Impact of social-psychological factors on low-carbon travel intention: Merging theory of planned behavior and value-belief-norm theory

Low-carbon travel assumes paramount significance in energy conservation and the establishment of an eco-friendly transportation ecosystem. This paper endeavors to explore the relationship between low-carbon travel intention, latent psychological variables, and sociodemographic attributes, drawing insights from responses of 602 residents in Hangzhou, China by structural equation model and multi-group model. In particular, we synthesize the theory of planned behavior, value-belief-norm theory, and view of incentive, a reflection of the public support for incentive policies. Results reveals that the primary determinants influencing the low-carbon travel intention encompass the view of incentive, attitude, and subjective norms. Individuals with diverse sociodemographic attributes manifest varying sensitivities, with males and elders exhibiting heightened responsiveness to incentive, while the presence of children decrease the attraction of incentive. These findings demonstrate that low-carbon travel intention can be increased by three ways, one is by the strong attraction of incentive especially tailor incentive policy, another is by making family-friendly policies to facilitate travel for groups with children, and the last is by improving the quality of low-carbon travel services thus increasing the attitude and other determinants.