"Jag har inget emot kollektivtrafiken om jag säger så, men..." : En kvalitativ studie om män och kvinnors resvanor och inställningar till arbetspendling

The traffic sector is responsible for the greatest amount of greenhouse emissions in Sweden because of its combustion of fossil fuels. Sandviken is the municipality in Gävleborg county that uses the least amount of public transportation in form of bus traffic. The aim of this study is to gain an understanding through qualitative research how the individual looks and reflects upon their own commuting, and to identify which factors that mostly affects the individuals commuting habits. The study is geo-graphically delimited to look to Sandbacka Park. The amount of interview partici-pants was in total 18, seven women and eleven men. The main themes that could be identified from the interviews was stress, environmental awareness, flexibility, effi-ciency and control. The average distance to the workplace was about 19,25 km. In total stated 73% of men and 57% of women that car was the main mode of transport to the workplace. This means that more men than women travelled by car to the workplace, and also show more positive feeling to car use. Many of the par-ticipants of the interview had knowledge of climate change and the connection it has to transportation but could still defend their own individual car use. Some of the men that were interviewed claimed to have a greater need of flexibility and maintain status, which can be an explanation as to why the need of car use is greater with men than women. 42% of women and 27% of men commutes which more sustainable modes of transportation, such as public transportation and walking or bicycling. Two of the women who commuted with public transportation expressed content with their mode of transportation. They had also during the interviews mentioned an environmental awareness, which shows that there is a connection between mak-ing sustainable choices and being content with the chosen more sustainable mode of transportation. The results from Sandbacka Park is generalizable to other work-places with the same kind of prerequisites. This study shows that men have more positive emotions connected to car use and uses the car more as a mode of commut-ing to work. During future studies it may be of importance to focus more on longer interviews timewise to create an even greater understanding of the individuals need and prerequisites when commuting. With a greater sample size a more generalisable result could have been achieved.Key words: Commuting, stress, public transportation, commute mode, travel mode choice, gende