Exploring the psychosocial factors associated with public transportation usage and examining the “gendered” difference

Understanding the psychosocial factors that influence public transportation usage behavior can provide important implications for transport policies aimed at managing travelers’ mobility behavior. In the current study, a four-step analysis approach is developed to investigate the psychosocial determinants of public transportation usage behavior within the background of a small-sized Chinese city. The results suggest that public transportation specific factors including attitude, subjective norm, satisfaction, habit, and behavioral intention, as well as perceived car control, all contribute to explaining the target choice behavior. Behavioral intention is confirmed to be the most critical factor that influences public transportation usage behavior, while habit and satisfaction are important mediators in the process defined by the theory of planned behavior. Moreover, an examination upon “gendered” difference reflects that effects of both perceived car control and satisfaction vary distinctively across men and women groups, which demonstrates the necessity of demand management differentiation