Role of built-environment, lifestyle, attitude and behavioral factors on mode choice- case of grocery shopping in Tehran

Abstract

Although previous studies show that attitudes (personal preference) play an essential role in mode choice, few studies investigate the effect of heterogeneity of these factors in mode choice of grocery shopping. This research investigates the role of socioeconomic, built-environment, lifestyle, attitude, and behavioral variables on taste variation of individuals in mode choice of grocery shopping trips. 398 individuals are surveyed in chain grocery stores of Tehran in May 2016 and factor analysis is used to identify latent variable such as safety, pedestrian-oriented, mode flexibility. Furthermore, a mixed logit (MXL) model is employed to test heterogeneity among individuals. Results of MXL model show that several socioeconomic, mode attributes and attitude variables have significant effects on mode choice for grocery shopping activities. Besides, male variable in bus mode and travel time in walking mode is heterogeneous variables among parameters with random normal distribution coefficient for grocery shopping destinations. Moreover, the results of the random coefficient analysis show that the existence of a shopping center in the CBD without parking spaces for bus mode and household car ownership (two or more) for walking mode are the primary sources of heterogeneity of grocery shopping trips. Findings suggest that considering policies like parking management, especially in CBD and development of public transit stations, based consistent with the development of pedestrian facilities, increase the likelihood of using transit. Also, policies like optimal grocery shopping malls sitting in all areas of the city increase the likelihood of using walking mode.