How do weather affect transport planning?
The weather will play an increasing role in the way we travel, says Chengxi Liu.
What is the topic of your Doctoral Thesis?
The topic of my doctoral thesis is understanding and modelling the effects of weather and climate change on individual travel behaviour.
Why did you choose this topic?
I choose this topic because how climate change can affect our transport system is a hot topic in transport science. Understanding people’s travel choices subject to the change of weather and climate is a fundamental question for transport policies aiming at relieving climate change effect.
What are the most important results?
There is potential to encourage cycling and keep momentum of cycling in winter when it is a good weather. There would be more passenger transport CO2 emissions if future climate is warmer and weather is more extreme.
Did you come across something unexpected during your thesis research?
Most of the results correspond to our expectation, but not all. For instance, our modelling results show that rain seems to correspond to an increasing probability of walking in summer. However, later results seem to explain it as the indirect effects of rain on destination change and trip rescheduling.
Who will benefit from your results?
Every travelers, but especially behavioral scientists and also transport planners. The results are useful for better understanding people’s travel constraints and opportunities and also useful for better predicting travel demand by including weather as an important element. Transport planners can use the results to better utilize weather information to encourage active travel modes such as walk and cycling.
What will you do next?
I will probably continue working as a research engineer in KTH and working on other research projects related to sustainable travel.
Chengxi Liu presented his doctoral thesis Understanding the Impacts of Weather and Climate Change on Travel Behaviour in Spring 2016.