The transition to parenthood, as a change in life stage, disrupts habitual travel behaviour and provides a valuable opportunity to influence the adoption of sustainable transport practices. However, while changes to travel behaviour do occur during this transition, these changes tend to be in favour of new car orientated travel practices. In order for sustainable travel patterns to be effectively promoted we must understand the factors that influence mobility choices during this transition. Research in this field is particularly timely given many in the millennial generation, a comparably large cohort, are approaching this life stage. This research aims to understand why public transport use declines during the transition to parenthood in order to show how sustainable travel behaviour could instead be effectively promoted.
This project is part of the Sustainable and Effective Public Transport – Graduate Research Industry Partnership (SEPT-GRIP) and was supervised by Dr Alexa Delbosc. The project was undertaken by Laura McCarthy and sponsored by Transport for Victoria and Monash University.
The thesis is available online here.
