Towards Sustainable Attendee Transportation: Modeling the Psychological Determinants of Reduced Car Use to Special Events

Characterised by extensive car use, attendee transportation has been recognized as the largest greenhouse gas contributor of a special event. Current strategies towards reducing car use, however, have been met with varying success due to a limited understanding of the factors affecting attendee mode choice. Therefore, this thesis sought to identify the extent to which the psychological determinants of behaviour, as set out in the Theory of Planned Behaviour, Theory of Interpersonal Behaviour, and Norm Activation Model, are associated with special event attendee non-car use. Through a quantitative survey of 500 Canadian panel participants and PLS-SEM, this study evaluated the three theories independently and proposed a combined model. Findings indicated the significance of psychological determinants, across all three theories, in predicting attendee non-car use. Thus, in addition to ensuring the availability and accessibility of sustainable transportation alternatives, organizers should focus on implementing ‘soft’ interventions, designed to encourage sustainable attendee mobility.