Measuring the impact of unfamiliar transit travel using a university access survey

A number of campaigns, policy initiatives, and research studies target promoting travel behaviour change in an effort to reduce automobile dependency. However there is scant, if any, research about the actual experience of new travel behaviours and their potential importance. Yet research in psychology has shown first impressions to be integral to all attitude development due to a phenomenon referred to as the ‘primacy effect’. However the ‘primacy effect’ concept has never been explored in the context of urban transit, one of the key modes targeted for individuals to use in place of cars.