Understanding and influencing attitudes and behaviours

At the core of the social science work programme of Centre for Transport and Society (CTS) is the body of knowledge which can be loosely summarised as the 'theory of travel behaviour'.

This draws on psychology and sociology in particular in seeking to understand the extent to which travel behaviour is premeditated for different trips, the degree to which novel information or social relationships influence those choices, and the extent to which reported attitudes to future travel behaviour reliably predict that behaviour.

CTS has developed a strong international academic reputation in developing this theme and has also provided expert advice to national and local policymakers.

Research projects

For each project we provide key details and a summary. In most cases a two-page briefing sheet is available.

Current research

• Young people's travel behaviour
• Commuting and wellbeing

Completed research

• Life transitions and travel behaviour
• Peer review of DfT Enabling Behaviour Change toolkit
• Interdisciplinary study of crowd behaviour
• Behaviour change: what works for transport? Think piece study
• Review of evidence on business attitudes to transport
• Understanding public attitudes to road user safety
• With the advantage of hindsight
• Towards reliable mobility
• Review of existing evidence on public attitudes to transport
• Public attitudes to personal carbon dioxide emissions information
• Public understanding of sustainable transport
• Social research on the public acceptability of road pricing
• Investigating travel behaviour dynamics and their incorporation into transport models
• The effect of reference point on stochastic network equilibrium
• Attitudes to road pricing - assessing the evidence base
• Understanding the attitudes of older people to road pricing
• The attitudes of young people towards transport in the context of climate change
• Socio-psychological aspects in the dynamics of travellers' mode choice behaviour
• Travel behaviour change - opportunities arising from residential relocation