Understanding people and cars

Individual travel choices and vehicle preferences play a key role in shaping the automotive industry. This chapter provides an overview of the literature on travel and vehicle choices. It then talks about the acceptability of transport policies and new technologies. A broad range of factors influence individuals’ decisions and behaviour within the transport context and their responses to changes to this context. Some of these factors include modal choice, transport demand and choice, and attitudes to new transport technologies, including electric vehicles (EVs). The chapter highlights the complex interaction of factors shaping transport-related attitudes and behaviour, and the challenges associated with changing these behaviours. Both the choice of travel and vehicle exert significant influences on the automotive industry; however, they do not exist in a vacuum. The introduction of new technologies and policies to change travel choices come and go, but they invariably require public support to be successful.