Intrahousehold Interaction in Transit-Oriented Residential Choice Behavior Represented in Stated Preference Approach

Abstract

A study applied a web-based stated preference (SP) survey to investigate household preferences for transit-oriented residential choices, incorporating intrahousehold interaction. The SP survey included five alternatives: one current residential location and four combinations of two residential areas and two commuting modes (a car and a transit system). The assumed residential areas were all located near stations of a transit system: one was close to and another was far from the city center. Commuting modes were only for household heads. Households with only couples were recruited, and the survey was conducted with the help of an Internet survey company. In the SP survey, the couple was first asked to answer the SP questions separately, and then the two members jointly answered the questions. It was found that members in 40% of the households changed their stated choices after joint decisions. This switch suggests the necessity to incorporate intrahousehold interaction into any household residential choice model. To this end, a group discrete choice model with multilinear utility was established; members’ relative influences and intrahousehold interaction were simultaneously represented in the model. Model estimation results first confirmed the effectiveness of the established model. It was then revealed that the existence of intra-household interaction reduced total household utility and that husbands wielded relatively greater influence than wives. It was also shown that with increases in age, members’ relative influence grew, and that dominant decision makers concerning household asset management had greater influence power on household residential choice behavior.