Congratulations to Dr Leyre Alonso Valdivia who successfully passed her PhD.
On Wednesday June 25th, Dr Leyre Alonso Valdivia delivered a lecture on her thesis: “Understanding Commuting Mode Selection: A Case Study of Trinity College Dublin”.
The increase of pollution over the last few decades has been a reason of concern not only for the scientific community, but also for local and global governments, and for the general population. As a major contributor in the pollution levels, transportation has been the focus of much research. Transport Mode Selection, specifically in relation to commuting, has been identified as point of interest both in research and in interventions, with the ultimate goal of promoting the use of sustainable modes.
This research combines quantitative and qualitative methodologies, as well as two different theoretical approaches, providing a novel approach in the study of a complex topic. The quantitative approach followed a repeated measures questionnaire-based design, which was complimented by an interview-based qualitative approach.
The results of this research provide a new insight on Commuting Transport Mode Selection that steps away from previous research. From the findings in this research, a 3-stage hierarchical approach is proposed, in which the influence of the variables on behaviour is not static. Under this approach the different variables influence, both the behaviour and each other, differently and with different strengths, at each stage.
This research not only offers a new combined methodological approach to Commuting Transport Mode Selection, but also a new understanding of how the behaviour is influenced.