Analysis of activity-based travel chains and sustainable mobility - Work Package 2

Qualitative Analysis of Daily Transport Activities

Work Package 2

The aim of the research project is to address the qualitative dimensions of urban mobility. The basic hypothesis is that mobility is more than a physical phenomenon and has important repercussions on people’s everyday life, social networks, understanding of places and ultimately of themselves and others. As part of the shift from purely trip-oriented towards an activity-oriented understanding of everyday life mobility and transportation this project aims to focus on the household unit. The underlying hypothesis being that actual activities in a household perspective will provide a more accurate knowledge base for understanding everyday life mobility.

The WP is concerned with qualitative data and aims to interface with other more quantitative WPs in the project focusing on traffic modelling, GPS data etc. In this particular project qualitative interviews will be performed to provide in-depth understanding of daily activities and travel patterns. By exploring the way people organise their choice of transport mode and route in relation to work, family and social obligations, the WP will investigate strategies and rationales behind the organisation of everyday life mobility. The research project will look into issues of risk averseness, variety seeking and passion (e.g., happiness, tiredness), and will determine whether these traits relate to daily activities and travel. The WP will apply urban ethnographic methodologies and relate qualitative interviews to quantitative knowledge gained in other WPs and to create the opportunity to check often overlooked assumptions in quantitative modelling. Beyond cost and time, people’s social networks and mobility capital become additional explanatory factors. Furthermore, a qualitative perspective of the WP on daily travel activities supports a framework appreciating the household unit and not just the individual. The data collection will be in the Greater Copenhagen area (the interviews must therefore be conducted in Danish). The project will be aiming at providing new and qualitatively based knowledge about daily urban mobility. Moreover the project is expected to contribute to the theory building within the ‘mobilities turn’ exploring theoretical concepts such as ‘transport rationales’, transport cultures and mobililty coping.

The project is nested in the Strategic Research Alliance of the ACTUM project which is hosted by DTU, Denmark. Therefore the project will collaborate with other researchers at DTU as well as at AAU.