CIVITAS Project - What is Really Important in Changing People's Behavior

The Eorupean Commission (EC) has launched a project, called CIVITAS - cleaner and better transport in cities, which stands for CIty-VITAlity-Sustainability.

"With the CIVITAS Initiative, the EC aims to generate a decisive breakthrough by supporting and evaluating the implementation of ambitious integrated sustainable urban transport strategies that should make a real difference for the welfare of the European citizen."

Introduction
Started in 2002 (CIVITAS I) and reframed in 2005 (CITIVITAS II), the project now is in its third phase - CITIVAS Plus - where 25 cities in 5 demonstration projects funded by the EC are carrying out. Some of the key elements are outlined in the introduction. First, it is co-ordinated by local cities, meaning it is not another fastidious but inept plan cared only by those who have schemed it. Second, cities are in the heart of local public private partnerships. This is clearly an important point in the development of proper policies and plans. When the idea of city as the final outcome is not in the center of the partnership, it is not difficult to find that all relevant public units are eager to take credits while the private simply want to make more profits and build their own reputation. Third, political commitment is a basic requirement. Any kind of planning profession's first duty is to study the backgrounds, crunch the numbers, and generate a report of high quantitative and qualitative quality. The second duty deserves an equal strenuous attention. That is; planners need to convey and communicate ideas effectively with the policy-makers without whose commitment the projects are not likely to be politically viable. Last but not least, cities are by nature living 'Laboratories' for learning and evaluating. A complete list of measures and rich introductory information is here.

What is Important - Information Transparency on The Street
Among the many measures in the projects, I am interested in the transparency of transport information the most. There are at least three points explaining the importance of information transparency.

If properly provided, information accessibility can well improve transit users' physical accessibility
First of all, the access to traveler information should not be proprietary to motorists. The traditional imbalance of information accessibility and innovation between motorist and transit user groups marks the inappropriate distribution of right of ways and the differences between the two groups' social-economic characteristics in that mass transits are usually considered as a public service and their users are often viewed as owning less consumption power while motorists are by definition more willing to purchase something in exchange for their own convenience and comfortableness. However legitimate the reason could be, transport planners' job is to narrow down the information gap if we are to promote multimodal accessibility and boost the use of public transport. As a result, a cleverly-devised business partnership of public transport services between public units and private innovators is necessary to compensate that inherent differences. In short, If properly provided, information accessibility can well improve transit users' physical accessibility.

Personally, they simply don't know how bad their choice is, and how good their change is going to be
Next, the idea of bike counter on the street makes me impressed. Not only because it can collect the accumulated number of bikes passed and display it right on the street. What is really important here is that, by connecting an individual's green choice to the others' choices and by making explicit how well or how worse the local people are contributing to the area, environmental awareness is effectively created. In other words, traditionally one of the disincentives that people are unaware of or insensitive to the externalities they are creating when using private vehicles is the lack of information about their choices. All kinds of research and report are right there, compelling, but those researches lack the direct connection with the ordinary people. Personally, they simply don't know how bad their choice is, and how good their change is going to be. Without the direct connection to personal choice, the thing each individual will do is to wait for other people's change. There are many things we can count and inform the public, including the number of vehicles and accidents, the amount of emissions, historical comparative results or goal and vision set by local people. I've seen some emission calculators on the Net, but so far they still operate in a very passive way and people just cannot connect the result with their choice. Therefore, in some areas where the percentage of private vehicle is extremely high, I envision more transparency of information on the street, public one is preferred because it can create more sense of cohesion and cooperation. Those already established on the Net might want to make further advancement by some physical presence on the street.

Marketing is important
The third one is creative and communicatively effective. In some of the projects, some local authorities put telescopes on the streets inside which people can see the future of the street, the town, or even the city. Marketing is important. It is a tool to get people involved and informed by telling them that with their help and understanding, the beautiful and sustainable future is right there waiting. It is much more effective and innovative than if the vision is only available on the Internet or some pamphlets.

Small Talk
In managing transportation demand, soft measures should be considered a priority since it can create the real sense of awareness we need for sustainable development. However, hard measures, such as congestion pricing, is necessary and justifiable for that it's the most appropriate funding sources for either maintaining existing road network or potential public transport projects. The logic is that for a long time, the real cost of driving has been significantly underestimated.

In America, cities are changing

In a time of depression, the timing couldn't be better for us to rethink our past deeds and replan for our future. We shall not only rethink the solutions for our economy, while ignore what lies in the heart of humanity: our streets, neighborhoods, and as a result, our lives.

Streetfilms has made two short videos regarding recent development of livable street in San Francisco and New York. Let's enjoy them with zeal!

