Browsing by Subject "Mode choice"
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Item Changes in travel behavior during the transition from secondary to higher education: A case study from Ghent, Belgium(2018) De Paepe, Leen; De Vos, Jonas; Van Acker, Veronique; Witlox, FrankOver the past few decades, the number of students attending universities and university colleges in Belgium has increased considerably. In many Western countries, this trend is accompanied by a decline in car use among young adults. Therefore, it is important to have better insights into how travel behavior changes during the transition from secondary to higher education. This research fits into the larger framework of mobility biographies, where travel behavior is analyzed over a life course, taking into account certain life events. Hierarchical logistic regressions are used to analyze car use data for mandatory activities (going to school and grocery shopping) and leisure activities (fun shopping) of 404 first-year university and university college students in Ghent (Belgium). The results indicate that holding a driver’s license or owning a car facilitates car use irrespective of students’ residential location and lifestyle, and this is true for all activities. The built environment only seems to become an important factor explaining car use when students are attending university or university college. The influence of lifestyles appears to become somewhat more important for leisure activities, such as fun shopping. The emerging lifestyle of students appears to become more individual and more independent from the lifestyle of others, especially the parents. This is supported by the declining influence of social networks, notably the family.Item Community design and how much we drive(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2012) Marshall, Wesley; Garrick, NormanThe preponderance of evidence suggests that denser and more connected communities with a higher degree of mixed land uses results in fewer vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT). However, there is less agreement as the size of the effect. Also, there is no clear understanding as to the aspects of community design that are most important in contributing to lower VKT. One reason why there is some confusion on this point is that past studies have not always made a clear distinction between different community and street network design characteristics such as density, connectivity, and configuration. In this research, care was taken to fully characterize the different features of the street network including a street pattern classification system that works at the neighborhood level but also focuses on the citywide street network as a separate entity. We employ a spatial kriging analysis of NHTS data in combination with a generalized linear regression model in order to examine the extent to which community design and land use influence VKT in 24 California cities of populations from 30,000 to just over 100,000. Our results suggest that people living in denser street network designs tended to drive less. Connectivity, however, played an adverse role in performance.Item Downtown, strip centers, and big-box stores: Mode choice by shopping destination type in Davis, California(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2015) Popovich, Natalie Danielle; Handy, SusanGrowing concerns about climate change and traffic congestion are motivating policymakers to find ways to encourage sustainable travel options. In the United States, where 88 percent of shopping trips are made by car, research identifying the factors that influence shopping mode choice can provide insight into ways to divert some of these trips to more sustainable alternatives. This paper aims to better explain the relationship between the built environment and shopping mode choice by examining how mode choice differs for the same individual across three different types of shopping destinations—downtown, strip center, and big box—in Davis, California. We conducted two cross-sectional online surveys in 2009 and 2010 with a total of 2043 respondents that asked questions about recent shopping. To understand the factors influencing mode choice at these three shopping destination types, we estimate binary logit models for choosing to use an active travel mode (bike or walk) to shop. Our results suggest that while distinct factors influence mode choice at the different destination types, simple infrastructure changes to the destination are not enough to encourage mode shift. Distance to shopping destinations and enjoying bicycling are the primary determinants of choosing active travel modes, while socio-demographic characteristics play a smaller role.Item Evaluating the effects of land use and strategies for parking and transit supply on mode choice of downtown commuters(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2012) Zahabi, Seyed Amir; Miranda-Moreno, Luis. F.; Patterson, Zachary; Barla, PhilippeMetropolitan regions around the world are looking for sustainable strategies to reduce motor-vehicle traffic congestion, energy consumption, and emissions. These strategies include land-use policies as well as improvements to public transit services. This empirical work aims at studying the potential impact of land use (LU), public transit supply (PT), and parking pricing strategies on the mode choice of commuters living in the commuter rail line catchments in the Montreal (Canada) region. It makes use of an econometric modeling approach with both transportation mode choice and neighborhood type choice as simultaneous decisions, in order to take into account the endogeneity of these choices. The neighborhood choices are represented by neighborhood typologies derived from a cluster analysis using land use and transit supply indicators (population density, land use mix, and bus transit supply). As part of the outcomes of this study, the elasticities of mode choice with respect to commuter-transit fees, travel time reductions, and hourly parking costs are estimated. From the results, it is observed that a reduction of 10 percent in the transit fee or relative travel time would increase mode split by 10 percent and 3 percent respectively. The effect of age on both mode choice and neighborhood choice is also estimated. e individual and household structure factors associated with mode choice and/or residential neighborhood choice are also identified. Commuter age affects both outcomes. Income and gender affect mode choice while car ownership and the presence of children are linked to neighborhood choice.Item Impact of traffic zones on mobility behavior in Tehran, Iran(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2017) Salarvandian, Fatemeh; Dijst, Martin; Helbich, MarcoThe use of private cars has increased rapidly in developing countries, causing congestion and pollution in cities. In Iran, measures have been taken to manage the extensive automobile