Community context,human needs,and transportation choices: A view across San Francisco Bay Area communities

The aggregate of many individuals driving alone in private vehicles, common practice in most U.S. communities, is a major source of carbon emissions in the United States. Finding ways to couple sustainable transportation with individual self-interest and fulfillment of human needs may be critical to shifting transportation behavior to other modes. Taking a community perspective, this study considers how individuals discuss their needs in relation to community conditions impacting personal transportation choices. We collected data through 14 community listening sessions, or modified focus groups, conducted in diverse communities across the greater San Francisco Bay Area (USA). The community context for the groups indicated three types of transportation orientation: (1) car-dominant in which driving alone was the primary mode of travel, (2) mixed-mode in which driving alone as well as a variety of other transportation modes were used for travel, and (3) sustainable transportation-oriented in which alternatives to driving alone were primarily used. In all three types of communities, personal transportation choices related to physical and sociocultural conditions that allowed residents to meet different needs. Our findings suggest that considering how community-level conditions meet practical and psychological needs may offer ways to more effectively support individual-level sustainable transportation choices.