Page 189 - Proceeding of Atrans Young Researcher's Forum 2019_Neat

“Transportation for A Better Life:
Smart Mobility for Now and Then”

23 August 2019, Bangkok, Thailand

consist of coworkers, classmates, friends of friends, psychological theories in defining stages of
hi/bye friends and just friends. In the ad-hoc, there carpoolers as this may help us understand
should no relationship among carpoolers. Although motivations to carpool better. The experts in the
the definition of ad-hoc in this manuscript is in transportation field suggested that the framework
contrast with the “ad-hoc” provided by Chan and may help explore the motivation to carpool that may
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Shaheen , there is an explanation. O’Brien and go beyond instrumental factors such as cost, time,
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Dunning and Gheorghiu and Delhomme found reliability and flexibility. All experts agreed on that
that the relationships among carpoolers were the framework can holistically depict the ecosystem
changing dynamically through time as they of carpooling behaviour; however, the framework is
participated in carpooling. Thus, it is possible that too complex. Validating it with empirical data may
“ad-hoc” is dynamic rather static and this is hard to be the challenge for further research. A pair of stages
observe by researchers. Carpoolers do not know may be selected for validation.
each other at the beginning but they become friends This is an initial step of validation. The
after starting carpooling for a while. Future research proposed framework and hypotheses still need to be
explores the dynamic levels of these relationships. validated by experts in the transportation and
behavior change fields. Empirical validation is also
Table 4 Levels of Social Ties among Carpoolers important. Future studies may conduct in-depth
interviews with participants in all segments of
carpoolers. The preliminary questions in interviews
should be based on the theories/concepts. The results
from interviews should expand the understanding of
the framework and guide questions for designing
questionnaires for a quantitative survey. In order to
increase the number of carpoolers, the survey should
be conducted with participants in the formation stage
and explore which triggers are salient to early
carpoolers. The triggers found in the previous survey

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Source: adapted from Joy ; Aknin et al. ; Chan and should be further used in designing questionnaires
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Shaheen for observing people who are not carpoolers. The
output of these two surveys might be used for
3. Methodology developing intervention programs encouraging
This study conducted an initial validation carpooling. However, future research should also
with six academic experts in the related fields: four repeat the abovementioned steps with the
from Thammasat University one from participants in the other segments. This would not
Chulalongkorn University and one from Chiang Mai only increase the number of current carpoolers but
University in Thailand. They are specialists in also keep them carpool over a long-term period.
different fields: three from the transportation field,
two from the psychology and marketing field, and 4. Results
one from the psychology and consumer behaviour A proposed conceptual framework for
field. They were asked to validate a proposed investigating factors affecting carpooling decisions
framework. Other related frameworks, figs and is illustrated in Fig. 3. Carpooling requires three pre-
tables were shown to them in supporting their conditions based on the definitions of carpool
evaluations. The initial framework considered only provided at the beginning of this manuscript: asset
the role of driver and rider. The experts suggested provision, travel pattern and profit making. These
the third role, i.e. ones who can be either drivers or three aspects are further extended to include the roles
riders. They also suggested us the necessity of of participants, the relationships among carpoolers
proposing the operationalisation of the social ties and the form of outcomes. Regarding the roles of
level. The proposed framework was modified participants, basically, carpoolers are drivers and
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according to their comments. The finalised version riders . This manuscript proposes that there are
is the one as illustrated in Fig. 3. three roles: namely, drivers, riders and the one who
The experts’ general feedbacks are as agrees to be either driver or rider. The relationships
follows. The experts in the psychology and among carpoolers and the form of outcomes were
consumer behaviour field agreed on the use of

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