Travelling in the margins: Impacts of transport poverty on travel attitudes and behaviours

Transportation researchers have long used social-psychological theories to understand the impacts of travel attitudes on travel behaviour, especially in relation to the built environment and residential location choice. However, there has been limited research on whether social and transportation inequities impact the formation and change of travel attitudes and behaviour. In this paper, we used qualitative research to explore whether people’s experiences of transport poverty, defined as the combined effect of social and transportation disadvantages, contributes to the formation and change of their travel attitudes and behaviour. If transport poverty influences travel attitudes, then, according to the social-psychological theories, inequities impact travel behaviour not only through material deprivation but also by influencing travel attitudes. To examine such a relationship, we propose a framework integrating transport poverty, the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), the Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (TCD) and Habit Theory (HT). We also empirically test our framework using retrospective and qualitative data collected in the Rexdale neighbourhood in Toronto. We found that consistent with our hypothesis, experiences of transport poverty influence people’s travel attitudes via perceived behavioural control and past travel behaviour, which is also influenced by transport poverty. Furthermore, transport poverty impacts the relationship between travel intention and behaviour. Moreover, daily travel behaviours of individuals living in marginalized conditions are often ad-hoc and dynamically adapted. We also explain travel behaviour adaptations in the context of transport poverty by integrating a framework for intention with social-psychological theories. Finally, we suggest research and policy implications of our framework based on our findings.