Mode Choice Behavior of Commuters in Thiruvananthapuram City

Abstract

Travel behavior plays an important role in transportation planning. Mode choice analysis is the process of arriving at a decision about which mode to use under a set of circumstances. Choice of a particular mode by a commuter affects the general efficiency of travel within the city. Various techniques are available in the literature for mode choice modeling. Among these, multinomial logit models are found to be efficient in estimating the different mode shares in a scenario where more than two choices of modes of travel are available for a commuter. The present study used multinomial logistic regression to analyze the mode choice behavior of commuters in Thiruvananthapuram, a typical Indian city. The findings from the study revealed that as age increases preference to car increases and preference to two-wheelers decreases in comparison with public transport. Increase in time per distance and increase in cost per distance cause the commuters to switch to car and two-wheelers from public transport. Identification of such factors and its variations will help city planners to formulate effective transport policies to improve the transport within the city. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)TE.1943-5436.0000533. © 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers. CE Database subject headings: Logistics; Urban areas; Commute; Travel patterns; Transportation management; India. Author keywords: Mode choice; Revealed preference technique; Multinomial logistic regression; Odds ratio; Significance level.