of preference and personality. The car preference is used to arrange commuters into two groups that are car oriented group, respondents who stated level of car preference higher than an average score, and non-car oriented group, individuals with their scores below the average. For the aspect of personality, the combination of ecological personality (environmental concern) and economical personality (frugal lifestyle) is applied as criteria for commuter classification. The individual that evaluated high level of environmental concern is defined as eco-friendly person, and individual who stated high level of frugal lifestyle is defined as saving mind person. Consequently, there are four groups generated from the combination of the two types of personality. After categorizing, the investigation will be performed by using comparison basis. This study conducts several main comparisons based on groups of respondents categorized by personality and preference. The two car-oriented groups and the four groups of personality combination will be examined through the comparisons of (1) respondents characteristics, i.e. level of education and income, (2) present travel modes and preferred travel modes (modes that commuters intend to travel), and (3) experiences of travel and attitudes to travel such as public transport experiences and travel time. In addition, this study plans to investigate the influences of the combination of the two types of personality and car preference in detail. Therefore, the hypotheses of this study will be examined by the obtained results of the comparisons. 374

6 4. REMARKABLE FINDINGS AND RESULTS 4.1. Personality and preferences categorization This section aimed to categorize the effective nine questions into main factors by applying the PCA. The PCA classified the nine attributes into three main groups as shown in Table 1. These three factors can be summarized in terms of one preference factor and two personality factors that are car preference, ecological personality and economical personality. From Table 1, the car preference is categorized based upon loading scores of the attributes of the function 1. Also, the function 2 and function 3 grouped the remaining five attributes into ecological personality and economical personality, respectively. This categorization could account for 67.8 percent of the variance. Besides, the PCA results showed that the ecological personality and economical personality have some correlation as represented by the correlation scores between function 2 and function 3 that are (function 2-3) and (function 3-2), respectively, as shown in component matrix. This correlation indicated that individuals who have habit of environmental preservation also consider on their daily consumption activity. Table 1 Categorization of commuters personality and preference Effective Questions Func.1 Func.2 Func.3 I think frugality is bad/ it is not good to waste anything I always compare price, quantity and quality before I buy things I have a habit if recycling paper, plastic in order to preserve environment I think that I can preserve environment by reducing car use and I am ready to do I think that separating garbage save environment and I am ready to do I prefer to use car although other modes offer faster travel time If possible I would rather use private car or motorcycle Using car increase my work efficiency I feel more confident when I use my car Cumulative contribution ratio Component matrix: function : function : function Intercept X1 X2 Fit index: p-value Fit index: t-value Influence investigation The respondents were classified based on their stated levels of car preference and personality in order to determine the influences on travel intention. The car preference was applied to separate respondents into car oriented group and non-car oriented group as explained in the methodology. Four groups of respondents were also categorized by the combination of two types of personality and assigned as eco-friendly person and saving mind person using respondents levels of assessment. The four groups were listed as follows; 375

7 group1: eco-friendly and saving mind commuter group2: eco-friendly and non-saving mind commuter group3: saving mind and non-eco-friendly commuter group4: non-eco-friendly and non-saving mind commuter Influences on travel intention Summary of commuters characteristics was expressed in Table 2. The summary showed that car-oriented level increases as income level is higher and becomes significant for the highincome, who earned more than 20,000 baht per month. Respondents tended to be car oriented commuters if they lived in the households that own private car. In addition, men stated higher level of car oriented preference. However, there are slight differences of commuters characteristics when consider on personality as shown in Table 3. Around sixty percent and fifty percent of respondents stated high level of environmental concern and high level of frugal lifestyle, respectively. Table 2 Summary of respondents characteristics based on preference Preference car non-car Total Preference car non-car Total oriented oriented oriented oriented Income under 10, no car (baht per Household 10,000-20, have car month) Car over 20, average Education under Bachelor Gender male Bachelor and female higher Total Table 3 Summary of respondents characteristics based on personality Personality group 1 group 2 group 3 group 4 Total Income under 10, (baht per 10,000-20, month) over 20, Education under Bachelor Household Car Bachelor and higher no car have car average (car/person) Gender male female Total Table 4 showed commuters present travel choices and preferable travel modes by considering the effects of preference. For the overall, car-oriented travelers expressed higher willingness to use private car, while non car-oriented commuters had stronger intention to travel by conventional public transport i.e. bus and passenger van. However, car preference did not significantly influence commuters intention to use mass transits. Present public transport riders who owned high car-oriented level tend to favor mass transits. Nonetheless, this study observed that conventional public transport becomes the most preferable alternative especially for the non car-oriented people, when commuters had an intention to save their travel expenses. Though the willingness to use conventional public transport seems to increase, the share of bus in Bangkok is still decreasing. This finding is very interesting and 376

