I am looking for a research paper that would list and/or describe "irrational" reasons why people prefer driving cars over using public transport on places where the public transport is easily available (e.g. cities with subway and buses). For example, reasons connected to social status, feeling cool and superior in a car, a proxy for wealth and bank account, etc.
perhaps irrationality and published works are mutually exclusive concepts - your search might be a long one?
So perhaps I am looking for a paper that describes the social and psychological reasons why people own and use cars. I know that the practical reasons (e.g. I need a car for work, to get to work, to carry heavy stuff, to give a lift to my family etc.), but I am looking for the reasons that lead to over-use of cars that can be potentially changed.
Right! So now think where you might find opinions, motivations and attitudes. You will probably need to look beyond dusty journals to popular press and perhsps some real-world sampling before steering back towards academia?
True, thanks for the answer, we are doing in-depth interviews with people and also focus groups, where we ask those questions. I am also searching the Internet for discussion forums where people talk about this.
Dear Roman, I do not know a paper about your questions. But I am working about electric vehicles, renewable energies and environment issues since 1985. I live in Berlin, where we have a good public transport, but I do most of my traffic with my personal car. I only use public transport, when I go to the inner city, and when I stay there several hours (e.g. conference) where I have to pay a lot of money for parking.
When I use public transport, there almost always will be people making music and asking for money, I do not like these feelings. In Germany we have a good system to care for poor people, so with my taxes I already help.
In rush hour the transport capacity of public transport is not able to transport more people. I think we can not transport all people by public transport in big cities.
Often I work at home, so I do not need to go to the office every day.
If an interview may help you, you can contact me.
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