Vardagslivets resor i den stora staden

Starting from the assumption that travelling has negative consequences for the ecological environment, this study deals with travel behaviour in Malmö. The study focuses on how households with different demographic and socio-economic characteristics and transport needs, confronted with different restrictions and possibilities in the surrounding structures, choose to travel in their everyday life. The approach is based on theories of urbanism as a form of life and of the distribution and segregation of the population in urban areas. From this basis analyses of the physical and social structures of Malmö have been made, followed by in-depth interviews with 25 households in two residential areas of Malmö. The analysis indicates the significance of different physical and social conditions for the chosen ways of travelling, such as the local commercial services in the areas and the structure of the public transport system. The most common argument for choosing the car is time, that is the time it takes to travel a certain distance and the perception of time as a limiting factor in everyday life. This points to the constant spread of society where different functions become separated demanding increased mobility and fast ways of travelling. This study finds that local commercial services which do not live up to the demands of local consumers and public transport systems which are deemed too slow compared to the privately owned car play a more important role in choosing environmentally unfriendly ways of travelling than what often has been labelled "lack of environmental consciousness"