Urban Commuters’ Mode-switching Behaviour in Taipai, with an Application of the Bounded Rationality Principle

Abstract

This paper applies the bounded rationality rule to analyse commuters’ mode-switching behaviour from private transport (i.e. automobile and motorbike) to public transport (i.e. rail transit and bus transit) in the Taipei metropolitan area. A stated choice approach was used to collect the data and to investigate how different attributes, such as parking fees, travel time and cost, influence commuters’ mode-switching behaviour. A multinomial probit modelling framework was developed to capture the correlation effects when commuters switch from private to public modes. The estimation results indicate that the socioeconomic characteristics and trip characteristics significantly influence commuters’ mode-switching behaviour. Accounting for the structure of unobserved effects suggests that switching behaviour from private to public modes was significantly positively correlated. An elasticity analysis shows that private commuters were more likely to switch to MRT than to bus and that auto commuters are generally more likely to switch to public modes than are motorbike commuters.