Socio-economic and residential differences in urban modality styles based on a long-term smartphone experiment

This study focusses on urban mobility and travel mode differences in the city of Tallinn, Estonia. It contributes to a better understanding concerning socio-economic and residential factors affecting modality styles with a specific focus on sustainable travel modes. We examined residents living in the inner city (Kalamaja neighbourhood) and an inner suburb (Priisle neighbourhood). We conducted a modality styles analysis based on smartphone tracking data from 108 people over 14 months. Cluster analysis distinguished five urban modality styles, of which four were dominated by one travel mode (i.e., car, public transport, bike, or walk) while one displayed a multimodal style. Modality styles are fairly evenly distributed in Tallinn, with the walk dominant style representing 32% of all individuals, the car dominant style 27%, the multimodal 23%, the public transport dominant 13%, and the bike dominant 5%. The walk dominant style has the largest share for women, Estonian-speakers, inner city residents, and households that do not own a private car. The car dominant style has the largest share among men, Russian-speakers, inner suburban residents, and households that own a private car. The share of travel modes is more variable over time for active modality styles and more regular for motorized styles. Our discussion includes consideration of the implications of our results from a policy perspective. Broadly, two major categories of policies are recommended: 1) strengthen the relative competitiveness of sustainable travel for suburban residents, 2) provision of more vibrant, mixed-use character in suburban areas while simultaneously preserving housing affordability.