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European Journal of Social Sciences Studies ISSN: 2501-8590 ISSN-L: 2501-8590 Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/soc doi: 10.5281/zenodo.999988 Volume 2 │ Issue 7 │ 2017 THE POTENTIAL IMPACTS OF LUAS ON TRAVEL BEHAVIOUR Hazael Browni Dr., Independent Researcher Abstract: The Irish government is determined to provide a better and efficient transport service for everyone, no matter where they live. It is recognised that the impacts of transportation and its travel behaviour on the environment is crucial. One way to try and control road traffic growth in Dublin is through the introduction of a new light rail system called LUAS. Predicting the impacts of this system on travel behaviour is complicated, in particular given the lack of experience of this type of mode in Ireland. It is important to emphasize that the people's modal choices of whether to use or not to use any of these modes of transportation (bus, car, bike, train and LUAS), is an important factor in determining and predicting travel behaviour. In this research, a method borrowed from social psychology called Theory of Planned Behaviour is used to examine the people's modal choices, travel decisions, changes in travel behaviour and also, predicting their travel behaviour. Keywords: Irish transportation, potential impacts, LUAS, transport problem, travel behaviour 1. Introduction The government is determined to reduce traffic congestion and pollution through the introduction of the light rail transit system called LUAS. In this research, the studies show how the behavioural theories such as The Theory of Planned can be used to examine, how modal choices are made and how it impacts on the people's decision making process, with a view to predict accurately the modal choices and travel behaviour the people will make when using the LUAS in future. The LUAS system can potentially impact on Land use, Travel demand, Traffic and Travel behaviour. This Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. © 2015 – 2017 Open Access Publishing Group 241 Hazael Brown THE POTENTIAL IMPACTS OF LUAS ON TRAVEL BEHAVIOUR research will only focus on travel behaviour. The Theory of Planned Behaviour is a method borrowed from social psychology and was used to examine the intention of the people's decision making processes in relation to using the LUAS. This Theory of Planned Behaviour was also used to examine the impacts of LUAS on travel behaviour.     In summary, the objectives of this research were to: Find out what people’s beliefs would be for LUAS. Discover how these beliefs would determine their attitudes, subjective norms and perceptions of behavioural control. Show how these factors could affect people’s decisions to use LUAS and the associated changes to people’s travel behaviour. Examine whether people’s beliefs, attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control could play a role in predicting their use of LUAS. For viewing / downloading the full article, please access the following link: https://oapub.org/soc/index.php/EJSSS/article/view/215 European Journal of Social Sciences Studies - Volume 2 │ Issue 7 │ 2017 242