Effects of Personal Proenvironmental Attitudes on Mode Choice Behavior

Abstract

Ecofriendly transportation systems have attracted a great deal of attention in many cities. Seoul, South Korea, plans to construct a new 30-km water transit system on the Han River, which flows through the city center. Although the new system is appealing to policy makers, uncertainty for various stakeholders should be minimized in order to complete the system successfully. The objectives of this study were to understand the types of uncertainty, to identify primary factors related to uncertainty, and to provide valuable information with regard to stakeholder uncertainty to decision makers. This study focused specifically on mode choice behavior, which is a crucial component in travel demand analyses performed when a new transportation mode is introduced. The effects of proenvironmental attitudes on mode choice behavior were analyzed with stated preference survey data for a new water transit system in Seoul. A model was developed that integrates latent variables into the discrete choice model by using a full-information estimation method to ensure the inclusion of consistent and unbiased parameters. The results showed that proenvironmental attitudes directly and significantly influenced mode choice behavior. Furthermore, proenvironmental attitudes were found to positively affect other latent attitudes, such as preference for an ecofriendly transportation mode. The findings of this study will serve as a valuable source of information that can be used by policy makers and transportation planners to plan and establish sustainable transportation systems.