use in Tehran. Two downtown traffic zones were introduced: The Restricted Traffic Zone (RTZ) based on pass permission and the Odd-Even Zone (OEZ) based on license-plate number. This article investigates how and to what extent traffic zoning influences mobility behavior in Tehran. Two neighborhoods within these zones and one elsewhere were selected to compare the impact of traffic zoning on mode choice and travel time by means of regression analyses. The results show that zoning has decreased driving in both neighborhoods; although compared to the RTZ, the OEZ has had a limited impact. While car use has diminished in both neighborhoods compared to the area without restrictions, travel time has increased in the traffic zones. An explanation might be the low quality of the infrastructure for alternative modes (e.g., cycling). Tehran's spatial functional specialization and the monocentric urban structure induce more car trips and longer travel times, regardless of traffic restrictions. Policymakers are advised to integrate restrictions on automobile use with improvements in public transport to enhance the impact of traffic zones.Item The importance of neighborhood type dissonance in understanding the effect of the built environment on travel behavior(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2015) Manaugh, Kevin; El-Geneidy, Ahmed M.For many years, researchers have struggled to separate the effects of personal tastes—including residential choices—from built environment and transport related factors when attempting to understand and model travel behavior. This paper will briefly describe how issues related to self-selection, if not controlled for in a travel behavior analysis, can lead to over- and under-estimation of the effect of the built environment on travel behavior. A theoretical model is presented, which is followed by an empirical analysis based on survey data capturing residential choice factors to test our theory. Our analysis shows that by separating people that have chosen their current home location based primarily on transport-related concerns from people who have located based primarily on housing and neighborhood characteristics, we are able to gain a nuanced understanding of how various “costs” associated with using public transit (access time, waiting time, and transfers) affect the likelihood of taking transit. We find a strong aversion to transfers as well as different responses to these factors based on reasons for living in a given location. We demonstrate how model predictions vary greatly especially when self-selection factors are included in the analysis. Findings from this research shed light on the importance of self-selection in travel behavior research, giving transport planners and engineers clear examples how ignoring these factors can lead to misleading findings.Item A joint model of place of residence (POR) and place of work (POW): Making use of Gibbs sampling technique to overcome arbitrary assumptions in contexts of data limitation(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2019) Zhang, Hengyang; Hawkins, Jason; Nurul Habib, KhandkerPlace of residence (POR) and place of work (POW) are two spatial pivots defining patterns of travel behavior. These choices are considered part of long-term choice influencing short-term daily travel choices. Hence, POR-POW distributions are input into almost all daily travel demand models. However, in many cases, POW-POR is modelled in an ad-hoc way considering the gravity-based or entropy is maximizing aggregate modelling approach. Lack of data on the sequence of choices related to POR and POW is often blamed for avoiding using disaggregate choice model. Recognizing such data limitation, this paper presents an alternative methodology of modelling joint distribution of POW-POW that uses disaggregate choice models without necessarily knowing the sequence of POR and POW choices. It uses the conditional probability break downs of joint POR-POW choice probabilities as depicted in the Gibbs sampling approach. This allows capturing effects of household socioeconomic characteristics, zonal land-use characteristics, and modal accessibility factors in the POR-POW models. The model is applied for a case study in the city of Ottawa. Results reveal that the proposed methodology can replicate observed patterns of POR-POW with a high degree of accuracy.Item Local environment characteristics associated with walking and taking transit to shopping districts(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2015) Schneider, Robert JamesMixed logit modeling was used to identify local environment characteristics associated with walking and taking public transit to and from shopping districts. The analysis was based on 388 intercept survey responses and local environment data from 20 San Francisco Bay Area shopping districts. This study makes methodological advances by 1) evaluating an extensive set of explanatory variables (travel time and cost, socioeconomic characteristics, attitudes, perceptions, and local environment characteristics) within the same modeling process and 2) analyzing shopping mode choice within a tour-based framework. Travel time, travel cost, and respondent socioeconomic characteristics had expected relationships with mode choice. Walking to and from shopping districts was associated with shorter trip distances (i.e., shorter travel time relative to other modes). Transit use was associated with shopping district population density and proximity to a transit station. Automobile use was discouraged by higher employment densities and smaller parking lots. The results support strategies such as developing high-density, mixed-use activity hubs; reducing surface parking; and increasing the price of on-street parking to increase walking and taking transit to shopping districts.Item Mode choice in access and egress stages of high-speed railway travelers in China(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2019) Yang, Haoran; Dijst, Martin; Feng, Jianxi; Ettema, DickHigh-speed railway (HSR) has become a sustainable transport mode for inter-city travel, especially in China. As public transport (PT), the use of HSR involves access and egress to and from HSR stations. However, the literature focusing on the intra-city mode choice of HSR travelers is limited, especially regarding their differential socio-demographic and trip characteristics. This paper aims to fill that gap with an analysis of access/egress mode choice for business and leisure journeys in the Yangzi River Delta region. Using the HSR survey from Fudan University, we found that in China older and wealthier travelers have a strong preference for car use. For leisure travel, the explanatory power of the socio-demographic variables is much more influential in the egress than the access stage. With increasing access time, business travelers may be enticed to shift to a faster form of PT (e.g., subway rather than bus) in the access