Reducing car use by volitional strategy of action and coping planning enhancement

- Coping planning and its enhancement intervention are applied to car use reduction.
- Action-plus-coping plan intervention fosters volitional factors of behavior change.
- Action-plus-coping plan intervention reduces car use behavior.
- Action plan intervention without coping plans does not reduce car use behavior.

Personalized travel plans have been regarded as potentially effective soft measures in mobility management. This research conducted a randomized social experiment aiming at citizen car-use reduction, and examined the effect of implementing two personalized travel plans: action plans and coping plans. The two types of plans were designed respectively for enhancing action planning and coping planning as the volitional factors of behavior change. The results supported the effectiveness of the combined action-plus-coping plan intervention in reducing car use, but not of the action plan alone intervention. In addition, the influence of intervention on behavioral intention, action planning, and coping planning, were also presented.