Speaker
Description
Poland has one of the highest car ownership rates in Europe, with almost 600 cars per 1,000 inhabitants, a figure that has tripled over the past three decades. In parallel, the accessibility of public transport in post-communist Poland has declined, exacerbated by the financial challenges faced by many Polish transport companies (Olejniczak et al., 2019). As a result, Polish society has become highly dependent on the car, which is seen as essential for access to basic services and social networks. This societal transition has also fostered 'car culture', manifested in car-oriented mobility behaviours recurring as routine, tradition or social norm (Mattioli et al., 2020).
Our paper explores this transition by delving into its historical context and examining generational differences in both car use and perceived car dependency. We analyse the factors that contribute to this dependency, contrasting the influence of biographical experiences of transport exclusion with that of car-centred social norms and attitudes that can perpetuate a 'car culture' and foster a strong attachment to this mode of transport, even when alternative mobility options are available. We also examine how perceived car dependency correlates with environmental norms and societal attitudes towards different transport policies, revealing unexpected acceptance of car restrictions among highly car-dependent individuals.
The presentation is based on the results of a mixed methods project conducted in 2022/2024 in Poznan and Tri-City areas, Poland, involving a survey of around 3000 participants.
Biography
Dawid Krysiński PhD is a post-doc in a research project on the mobility of inhabitants of Polish cities and its impact on climate change. He is a sociologist working at the Faculty of Sociology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan and the Institute of Sociology at the University of Wroclaw. His interests include mobility, transport exclusion and building social acceptance for transport policies. This presentation is part of a research project funded by the National Science Centre in Poland (2020/37/B/HS4/03931).
