Which is More Effective in Guiding Households to Choose Bus Travel–A Transit Subsidy Policy or Discount Policy?

Tianchao Guan,Tongfei Li

doi:10.1109/access.2019.2961401

Abstract

The continuous increase in the number of private cars has caused an imbalance in the travel of cars and buses. This phenomenon has become a bottleneck restricting urban transportation economy and sustainable development. This paper examines the effectiveness of policy options in motivating travelers to choose buses instead of cars. Using of reference dependence describes mode choice behaviors with two attributes under different public transit policies in uncertain conditions. At the same time, we also consider using the bus fare concession strategy to guide the traveler to reasonably choose the bus travel, and establish a bi-level programming model to optimize the bus fare proportions. Among them, the lower-level planning considers the two attributes impact of traffic policy on travelers' decision to bus travel. Using the upper-level planning, the optimal fare preferential proportion for different policy decisions is decided considering the lowest total system cost. The study highlights that the transit subsidy policy can be employed to guide travelers to choose bus travel preferentially. Model effectiveness is verified using numerical examples. The model is indispensable for the implementation of future traffic demand management strategies.

Highlights

Traffic demand management has been employed to address to release traffic congestion problems since the 1960s
The paper attempts to respond to the call for green transportation by examining the mechanism which will motivate the traveler to choose to travel by buses instead of cars
In the simple dual-mode selection, we assume that the travel demand is uncertain, and the traveler has the characteristics of loss avoidance and reference dependence when choosing the travel mode

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Reference [2] first proposed the expected utility theory (EUT) or random utility theory (RUT) to discuss the choice behavior They generally believe that travelers are fully aware of the probability of each mode choice occurring. Li: Which Is More Effective in Guiding Households to Choose Bus Travel based on the choice of minimum travel cost or maximum travel utility This basic assumption was verified by behavioral economists and empirical economists using experimental methods to verify its irrationality [3]–[6]. The reference point attribute pays more attention to the traveler’s choice preferences, ignoring the opportunity cost loss and risk attitudes. We characterize two attributes of RDT and traffic policy to reveal the choice behavior in a continuum model framework.

BASIC CHOICE MODEL CONSIDERED TRANSPORTATION POLICIES

BENCHMARK MODEL BASED ON RDT IN DIFFERENT

CALCULATION PROCESS

CASE STUDY

CONCLUSION