Sustainable urban mobility: evidence from three developed European countries

Abstract

The importance acquired by private cars as the leading travel mode in most advanced countries has drawn attention to concerns related to pro-environmental travel behaviour. Indeed, the car has brought great benefits to society, albeit causing a whole lot of environmental and socio-economic consequences. In this perspective, we exploit Eurobarometer data on the attitudes of Europeans towards urban mobility to investigate the main motivations of citizens’ public transport use frequency. Ordered logistic regressions are estimated by country (Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands) and by gender. Our results suggest the key role played by a comprehensive set of socio-demographic, economic, and environmental aspects in determining urban travel behaviour. Moreover, our investigation brings to light some relevant cross-country and cross-gender commonalities and differences. The provided evidence may give policymakers a better knowledge of travel behaviour, useful for designing new interventions for environmentally-sustainable travelling.