Modeling Transit Passenger Choices of Access Stop

Abstract

A logit discrete choice model is developed to investigate the choice of transit access stop (i.e., departure stop). The model incorporates different components of the transit service between given origin–destination pairs at given times. A choice set generation algorithm is developed to create the set of access stop choices and calculate the time-dependent impedances from each departure stop to the destination. The correlation between the choices is treated at two levels: ( a) the mode of travel and ( b) the route of travel. A nested logit model structure is adopted to account for the dependencies among the choices on the same mode, and a correction term is proposed that captures the correlation between the stop choices that results from the commonality of the routes that serve the destination. The data are from the household travel survey of 2009 in Southeast Queensland, Australia and include travel records on three public transit modes: bus, train, and ferry. The case study analysis of Southeast Queensland shows the effectiveness of the proposed correction by demonstrating improvements in modeling the choice of access stop. The research concludes a new finding that the choice of access stop is affected not only by the attributes of the transit path between the journey ends but also, significantly and directly, by the attributes of the departure stop itself.