This paper investigates different travel behaviour related projects and identifies barriers
and motivations for behavioural change towards more sustainable mobility. Since methodologies
from other disciplines such as sociology and psychology are becoming more
important for travel behaviour research, a main focus is on inter-disciplinary approaches.
These concepts seem to constitute fruitful attempts to enrich a useful knowledge base for
policy and planning measures. Additionally, results from the authors’ previous research
are used to compare drivers and constraints for environmentally friendly behaviour.
In general, determinants for behavioural decisions differ between types of travel – in
terms of daily and tourist travel – and between transport user groups. Socio-psychological
factors like attitudes towards the environment and towards certain modes of transport or
the importance of moral obligation and environmental beliefs are main influencing variables
for daily travel. Tourist travel decisions are more dependent on individual socioeconomic
situations. The resulting conflict between individual knowledge about negative
sustainability related effects from air travel and conflicting individual unsustainable actions
leads to a strategy of collective denial and a psychological gap, where people wait for
others to act without changing their own behaviour