Drivers of car ownership in a car-oriented city : A mixed-method study
Loading...
Access rights
openAccess
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
This publication is imported from Aalto University research portal.
View publication in the Research portal
View/Open full text file from the Research portal
Other link related to publication
View publication in the Research portal
View/Open full text file from the Research portal
Other link related to publication
Date
2021-01-02
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Language
en
Pages
26
1-26
1-26
Series
Sustainability (Switzerland), Volume 13, issue 2
Abstract
This paper presents a mixed-method analysis of car ownership in Reykjavik, Iceland, a location with a high motorization level and deeply rooted car culture. We utilize qualitative interviews to understand vehicle possession reasons and elaborate the study with statistical analysis using a softGIS survey dataset with characteristics of the respondents and their residential location. We focus on adults aged 25 to 40, who are suggested to be less car-oriented than older generations. We also describe the historic development of Reykjavik’s car culture to give a perspective for the findings. We show that even among the studied age group, car ownership is still seen as a social norm, with few even seeing it possible to live without a car, and the public transport system is seen as giving a poverty stigma. However, we still find an increasing share of car-free households towards the city center. Still, the built environment impact is limited to the city center, which has a higher proportion of small adult-only households residing in shared apartments than other areas. Moreover, there seems to be a three-fold connection between having a child, acquiring a car (if not already possessed), and choosing a suburban residential location. Some indications of residential self-selection related to car ownership were found, but pro-car attitudes and residential location independently influenced car ownership. This study helps to understand the reasons for high car dominance and supports designing policies to reduce car-dependency, not just in Reykjavik but also elsewhere.Description
Keywords
Built environment, Car ownership, Car-oriented mobility culture, Mixed-method study, Residential self-selection, Transit-oriented development (TOD)
Other note
Citation
Heinonen, J, Czepkiewicz, M, Árnadóttir, Á & Ottelin, J 2021, ' Drivers of car ownership in a car-oriented city : A mixed-method study ', Sustainability (Switzerland), vol. 13, no. 2, 619, pp. 1-26 . https://doi.org/10.3390/su13020619
