Instrumental, Symbolic and affective motives for car use in urban centres of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro

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Abstract:

This communication reports an ongoing research that replicates studies, from UK and The Netherlands, examining motivational dimensions underlying the attractiveness of car use. Symbolic-affective motives occupies the centre of the study, since the economic-rational assumptions used by public policy-makers seems not to meet the actual car use behaviour, and policies aiming mitigate the problem of urban centres traffic fail. Data from Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro car users are being gathered through two different questionnaires and results will be compared with the European study. Preliminary results suggest that motivation varies significantly among European and Brazilian samples, mainly in the symbolic and affective aspects of car use motivation.