PSYCHOLOGICAL BENEFITS FROM VANPOOLING AND GROUP COMPOSITION

Prospective carpool satisfaction varies with respect to carpool size, acquaintanceship and gender composition, at least for carpool arrangem ents of 2-4 members. It is not known whether such variations apply in the same kind or to the same degree for vanpools of 9-15 members. A st udy of 15 vanpool programs in Southern California operating over 700 v anpools with more than 8,000 members was used to test for such effects . Five measures of retrospective vanpool satisfaction were derived fro m 40 vanpool benefit items using factor analysis in LISREL. The five p erceived vanpool satisfaction factors included reliability, social, re laxation, economic and environmental benefits. Variations in these fiv e benefit factors were analyzed with respect to vanpool group composit ion using difference of means tests and correlation analysis. Perceive d vanpool reliability showed the largest statistical association with most of the group composition variables studied, perhaps because it wa s better identified in the analysis in terms of the total number of in dividual items loading on it. Gender had the largest statistical assoc iation with most of the vanpool benefit factors, perhaps because it wa s most clearly identified with individual vanpool members in the data. Based on this analysis, it appears that perceived vanpool benefits ar e qualitatively as well as quantitatively different than perceived car pool benefits. Vanpool program marketing strategies may need to be ret hought and recast based on these research findings.