Affecting the modal choice: efficiency in modern transport planning

Abstract: One of the most prioritized goals in transport planning of today is the cost-effective goal to shift the modal split in favour of sustainable transport modes, as e.g. bicycle. The aim of this master thesis is to investigate how to efficiently and successfully realize such transport planning. To do so, it is important to identify which factors affect the modal choice and how these factors should be measured. Further, the aim of this thesis is to investigate how transport planners of today, in two modern industrial countries, work with this type of transport planning and to detect possible ways of improvement. In order to answer the research questions of this thesis a literature study, a document study and an interview study was made. The literature study showed that the true relationship between the studied factors and the modal choice is difficult to determine, and that they therefore should be individually chosen for each project. In order to identify which factors to choose, studies of the pre-state are important. As different factors are measured in different ways, different types of studies, as e.g. observational studies and surveys, should be carried through. The document study showed that surveys are rarely made in the two studied countries, and the interview study confirmed this finding and revealed that the cause mainly is a lack of recourses. As goals in transport planning are determined in connection with politics, it is recommended that politicians are made aware of the discrepancy between goals set and the recourses invested.