Young People’s Behavioral Intentions towards Low-Carbon Travel: Extending the Theory of Planned Behavior

Abstract

With the rapid development of China’s economy and the rapid growth of the population, the demand for traffic is gradually changing from slow to fast, and the traffic congestion, air pollution, climate change and public health problems are becoming increasingly prominent. As residents’ willingness for low-carbon travel plays a crucial role in alleviating the problems caused by traffic, many studies pay attention to this aspect, but young people are still an obviously neglected group in the study of willingness for low-carbon travel. The novelty of this study lies in the extension of environmental concern and perceived moral obligation to the theory of planned behavior to explore the factors influencing young people’s low-carbon travel behavioral intention. The structural equation modeling is validated with a sample of 235 young respondents. The results show that attitude, perceived behavior control, environmental concern and perceived moral obligation have a significant positive correlation with young people’s low-carbon travel behavioral intention, while subjective norm has not. By revealing young people’s intention of low-carbon travel, this study could help to enhance the understanding of young people’s low-carbon travel choices, and could provide guidance for how to guide young people to choose low-carbon travel in the future.