Mindset, quality of life and mobility choices – the complex analysis for urban and suburban areas in Poland

Car culture is very strong in Poland. Urban sprawl, congestion and external effects of transport influence the perceived quality of life in urban and suburban areas. Therefore, it is essential to examine the reasons for choosing transport modes and willingness to change the mobility choices for sustainable ones. Using the Theory of Planned Behaviour within a structural equation modelling (SEM) approach, the goal was to comprehensively explain the perceived quality of life, transport behaviour and the underlying psychological processes, norms and beliefs, and to show the interdependencies between them. The main research method was the survey. Then, SEM models have been estimated to verify which values have the strongest effect on the transport behaviour and which variables significantly mediate this relation. The models were estimated based on a randomly-selected sample of Polish citizens, urban, suburban and rural residents (n = 1700) in October 2020 and October 2021. The results for residents of cities and suburban areas were compared with those for rural dwellers to refine the results significant for creating the urban policies. The research results are focused on explaining the interrelations between the perceived quality of life, mobility choices and residents' priorities and motivations to improve the urban policies.