TCRP Report 122: Understanding How to Motivate Communities to Support and Ride Public Transportation provides a comprehensive discussion on the methods and strategies used by public transportation agencies in the United States and Canada to enhance their public images and motivate the support and use of public transportation. Additionally, the report identifies and describes methods and strategies used by other industries (comparable to public transportation) to enhance their public image and to motivate the support and use of their products and services. Also, this report examines the perceptions, misperceptions, and use of public transit, and the extent to which these affect support. Finally, the report identifies effective communication strategies, campaigns, and platforms for motivating individuals to action in support of public transportation, and it recommends ways to execute those communication strategies, campaigns, and platforms. This report will be helpful to transit agencies; elected officials; community leaders; business leaders; and federal, state, and local funding agencies in both the United States and Canada.

An experiment tested the effects of both communications about the functions of an attitude and communications about the functions of an attitude object on persuasion. Participants received a conventional message about the benefits of public transportation, a message about the benefits of positive public transportation attitudes, or a control message. Meta-arguments about the functions of attitudes led to more favorable evaluations and stronger intentions to use public transportation. These effects were moderated by the political and environmental orientation of participants. Surprisingly, the conventional message was not persuasive. The research is novel in showing that the communication of the functions of a particular attitudinal position can change attitudes. Our findings broaden the arsenal of arguments that policymakers, environmentalists, and educators can use to change attitudes toward sustainable transportation.