Car stickiness: Heuristics and biases in travel choice

Alessandro Innocenti (), Patrizia Lattarulo and Maria Grazia Pazienza

Transport Policy, 2013, vol. 25, issue C, 158-168

Abstract: We conduct a laboratory experiment to investigate the factors determining travel mode choice. Two different scenarios are considered. In the first scenario, subjects have to decide whether to commute by car or by metro. Metro costs are fixed, while car costs are uncertain and determined by the joint effect of casual events and traffic congestion. In the second scenario, subjects have to decide whether to travel by car or by bus, whose costs are determined by a different combination of chance and traffic congestion. Subjects receive feedback information on the actual travel times of both modes. We find that individuals show a marked preference for cars, are inclined to confirm their first choice and exhibit travel mode stickiness. We conclude that travel mode choice is subject to cognitive heuristics and biases leading to robust deviations from rational behaviour.

Keywords: Travel mode choice; Heuristics; Cognitive biases; Experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X12001680
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:trapol:v:25:y:2013:i:c:p:158-168

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
https://shop.elsevie ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2012.11.004

Access Statistics for this article

Transport Policy is currently edited by Y. Hayashi

More articles in Transport Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().