Studying travel behaviour in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region: How attitudes towards the Environment, Accessibility, Convenience, and Safety, vary among commuters

Climate change has emerged as one of the main environmental challenges facing the world in the 21st century. Transport is responsible for a quarter of total carbon emissions from all sources as reported by the COP26 summit. Yet, how environmental awareness influences traveller's choice of mode(s), whilst also considering the interplay of a wide range of other factors, is under-researched in the context of developing countries specifically. The study presented here aimed at gaining fundamental understandings of commuters’ travel with attention to their attitudes towards the environment, ease of access, convenience, and safety. A questionnaire was designed, and 708 useful responses were collected via an online self-completion platform supplemented with face-to-face interviews to provide a representative sample of the population of the Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR). Descriptive analysis led to a fundamental understanding of the characteristics of the commuter population with private car followed by urban rail being the most popular. Principal component analysis (PCA) was carried out, as a dimension reduction process, to reduce 20 attitudinal statements into a set of uncorrelated variables or components to draw some meaningful results. The four components from the PCA were labelled as “Pro-environment and health”, “Pro-environmentally friendly cars”, “Pro-safe and convenience”, and “Pro-private vehicle”. The component scores were analysed with attention to the respondent's gender, age, and self-identified commuting mode of transport. Age and identity of transport mode firmly influenced the components, particularly active transport users. This research has provided decision-makers with scientific evidence to inform policies and intervention measures to deliver more sustainable transport options in developing countries and beyond.