Driving forces of spatial cognition : Is the car a mover in egocentric distance estimation?

Sammanfattning: Physical inactivity is a cause of health problems globally that cause suffering for people and amass significant costs for states. One way of improving physical activity is by formulating policy and implementing planning decisions that encourage active travel. At the heart of the issue, however, lies the matter of modal choice. A majority of short trips that can be made by foot are made by car, but why do people make this decision? A large number of factors play a part in modal choice, but the role of distance is under researched.This paper set out to research if car familiarity makes a respondent overestimate walked distances, and whethercar drivers cognise distances more or less accurately than pedestrians.Standardised interviews were conducted at Gränby Centrum in Uppsala with 99 respondents who were asked to estimate their travelled distance from home to the interview location in both metres and in time. By utilising network analysis in GIS software, the respondent’s estimates were compared to the ‘objective’ distance travelled. It was found that, contrary to what was hypothesised; respondents that held a driver’s license and respondents that had driven recently did not overestimate their travelled distances more than respondents that did not hold a driver’s license. Findings did, however, suggest that respondents with higher car familiarity tended to both under- and overestimate distances in metres (but not time) to a greater extent than respondents with low car familiarity.