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2014 | 14 | 2(30) | 97-123

Article title

Omani school and university students’ opinions about public transport: incentives and disincentives

Content

Title variants

PL
Opinie omańskich uczniów i studentów dotyczące transportu publicznego: bodźce i antybodźce

Languages of publication

EN

Abstracts

EN
The global shift to private transport is impacting on the environment in a number of ways, including increases in vehicle emissions that, in turn, contribute to the major problem of global warming and potential climate change. This suggests a need to improve strategies to encourage greater use of public transport. The aim of this study is to explore which aspects of public transport might be perceived as reducing its popularity, and which might act as motivators to increase its use. In order to act as a motivator, a positive characteristic must be both believed to be true of public transport and viewed as an important issue by individuals. In contrast, negative characteristics that are viewed as important are likely to act as deterrents to the use of public transport. A questionnaire was used to determine the views of Omani school and university students about such characteristics. Comfort, safety and short journey time were viewed as important, but these characteristics were believed to be inferior for public transport. Surprisingly in a country where new, large and expensive private vehicles are common, the social status associated with using different forms of transport was seen as less important, and few respondents believed that using public transport was socially embarrassing. There were some differences in the responses of male and female respondents, with more females than males viewing comfort, safety and convenience in terms of travelling at preferred times as important. From an eco-centric perspective, although many respondents viewed it as important that personal transport should not exacerbate global warming, only half believed that public transport could make a contribution here. Many of Oman’s public transport issues are structural, but education may still have a part to play in encouraging the use of public transport. (Throughout the article we use 'private transport' to mean cars and 'personal transport' to mean transport of persons (i.e. buses or cars)).
PL
Globalne przesunięcie zachowań transportowych w kierunku transportu prywatnego oddziałuje na środowisko na wiele sposobów, miedzy innymi poprzez emisję spalin, która z kolei przyczynia się do ogromnego problemu globalnego ocieplenia i potencjalnych zmian klimatycznych. To sugeruje potrzebę poprawy strategii zachęcających do większego wykorzystania transportu publicznego. Celem niniejszego artykułu jest ustalenie, jakie właściwości transportu publicznego mogą powodować spadek jego popularności, a które mogą działać jako czynniki motywujące do jego większego wykorzystania. Aby jednak uwidoczniło się to zachęcające oddziaływanie, użytkownicy transportu muszą uwierzyć w pozytywne cechy transportu publicznego i uznać je za istotne. Z kolei negatywne cechy, które przeważnie są uważane za znaczące, zwykle stanowią środek odstraszający. Komfort, bezpieczeństwo i krótki czas podróży zostały przez badanych uznane za istotne, lecz także ich poziom za niski w odniesieniu do transportu publicznego. Co zaskakujące, w kraju, w którym nowe, duże i drogie samochody osobowe stanowią powszechność, status społeczny kojarzony z różnymi sposobami przemieszczania się postrzegano jako mniej ważny i tylko kilku respondentów wierzyło, że podróżowanie transportem publicznym jest społecznie kompromitujące. Pojawiły się pewne różnice w odpowiedziach respondentów płci męskiej i żeńskiej, ponieważ komfort, bezpieczeństwo oraz czas podróży liczyły się dla większej liczby kobiet aniżeli mężczyzn. Z ekocentrycznego punktu widzenia, mimo że wielu badanych potwierdzało wagę negatywnego oddziaływania transportu prywatnego na globalne ocieplenie, tylko połowa wierzyła, że transport publiczny może się w jakiś sposób przyczynić do zmniejszenia tego problemu. Wiele zagadnień dotyczących omańskiego transportu publicznego ma charakter strukturalny, jednak edukacja nadal może odgrywać dużą rolę w zachęcaniu do korzystania z transportu publicznego.

Year

Volume

14

Issue

Pages

97-123

Physical description

Dates

online
2014-06

Contributors

  • Sultan Qaboos University, Oman
  • University of Western Macedonia, Greece
author
  • Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey
  • University of Liverpool, United Kingdom
author
  • University of Liverpool, United Kingdom
author
  • University of New England, Australia

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Document Type

Publication order reference

Identifiers

ISSN
2081-8319

YADDA identifier

bwmeta1.element.desklight-34245335-ba75-4802-ae2d-8a6dd749eb69
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