Mobility in family networks: Travel behaviour and contact in families

Keeping in touch with family members is a central activity in a person’s life and serves multiple purposes, such as the exchange of emotional and practical help. Because of the geographical distance that separates family members, for face-to-face contact to happen travel mobility is necessary. Due to various processes such as ageing and the demise of the welfare state it is expected that importance of the family network will increase. The objective of this thesis is to take a first step into understanding the role of travel mobility in the maintenance of contact between family members. While meetings between family members are beneficial for the individual and for society as a whole, travelling has a negative environmental impact, therefore a better understanding of travelling for family meetings is required.

A key conclusion of this thesis is that because family meetings are flexible yet obligatory in nature, the car plays a central role: the car is a flexible means of transport that may substantially increase individuals’ ability to join work and necessary social contact, such as family meetings in their daily lives. However, the car is also a major contributor to greenhouse-gas emissions and has other negative environmental impacts. Therefore this type of travel creates a special challenge for planners and policy makers: how to accommodate contact in family networks while reducing the adverse impact of travelling. The thesis highlights relevant policy implications and recommendations.