Transforming NYC Streets: A Conversation with Janette Sadik-Khan


Making a Better Market Street

Mode Choice Considering Social Interdependence - A Potential for Making Behavioral Changes

Human behavior impinges on transportation systems at many points.

by Daniel McFadden, 2007

When I was 8 years old, a neighbor was promoted to conductor on the Southern Railroad. I ask him if he would be working on the Southern Crescent, the premier passenger train on the railroad. "Oh, no,"he said, "If I did that, I would have to deal with people. Railroad men would rather work with freight." Today, it is important for transportation workers, and transportation researchers, to recognize that there is no escape from humans and the impact of their behavior on transportation systems. One has to work with people

by Nobel Laureate, Prof. Daniel McFadden, 2007, The behaviroal science of transportation, Transport Policy

Yes, one has to deal with men, such as drivers, riders, pedestrians, managers, or policy-makers, to name just a few. And one has also need to know clearly the interests, preferences, and behaviors that underlie each group of the stakeholders in a hope for a competent management of transportation system.

Zones don't travel; people travel!"

A slogan by Travel Demand Project, 1972

The following paragraphs excerpted from my research proposal, in which I plan to study current theoretical grounds and rethink some of the ideas on which travel mode choice behavior is determined through putting into more behavioral economic/behavioral science principles. Generally speaking, the focus of the economics discipline is on the aggregation of market, be it financial market, labor market, or transportation market, and by understanding the casual relationships between dependent variables and independent variables, policy-makers are supposedly able to manage the market of interest.

Nevertheless, in terms of choice making, there are much more than utility and budget constraint. A lot of brilliant researches and studies have contributed to this argument (as will be seen later). Whether this argument holds depends on what sort of belief and function we adhere to the study of economics. But I would like to supplement the necessity of studying behavioral economics/behavioral science with another important reason: simply speaking, from the view point of a policy-maker, gaining other factors that are potential for changing people's behavior toward a more ideal one (in my field, environmentally-friendly transportation mode) is by all means worthy of a perusal. After all, not until we have a more penetrating insight into the ever more complex mechanism of people's decision making process can we ever start creating green shifts in a world facing critical climate crisis and the side effects of urbanization all along.


BACKGROUND & MOTIVATION
Traveling around Taipei City during rush hours by all kinds of means is increasingly exasperating because of the totally congested roads and desperately bad air quality, both of which are resulted from a high percentage of private vehicle using in commuting trips and the operational inefficiency of public transit systems.

While Taipei City Government’s focus is to rapidly increase transit capacity by expanding subway coverage and reconfiguring bus network in search for a cleaner and less crowded network, some other important factors central to people’s mode choice decision-making process might be overlooked and might thus deserve a thorough investigation.

On the other hand, from a citizen’s point of view, if the government has already been carrying out a variety of transportation demand management (TDM) measures, some reviews and evaluations about what those measures are and how they are performing might also provide opportunities for further advancement.

PROBLEM DEFINITION AND OBJECTIVES
Motivated by Taipei City’s transportation issues, I desire to study travel mode choice behavior and learn how to bring about psychological and behavioral green changes in people facing mode choice decision, specifically, through social interdependence or social interaction, without which TDM measures could often process too slowly or are simply impractical.
Therefore, the objective of this research is to provide a sound basis on which transportation decision makers would be better positioned when considering counteractions to urban congestion and pollution through making the green shift in people’s mode choice.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Social Dilemma
In one way or another, the climate crisis has begun affecting people’s behavior and life patterns and linking not only each individual’s welfare, but also misery. In terms of mode choice decision, out-of-pocket cost or immediate convenience still counts but is increasingly facing more complex variables (Ben-Akiva et al., 1999). In urban transportation field, mode choice is one of the decisions people need to make in the traveling process. The choice itself and utility that follows are interconnected (through externalities, such as congestion and pollution) with other people’s decision. The social interdependence with conflicting individual and collective interests is known as a social dilemma.
There are a number of studies discussing about the effect of social dilemma and how to trigger it for more effective TDM measures. Some researches address this issue from the demand-side, usually via segmenting travelers by some latent characteristics, such as pro-social or pro-self commuters, with the former group showing greater preference for public transportation (also called cooperative option) (Sutomo, Sugiyanto, Istiyanto, & Matsumoto, 2003; VanVugt, VanLange, & Meertens, 1996). The other studies deal with it from a supply-side perspective, usually by manipulating operational variables such as price and route availability. For example, an experiment in which ecological norm and free bus ticket were adopted argued that the “economy-plus-moral” formula best explains the fact that integrative mechanism is the determinant of travel mode choice (Fujii, Garling, & Kitamura, 2001; Hunecke, Blobaum, Matthies, & Hoger, 2001). And there are even more researches suggesting a high possibility that contextual changes could trigger behavioral change which favors cooperative options (Fujii et al., 2001; Fujii & Kitamura, 2003; Klöckner, 2004). Thus, regarding making behavioral change, a lot of attention has been given to the individual and operational sides.

