Global Mobility Culture Comparison and China’s Mobility Management
Funding: MIT Energy Initiative, Mobility of the Future 2016-2019
Mobility is already changing in response to evolving demographics, consumer preferences, new business models, connectedness, technology, alternative fuels, and policy. Future changes are anticipated but there is great uncertainty about the pace of change and which mobility options will be adopted. This multi-PI, multi-year MIT study, Mobility of the Future, will explore these possibilities and examine how complex interactions between engine technology options, fuel options, refueling infrastructure, consumer choice, public transit options, new transportation modalities, and government policy might shape the future landscape for mobility.
Prof. Jinhua Zhao leads two research components: (1) Global Comparison of Mobility Culture, and (2) Mobility Management Instruments in China: Scenario Setting 2050.
(1) The Global Comparison of Mobility Culture project seeks to measure car pride and car dependence in cities across different countries, explore the sociodemographic, policy, and other influences that contribute to the formation of car pride, and model how car pride and car dependence influence travel behavior (such as car usage and ownership). Implementing a pre-tested survey in select cities around the globe, we will collect primary data on respondent travel behavior and attitudes towards mobility using psychometric tools including the Implicit Association Test.
(2) The Mobility Management Instruments in China project surveys the landscape of municipal transportation policies and constructs future policy scenarios for China. We begin by characterizing current municipal transportation policies along four dimensions: policy instruments, policy objectives, stakeholders, and local contexts. We examine the variations in common patterns in the process of transportation policy-making across Chinese cities. We aim to identify trends in urban transportation systems, mobility patterns, and transportation policy-making over time and use this understanding of the dynamics of transportation policy to develop a set of scenarios. These scenarios will explore three key dimensions – (i) technology development, (ii) mobility policy assertiveness, (iii) and urban land-use regulations – to illustrate and benchmark a broad range of plausible mobility futures.
External link: http://energy.mit.edu/research/mobility-future-study/
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| The Price of Privacy Control in Mobility Sharing, , Journal of Urban Technology, (2020) |
One of the main features in mobility sharing applications is the exposure of personal data provided to the system. Transportation and location data can reveal personal habits, preferences, and behaviors, and riders could be keen not to share the exact location of their origin and/or destination. But what is the price of privacy in terms of decreased efficiency of the mobility sharing system? In this paper, for the first time, we address the privacy issues under this point of view and show... |
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Car Pride and its Bidirectional Relations with Car Ownership: Case Studies in New York City and Houston, , Transportation Research Part A, 06/2019, Volume 124, p.334-353, (2019) |
The car fulfills not only instrumental transportation functions, but also holds important symbolic and affective meaning for its owners and users. In particular, owning and using a car can be a symbol of an individual’s social status or personal image (‘car pride’). This paper introduces and validates a standard measure of car pride estimated from 12 survey statements using a cross-sectional sample of 1,236 commuters in New York City and Houston metropolitan statistical areas. We find that... |
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What prompts the adoption of car restriction policies among Chinese cities, , International Journal of Sustainable Transportation, (2020) |
Facing rapid motorization, many Chinese municipalities are implementing policies that restrict car ownership or use. However, there is significant variation in terms of which cities adopt these policies and when. This research systematically investigates what factors prompt local governments in China to adopt these car restriction policies. We collect a database of car restriction policies as well as economic, demographic, land use, and transportation indicators for 287 Chinese... |
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Transportation Policy Making in Beijing and Shanghai: Contributors, Obstacles, and Process, , Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting, (2018) |
With continued motorization and urbanization in Chinese cities, there is a growing demand for innovative transportation policies to address the challenges of congestion, local air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. Using Beijing and Shanghai as case studies, this paper draws on in-depth interviews with municipal government officials and non-governmental experts to document the ways in which transportation policy is currently implemented at the city-level in China. Using recursive and... |
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Car Pride and its Behavioral Implications: An Exploration in Shanghai, , Transportation, (2018) |
Cars have symbolic significance beyond their functional purpose, and people often take pride in owning and using them. However, little is known about what this pride is and how it affects travel behavior. This paper constitutes the first attempt to provide a conceptual framework of car pride and test its behavioral implications. In this paper, car pride is defined as the self-conscious emotion derived from the appraisal of car ownership and use positively related to one’s identity goals. We... |
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Gaining Acceptance by Informing the People? Public Knowledge, Attitudes, and Acceptance of Transportation Policies, , Journal of Planning Education and Research, 09/2017, (2017) |
We examine the connection between public knowledge and attitudes in the context of urban transportation policies. We categorize policy knowledge into received, subjective, and reasoned knowledge, and measure them empirically using a survey of Shanghai’s residents (n=1,000) on the vehicle license auction policy. We quantify the relationship between the three types of knowledge and public acceptance and its predecessors (perceived effectiveness, affordability, and equity). We find variegated... |
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Normative and Image Motivations for Compliance with Sustainable Transportation Policy, , Urban Studies, (2016) |
Compliance with laws and regulations intended to protect common pool resources in the urban context is essential in tackling problems such as pollution and congestion. A high level of non-compliance necessitates an investigation into motivations behind compliance. The long-held instrumental theory emphasising the dependence of compliance on tangible deterrence measures fails to adequately explain empirical findings. More recently... |
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Capturing Hidden Attitudes: Introducing the Implicit Association Test to Transportation Planning, , Working paper, (2017) |
Transportation planners routinely rely on surveys or other self-report measures (revealed preference or stated preference) to understand people’s travel preference and attitudes. This understanding is fundamental in designing policy interventions toward more sustainable travel choice. However, respondents may hold implicit attitudes that differ from their expressed answers to surveys because of social desirability bias, self-enhancement, or self-ignorance. This mismatch between attitudes... |
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Implicit and Explicit Measures of Social Status Bias in Mode Choice, , (2016) |
Transportation planners routinely rely on surveys or other self-report measures to understand people’s mode choice attitudes. This understanding helps shape informational campaigns and other policy interventions to nudge travel behaviour toward more sustainable modes and away from single-occupancy, gasoline-powered vehicles. However, respondents may hold implicit attitudes that differ from their expressed answers to surveys because of social desirability bias, self-enhancement, or self-... |
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‘Car Pride’ in New York City vs. Houston: Towards a Cross-Cultural Comparison, , (2016) |
Presented at the 56th Annual Conference of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP), Portland, OR, 2016 Transportation planners routinely rely on surveys or other self-report measures to understand people’s mode choice attitudes. This understanding helps shape informational campaigns and other policy interventions to nudge travel behavior toward more sustainable modes and away from single-occupancy, gasoline-powered vehicles. However, respondents may hold implicit... |
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 Professor of Cities and Transportation |