8 provides some hints for the near future planning and development of conventional public transport. Cost structure of mass transit must be reasonable in order to attract more passengers especially public transport users who preferred convenience offered by car. It is because these people tend to easily use car instead of mass transit if they can afford. The service level of conventional public transport is required to be improved to maintain the existing passengers and to encourage saving mind commuters, specially present car riders, to use this alternative. The influences of personality were presented in Table 5. The results indicated that ecofriendly travelers, group 2, revealed a strong intention to commute by low-emission alternatives which are BTS and MRT. Frugal travelers, group 3, seemed to give their favor to the conventional public transport. Mass transit and conventional public transport became the preferable commuting modes of the individuals who had high level of environmental concern and frugal lifestyle. These types of travelers had an intention to refrain from private car. This study found that public transit riders tend to shift to mass transits if they possess high level of environmental concern. Nevertheless, they will prefer bus and passenger van when they want to save travel cost. The results provide some interesting points and insights to promote a policy that encourage people to have personality of environmental concern and saving mind. These types of personality could influence commuters to shift to public transport and reduce car use in the future. Table 4 Present choices and preferable travel modes by considering the effects of preference Daily travel mode Regular trip With intention to save travel expense Total car non-car car non-car car non-car car non-car (person) Private vehicle (person) Cv.PT (person) Mass transit (person) Remark: oriented oriented oriented oriented oriented oriented oriented oriented PV % 100.0% % 75.0% 14 Cv.PT % 0.0% mass % 0.0% other 1 0.0% 25.0% PV % 2.3% % 2.3% 90 Cv.PT % 79.1% % 81.8% Mass % 20.9% % 6.8% other % 13.6% PV % 1.1% 4 4.8% 0.0% 176 Cv.PT % 30.4% % 71.0% Mass % 68.5% % 17.2% other % 11.8% Cv.PT = Conventional public transport (bus and passenger van), PV = Private car and motorcycle Mass = mass transit (BTS and MRT) other = motorcycle-taxi, Songtaew, taxi and etc. 377

9 Table 5 Present choices and preferable travel modes by considering the effects of personality Daily travel mode PERSONALITY Total Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 (person) Private vehicle Private vehicle (person) Cv.PT Private vehicle (person) Cv.PT Mass transit Mass transit (person) Remark: others Private vehicle Cv.PT Mass transit others Cv.PT = Conventional public transport (bus and passenger van) other = motorcycle-taxi, Songtaew, taxi and etc Influences on attitudes to travel This part was proposed to examine the effects of preference and personality on commuters attitudes to travel. This study chose some examples to show the influences of the instinctive factors. Table 6 showed the influences of car preference on an attitude to travel time by using an example of paratransit Songtaew (converted pick-up truck). The attitude that how respondents with different favor of car use evaluate suitability of Songtaew s travel time was taken into consideration. Car-oriented commuters evaluated higher level of dissatisfaction of Songtaew s travel time which discourage them to travel by public transport while experience of commuting by Songtaew did not significantly impact on this attitude. Table 7 also showed other impacts of car preference on the attitude that using car can enhance efficiency of work. Car became a favorable mode for the car-oriented commuters who stated using car gives them advantage to increase work efficiency. It is interesting that number of household car showed a relationship with this attitude for car-oriented commuters, but it did not show the same relation to the non car-oriented group. The results showed strong influence of car preference that discourages car-oriented commuter from using public transport and makes car-oriented commuters strongly rely on car. Therefore, strategies to reduce and change commuter s car preference are very important in order to promote usage of public transport and a deterrent to use private car. Table 6 Examples of influences of car preference on attitudes to travel time Attitude of Songteaw wastes my travel time Evaluation score S.D. Car oriented with experience of Songtaew without experience of Songtaew Non-car oriented with experience of Songtaew without experience of Songtaew Table 7 Examples of influences of car preference on attitudes to car and work efficiency using car can enhance efficiency of work Evaluation score S.D. car oriented Household car or more non-car oriented Household car or more

