Differentiated impacts of sustainable transport policies on urban residents’ travel behavior: A social network perspective

Transportation is crucial to achieving social sustainability. This study examines three types of public transport travel (PTT)-bus, subway, and shared electric bicycles (SEBs)-and employs a strategy simulation approach to develop a dynamic decision-making model of travel behavior based on a social network. Using real-world cases, it explores the heterogeneous effects of different sustainable transport policies and social discussion on PTT behavior. The results show that: (1) economic subsidies, infrastructure construction and operation, public awareness campaigns, and social discussion all promote PTT, with infrastructure construction having the strongest effect; (2) subway travel (ST) users are the most sensitive to the implementation of all four policies, followed by SEB users, whereas bus users are sensitive only to infrastructure construction and operation policies; and (3) social discussion has both positive and negative effects on the promotion of PTT. Therefore, this study suggests that greater attention should be paid to the heterogeneous effects of different policies on the diffusion of ST behavior, and the targeted policy measures should be adopted for different public transport modes. This research provides new policy support for promoting green public transport travel among urban residents.