Social Interdependence or Social Interaction
The effect of social interdependence in discrete choice model is allowed by allowing a given individual’s choice for a particular alternative to be dependent on the others’ choice, forming a feedback between decision makers. So far, the study focus of social interactions among individual decision makers has been mostly directed toward intra-household activities (Wilton, Páez, & Scott, 2007). In other fields, some researchers start using discrete choice analyses with social interaction, centering on how social interaction will change individual choice (Soetevent & Kooreman, 2007; Zanella, 2007). Up to the present, the use of social interdependence or social interaction in influencing individual’s mode choice toward a greener one has received much less attention, while at the same time analytical models have become relatively more able to include latent variables and interdependences (social and spatial) (Dugundji & Walker, 2005; McFadden et al., 2002). Therefore, I plan to study on the development of mechanical linkages and relationship among individual choice, the other people’s choices, individual utility, and collective utility. I believe if the linkages and relationship can be more explicitly identified in mode choice behavior, transportation planners and decision makers are likely to have a clearer view with which more effective TDM measures will be possible.

METHODOLOGY
First of all, the research plans to review literature in the historical development of behavioral studies in mode choice, related statistical and economic methods, and Taipei City’s current mode choice behavior; see Figure 2. Second, it intends to conduct an experimental investigation into mode choice behavior of people living in Taipei City taking into account the effect of social interdependence. Third, it will examine the applicability and practicability of existing mode choice models and theories and apply one of them. Fourth, based on previous steps, the research hopes to provide some new findings about mode choice behavior considering the effect of social interdependence.

Small Talk
Just about the same time, I am lucky enough to come across Prof. McFadden's paper (2007) in which he has highlighted the importance of understanding the phenomenon of pellatons (and a great deal of other things), which suggests people's tendency to get affiliated with social networks and to become willing to limit their choice voluntarily by accountability to network norms. It happens to be closely related to my subject. Thinking about the reasons that drive the desires of policy to make people's behavioral change in travel mode might suggest a somewhat cynical view toward the world. Although believing in the implication of Malthusian Catastrophe may seem pessimistic, however, it is those pessimistic views that complement and strengthen our civilization.

Behavoral Economics: The Gounds

Economists have preferences; psychologists have attitudes."

by Daniel Kahneman, 1998

Recently, to better understand how people make mode choice in search for a more effective and efficient counteraction against congestion and polllution, I've read a deal of articles about behaviors and found some interesting issues and arguments between economists and psychologists (one of the best is here, the University of Chicago Magazine). One of the most famous points in the arguments (Nobel Laureate Prof. Daniel Kahneman's well-quoted and classical paper, prospect theory), is that, however, human beings are not fully rational beings. When under uncertainty they make decision according to how they feel their wealth or state is going to change by it, and they choose it based on whether it is being considered as a gain or loss. I am so glad that I am able to indulge in those great works done by some of the most insightful and intelligent social scientists, economists, and psychologists. While it seems that prospect theory and other behavioral thoughts are against traditional economic maxims (people are able to make the best decision out from a number of choices which turn out to maximize their utility), I am viewing it as a valuable supplement to what constitutes human beings' decision making mechanism.

In my heart of hearts, I am convinced by yet another dedicated Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon (who coined the term "bounded rationality"). He noted in the New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Simon argued that “the phrase ‘behavioral economics’ appears to be a pleonasm,” or redundancy: “What non-behavioral economics can we contrast it with? The answer to this question is found in the specific assumptions about human behavior that are made in neoclassical economic theory.” I also see no difference between the two. In the fundamentals of microeconomic theory, people choose the best bundle of goods they can afford. This is, of course, an obvious psychological assumption about people's decision-making process. In 2005, another absolutely must-read paper reviewing another less known book by Father of Economics - Adam Smith - The Theory of Moral Sentiments, has suggested that the book, which was written 17 years earlier before The Wealth of Nations, presaged many developments in behaviroal economics we are seeing today. In the classical book, Smith gave many bone-chilling examples about how human beings act. For instance,

What are the pangs of a mother, when she hears the moanings of her infant, that, during the agony of disease, cannot express what it feels? In her idea of what it suffers, she joins, to its real helplessness, her own consciousness of that helplessness, and her own terrors for the unknown consequences of its disorder; and out of all these, forms, for her own sorrow, the most complete image of misery and distress. The infant, however, feels only the uneasiness of the present instant, which can never be great.

The authors of the review paper (Ashraf et al.) has suggested that, "Smith adds dryly that 'we sympathize even with the dead', who themselves experience nothing." It is absolutely a careful and original observation of people's behavior. Given Adam Smith's less prevalent part of wisdom, Prof. Camerer, the other authors of the review paper suggested that the recent fashion of behavioral economics is in fact, a “return to the roots of neoclassical economics after a century-long detour.”

In some cases, the behavioral side tends to suggest that limiting people's choice set especially when they are not well-informed or motivated could be a better policy direction (not by government intervention, but by some smart people who can design the BEST solution for all individuals). From my point of view, however, better solution shouldn't be defined by a relatively-small group of smart people and I believe it won't always do good things for people. The real question here is, therefore, what kind of choice are we talking about? If it's a decision involved no collective or social impact, then maybe it'd better not to limit people's choice simply because economists and scholars think they will make silly decisions. On the other hand, if it's a decision associated with significant externalities, in which situation not only each individual's welfare, but also misery are interconnected, then some form of libertarian paternalism will be much more legitimate and reasonable.