10 In terms of personality, saving mind commuters who belong to group 3 were satisfied with long travel time spent on cheaper public transport mode as witnessed from the evaluated scores in Table 8. It is from the fact that they possessed frugal lifestyle which induces them to consider mainly on out-of-pocket cost. Eco-friendly commuters, group 2, evaluated the highest positive attitude to travel times of mass transit. Commuters who concerned more on environment seemed irritated to do something while staying with strangers. Individuals who had high level of this attitude will be easily discouraged to use public transport. Saving mind people did not hesitate to stay with other people they do not know and to use public transport which can save their expenses. The obtained results illustrated that increase level of saving mind and environmental concern could be important keys to change commuters attitude to travel by public transport. The high level of frugal life style and eco-friendly will make commuters refrain from car use and shift to mass transit and conventional public transport. Table 8 Examples of influences of personality on attitudes to travel Evaluation scores group 1 group 2 group 3 group 4 1. Songteaw wastes my travel time Travel time of a combination of paratransit feeder and mass transit is longer than conventional public transport I feel irritated to do something while staying with other people I don t know Household with car 19.5% 22.0% 29.3% 32.1% Respondents without experience of Songtaew 24.1% 24.4% 31.0% 20.8% 5. CONCLUSION Although the chosen travel modes can be explained by mode choice models, the decision of travelers, however, subjects to personal attributes and can not effectively reveal the real travel intention. The travel intention directly and indirectly affects mode choice and will provide the information of preferable travel modes of commuters that is important for future plans of urban transportation especially in the middle-income developing countries. This information can support transportation planners to effectively handle with rapid changes of travel choices and various needs of travelers. The intention is mainly driven by the instinctive factors such as personality and preference that have rarely been considered their influences on transportation planning. This study examines that travel intention is directly influenced by travelers personality and preference. However, personal attributes which include demographic and socioeconomic data slightly affect the travel intention. Besides, personality and preference show their effects on travelers attitudes to travel as well as personal attributes. This study renders the significant influences of car preference on the travel intention of travelers in the middle-income developing countries like Bangkok. The high level of car preference strongly induces people to favor private car which offers faster travel time and higher level of comfort and convenience rather than public transport. Present choice riders will intend to continue using car if they are car-oriented travelers. Though car-oriented public transport users express their willingness to commute by mass transit, they will probably choose private car in the future when they can afford. In addition, the travel intention is also directly influenced by personality of each individual. The personality of how they behave in 379

11 terms of environmental concern and economical lifestyle is taken into account, because these types of personality closely relate to transportation. The eco-friendly travelers who have high level of environmental concern attest an intention to use low emission travel modes which include rail system and subway. People who possess the frugal lifestyle tend to prefer conventional public transport, the cheapest alternative, though they are present users of mass transit systems. It should be noted that car riders give their royalty to private car regardless their personality. However, some travelers show their intention to refrain from car use if they behave the eco-friendly and saving mind person. Moreover, preference and personality not only affect travel intention but also indirectly influence people s attitudes to travel that are the main factors of mode choice models. The findings of this study provide valuable insights for transportation planners and policy makers to understand and emphasize the influences of travelers preferences and personality on the travel intention. It is crucial to grasp the information of travelers personality and preferences as well as personal socio-economic and attitudes in order to effectively deal with large divergences of commuters in megacities of developing countries. The obtained results make an important contribution to the future transportation plans, especially a mid-term plan, of the developing countries which are in the highly developed stage. However, this study is only the beginning step of introducing instinctive factors to enhance efficiency of future transportation planning. Several issues are yet to be addressed in this study. Our case study was limited to only the areas along the mass transit corridors of Bangkok and focused only on some types of personality and preferences. Therefore, further studies, that can enrich the validity of our findings and draw the general conclusion to implement this concept, are being looked forward to in order to enhance urban transportation in the developing countries. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research was supported by Transportation and Urban Planning Laboratory, Department of Civil Engineering, Yokohama National University, and The Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (S6-5) of the Ministry of the Environment, Japan. REFERENCES Bamberg, S. and Schmidt, P. (2001) Theory-driven subgroup-specific evaluation of an intervention to reduce private car use, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Vol. 31, pp Bamberg, S. and Schmidt, P. (2003) Incentives, morality, or habit? Predicting students car use for university routes with the models of Ajzen, Schwartz, and Triandis, Environment & Behavior, Vol. 35, pp Barter, P.A. (2000) Urban Transport in Asia: Problems and Prospects for High-Density Cities, Asia-Pacific Development Monitor, Vol.2, No.1, pp Eriksson, L., Garvill, J., and Nordlund, A. M. (2008) Interrupting habitual car use: The importance of car habit strength and moral motivation for personal car use reduction, Transportation Research Part F, Vol. 11. pp Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning (OTP) (2009) Traffic Statistic data, Accessed on January 10, Sivakumar, T., Okamura, T., Yabe, T., and Nakamura, F. (2006), A Survey Design to Grasp and Compare User s Attitudes on Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in Developing Countries, 380

12 Journal of International Association of Traffic and Safety Sciences (IATSS) Research, Vol.30 No.2, pp Stern, P. C., Dietz, T., Abel, T., Guagnano, G. A., and Kalof, L. (1999) A value-belief-norm theory of support for social movements: The case of environmentalism, Human Ecology Review, Vol. 6, pp Tangphaisankun, A., Okamura, T. Nakamura, F. and Wang R. (2010) A Study in Integrating Paratransit as A Feeder System into Urban Transportation and Its Effects on Mode Choice Behavior: A Case Study of Bangkok, Thailand, the Proceedings of 12th W orld Conference on Transport Research. World Bank (2010) Data: Country Classifications, accessed on September 10,