Climate change risk perception in the USA and alignment with sustainable travel behaviours

aiming to avoid travel (ie less physical travel) [71]. The next most effective option is to shift away from current high carbon modes of transportation (ie switch from driving personal vehi- cles to taking public transportation) and lastly we can improve current technology to utilize less carbon (ie use electric vehicles instead of gasoline powered vehicles) [71]. Looking at partici- pants’ depictions of future travel through the Avoid/Shift/Improve transitional framework [71, 72], we found that technological improvements were often discussed when describing lower carbon travel options (Table 3). For example, participants suggested that vehicles would use dif- ferent fuel sources such as electric, solar, or hydrogen. One participant explained, “I think all cars will be electric, or some other environmentally friendly form of fuel [Female, age 50–59].” Even when participants discussed shifting to alternate modes of transportation (such as trains), technological improvements were often mentioned as an underlying reason for the switch. Participants talked about Maglev and bullet trains being able to travel faster than the trains that are currently in use in the United States and thus being more appealing. California will have a bullet train aka high speed railroad from San Francisco to Los Angeles thus reducing need for intra-state air flights. Car manufacturers like Tesla pushing self driv- ing car technology onto the market will redefine/shift luxury car market from cars w/leather seats to cars able to drive themselves, thus also increasing public transportation buses since

cities no longer limited to finding certified commercial drivers [Male, age 30–39]. Similarly, avoiding travel could be aided by technological improvements that create virtual realities and virtual tours. A different participant wrote that they thought future travel would involve: "Traveling" via virtual reality: Interactions with real people—designated staff at attractions, for example—who can lead real-time guided tours with people who are logged in from their physical location. [Gender unreported, age 40–49]. Overall, the written depictions provided by participants regarding their expectations of travel in the year 2050 revealed that while being concerned about climate change increased the likelihood that an individual would describe future travel as becoming more environmentally sustainable, low carbon travel was not likely the first thing people think about when discussing future travel. It also reinforced the idea that participants expect technology to play a large role in mitigating climate change. Where things could get complicated: Technological solutions and environmental beliefs One of our most important results was that participants who were more concerned about cli- mate change were more likely to agree that future technology provides hope for the future. Table 3. Percentage category frequency of participants’ expectations regarding environmentally sustainable travel in the year 2050. Sub-theme N Percent Improve 161 15 Shift 150 14 Avoid 46 4 Other 41 4 (N = 1071) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244545.t003 PLOS ONE

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