Abstract
Departure time choice of commuters is one of key decisions affecting the crowding of urban rail transit network during peak hours. It is influenced by arrival time value, the additional psychological pressure caused by in-vehicle crowding, and time uncertainty. This paper aims at investigating how commuters in urban rail transit value their arrival time at work/school. Three valuation frameworks are proposed based on the reference point approach of prospect theory. Non-linear value functions with different reference point alternatives are estimated using data from a survey and stated choice study of users of Shanghai Metro system. Results show that schedule delay with work/school start time as the only reference point cannot properly reflect the arrival time valuation of urban rail transit commuters. Instead, the valuation framework with preferred arrival time as a reference point fits best, which hits as much as 85.64% of the cases. The asymmetrical response to early-side and late-side arrivals is identified. The findings of this study provide an essential basis for the development of departure time choice model.
Highlights
Urban rail transit is playing a more important role in urban transportation of many cities because of its speediness, punctuality and large capacity
Results show that schedule delay with work/school start time as the only reference point cannot properly reflect the arrival time valuation of urban rail transit commuters
The average of Starts to Consider Departing Earlier Time (SCDET) is between Work/school Start Time (WST) and Acceptable Latest Arrival Time (ALAT), which is 3.99 min earlier than the average of ALAT and 3.27 min later than the one of WST. 79.83% of respondents start to consider departing earlier when time is earlier than ALAT, and the ALAT of 59.32% of respondents is earlier than their WST
Summary
Urban rail transit is playing a more important role in urban transportation of many cities because of its speediness, punctuality and large capacity. It undertakes a large number of medium- and long- distance commutes during morning and evening peak hours. Trains are overcrowding and it is hard for passengers to get onto the metro trains at peak times. Both route choice and departure time choice of commuters are key decisions affecting the crowding of urban rail transit network. Commuter departure time choice is usually ignored or assumed to be given in transit assignment models (Poon et al 2004; Wu, Liu 2004; Huang 2010; Liu 2012, 2013; Yang 2013)
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