Modelling the Interactions between Information and Communication Technologies and Travel Behaviour

The growing capabilities and widespread proliferation of information and communication technologies (ICT) into virtually every aspect of lifestyle, combined with the continuing challenges faced by transport systems, has ensured ongoing interest in the interactions between ICT and travel behaviour. Yet, despite more than three decades of efforts to understand these relationships, few point of consensus have so far emerged, partly due to the rapidly evolving character of ICT, and partly due to the inherent complexity of such interactions. This thesis seeks to develop novel understandings of such interactions by introducing a number of extensions to the existing modelling frameworks. This is achieved through three interrelated research objectives which seek to explore the topic from macro, micro, and temporal perspectives. The macro perspective takes the form of a structural equation analysis of the relationships between ICT use and travel behaviour across four countries: Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Norway, with the data for the latter three obtained by pooling separate datasets on ICT use and travel behaviour. The micro perspective seeks to develop a microeconomic model of an individual maximising utility through joint choice of activities, including in-travel activities, ICT use, as well as the choice of travel mode, timing and route, with the decisions motivated by contribution towards satisfaction, productivity, and consumption. The model is subsequently tested in the empirical contexts of rail business travel time, business travel time valuation, and conceptualisation of the ICT and travel behaviour interaction scenarios reported elsewhere in the literature. The final, temporal perspective analyses the comparatively least explored topic of evolution in the relationships between ICT use and travel behaviour over time. This is achieved by analysing repeated cross-sectional data using structural equation modelling, and interpreted with reference to the theory of diffusion of innovations. The thesis also discusses a number of potential research, policy and industrial applications of its empirical and theoretical contributions.Open Acces