# Traits and Transports: The Effects of Personality on the Choice of Urban Transport Modes
## 4 Materials and Methods
### Variables and Measuments  
The Big Five personality traits were assessed using the Big Five Inventory BFI-10 [35], which is a 10-item inventory with 2 items measuring each personality trait. The BFI-10 has shown satisfactory levels of convergent and discriminant validity and test-retest reliability [35]. The advantage of the shorter BFI-10 is a higher response rate. Responses to the items were obtained on a four-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (\"strongly disagree\")to 4 (\"strongly agree\"). The Openness index was constructed by averaging the responses to \"has few artistic interests\" (reversed) and \"has an active imagination\". The Conscientiousness index was constructed by averaging the responses to \"tend to be lazy\" (reversed) and \"does a thorough job\". The Extraversion index was constructed by averaging the responses to \"is reserved\" (reversed) and \"is outgoing, sociable\". The Agreeableness index was constructed by averaging the responses to \"is considerate and kind to almost everyone\" and \"is generally trusting\". The Neuroticism index was constructed by averaging the responses to \"is relaxed, handles stress well\" (reversed) and \"gets nervous easily\". Only respondents who had provided answers on both items to a specific factor were included in the subsequent analyses. Environmental personality was measured through five items; \"I carefully recycle my household waste\", \"In the supermarket, I choose environmentally friendly products\", \"I would rather buy second hand than new things\", \"I choose transportation modes that have as little environmental impact as possible\", \"It is important for me to try to repair things rather than to buy new\". Each item was measured using a four-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (\"strongly disagree\") to 4 (\"strongly agree\"). When selecting the Environmental personality items, we were inspired by the Students Behavioral Environmental Scale [18]. Only respondents who had provided answers to all five items were included in the analyses. The questions for modes of transport were \"How often during the last 12 months have you?\"-\"Driven a car\", \"Traveled by public transport\", \"Cycled\". The respondents were asked to indicate their level of usage for each one of the three transportation modes on a six-point frequency scale, ranging from 1 (\"never) to 6 (\"daily\"). In Table 1 the frequencies of usage of the different modes are presented. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l c} \hline \hline
**Control Variables** & & \\ \hline Gender & Men & 61.0\% \\  & Women & 39.0\% \\ Age & 18-39 years & 24.4\% \\  & 40-59 years & 44.3\% \\  & 60-74 years & 31.3\% \\ Income & Low income & 32.2\% \\  & Average income & 22.0\% \\  & High income & 45.8\% \\ Children in the household & & 27.7\% \\  & Residential area & Gothenburg municipality & 70.1\% \\  & Other municipalities & 29.9\% \\ Personality traits 1  & & \\ Big Five personality traits & Openness & 2.7 (0.7) \\  & Conscientiousness & 3.1 (0.6) \\  & Extraversion & 2.9 (0.7) \\  & Agreeableness & 3.1 (0.5) \\  & Neuroticism & 2.1 (0.7) \\ Environmental personality & & 2.7 (0.6) \\ Transportation mode & & \\ (Usage frequency during the last 12 months) & & \\ Car as a driver & Never & 13.2\% \\  & A few times the past 12 months & 10.2\% \\  & A few times every month & 7.2\% \\  & A few times every week & 15.4\% \\  & Several times every week & 25.9\% \\  & Daily & 28.1\% \\ Public transportation & Never & 6.3\% \\  & A few times the past 12 months & 13.2\% \\  & A few times every month & 20.1\% \\  & A few times every week & 15.7\% \\  & Several times every week & 26.4\% \\  & Daily & 18.3\% \\ Cycle & Never & 27.0\% \\  & A few times the past 12 months & 20.8\% \\  & A few times every month & 14.5\% \\  & A few times every week & 13.4\% \\  & Several times every week & 15.0\% \\  & Daily & 9.3\% \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Aggregated measures of the study sample (\(N=1068\)). Age, gender, income, children at home and residential area were used as control variables.