ABSTRACT
Social media has emerged as a trend that greatly influences transportation and travel behaviour. This influence is identified both on the way that travellers make decisions concerning transportation related matters and the fact that social media allow tracing back the way that these decisions were made and allow for the collection of data, related to understanding these decisions. This chapter introduces these interdependences between Social Media (SM) and travel behaviour by presenting a collection of use cases and methods. Firstly, an introduction to the existing dominant SM is presented, including current availability of data and a discussion of helpful frameworks that could facilitate transportation related research on the subject. The pertinent literature on the User Generated Content (UGC) generation process and users’ personality characteristics is reviewed, in order to gain understanding on the characteristics of the users, who generate the content. Secondly, the relation of SM to travel behaviour is established by investigating the impact of UGC to the transportation system and vice versa. The capabilities of SM to allow for behavioural interventions is discussed towards the direction of inducing more socially responsible behaviour. Finally, related case studies are presented.
