Exploring the role of public transport service and walking route related factors to identify maximum walking distances to bus stops in the Netherlands

Abstract

This paper presents a study regarding the factors affecting the maximum distance travelers are willing to walk to a bus stop. The study focuses on bus services provided at and walking routes towards bus stops. Travelers’ evaluations are collected using a stated preference experiment. Based on 7911 evaluations of 879 respondents, a latent class ordered logit model is estimated showing that both bus service and walking route related attributes significantly contribute to the maximum distance travelers are willing to walk from home to a bus stop. The parameter estimates show that the most influential attributes are the bus frequency at the bus stop and the presence of street lighting along the route between home and bus stop. The model also shows that based on the evaluations three different classes of respondents can be distinguished. Membership of a class depends on traveler related characteristics: gender, residential area, and bus use.