What Drives Us to Walk: Understanding Components and Processes of Behaviour Change Towards Active Mobility

Abstract

Walking is widely promoted as a healthy and sustainable way to get around. Still, although the benefits of walking are undisputed, it is equally known that most people walk much less than they could and should do. This article explores this discrepancy from the angle of human behaviour change processes and applies a theoretically grounded systematics for identifying the most important barriers against walking. This is followed by a description of behaviour types and related behaviour change motives to inspire strategies and arguments to address different types of target groups. The proposed framework can support the selection of measures and strategies to increase walking in different environments and addressing specific social groups.

Keywords

• walking
• behaviour change barriers
• motives
• mobility
• transport planning
• motivations for walking