stage. With increasing line-haul time, only business travelers have a stronger preference for car use as their intra-city mode choice for business activities. A higher number of subway lines and diversity of land use around HSR stations is associated with less car use for business travelers in the egress stage.Item Mode Choice of Older People Before and After Shopping(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2009) Su, Fengming; Schmöcker, Jan-Dirk; Bell, Michael G.H.With the population aging in many countries, older people’s travel is recently getting more attention in the transportation literature. However our understanding of factors influencing their mode choice is still limited. In this research the focus is on mode choice for shopping trips as these are the most frequent trips of older people. The study is not limited to trips to the shopping centre, but investigates the combined mode choice of trips to and from the shop in order to understand also which factors influence mode changes. Two types of models - the multinomial logit (MNL) and the nested logit (NL) - are fitted to data from the London Area Travel Survey. The nesting structure is used to test the correlation in mode choice before and after shopping. A particular focus of the models is on the importance of accessibility variables such as bus and rail stop density and service quality for specific areas of London. The results show that mode choice combinations such as “walk to shop and take the bus back” are not as frequent as sometimes thought and that bus stop density is of more significance to older people than attributes describing the quality of the bus services like service frequency.Item Multimodal Connections with Transitways: Ridership, Access Mode, and Route Choice Implications(Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, 2019-03) Guthrie, Andrew; Fan, Yingling; Khani, Alireza; Nowak, JacquelineTransitways—premium transit corridors employing technologies such as Light Rail Transit or Bus Rapid Transit—often depend on a variety of access and egress modes to connect users with their trip origins and destinations. This study seeks to create better understanding of how users access transitway stations by applying mode choice models, route choice models, and direct ridership models. Choice models were applied to revealed-preference transit passenger data from the Twin Cities show key components to user decisions regarding how to reach high-quality transit. To explore users’ choice of routes through the transit systems, schedule-based shortest path and multi-criterion shortest path algorithms were combined to investigate whether transit riders choose to take the shortest path between their origin and destination, a subjectively shortest path, or neither. In terms of ridership models, Poisson regression model were used to estimate average weekday boardings at transitway stations in 10 regions around the United States as a function of pedestrian, bicycle, and bus connections.Item Perceptions of public transport travel time and their effect on choice-sets among car drivers(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2010) van Exel, Nicolaas Jacob Arnold; Rietveld, PietCar drivers’ perceptions of the quality of alternative travel modes have been identified as a barrier for including these alternatives in their choice sets. The present study investigated the accuracy of car drivers’ perceptions of public transport (PT) travel time and the potential effect of these perceptions on choice sets. A sample of car drivers was intercepted on the main corridors to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, using video recognition of license plates, and was sent a questionnaire asking (among other questions) whether they could have made the specific trip by PT and their estimate of the door-to-door travel time by PT. Objective travel times were obtained from route-planning software. 21,335 questionnaires (31%) were returned. About 10 percent did not report PT travel time for their car trip, largely car drivers who did not perceive PT as an alternative. The mean ratio of perceived travel time by PT to reported travel time by car was 1 : 2.3. About half the difference was due to distorted perceptions, and the ratio reported depended strongly on their PT use. Analysis of associations between choice set and characteristics of traveler and trip showed that if perceived PT travel times were more accurate a substantial number of car drivers would include PT in their choice set. Actual changes in behavior might be much smaller.Item The relationship between urban form and mode choice in US and Mexican cities: A comparative analysis of workers’ commutes(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2021) Guerra, Erick; Li, MeiqingThis paper examines empirical relationships among commuters’ mode choice, metropolitan urban form, and socioeconomic attributes in the 100 largest urban areas in the United States and Mexico. Fitting multinomial logit models to data for more than 5 million commuters and their home urban area, we find several consistent relationships and several important differences in relationships among urban form and travel behavior. In both countries, urban residents living in housing types associated with more centrally located housing in more densely populated urban areas with less roadway are less likely to commute by private vehicle than similar residents in other housing types and other urban areas. In addition to some differences in the strength, significance, and signs of several predictor variables, we find large differences in elasticity estimates across contexts. In particular, the US’s high rates of driving and generally car-friendly urban form mean that even dramatic shifts in urban form or income result in only small predicted changes in the probability of commuting by private vehicle. We conclude that land use and transportation policies likely have a more substantial role in shaping commute patterns in countries like Mexico than in countries like the US.Item Rideshare mode potential in non-metropolitan areas of the northeastern United States(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2016) Lee, Brian H.Y.; Aultman-Hall, Lisa; Coogan, Matthew; Adler, ThomasThis study focuses on work commuters who currently rideshare, are potential rideshare commuters, or indicated a willingness to use rideshare services. Discrete choice models were developed with survey data of residents in the northeastern United States. Built-environment variables based on home and workplace locations were examined. While the socio-demographic characteristics of rideshare commuters and potential rideshare commuters were similar, characteristics of those indicating a willingness to use rideshare services were dissimilar, specifically women and younger individuals were uninterested in these programs. Those who live in denser areas were more likely to rideshare now, but less likely to indicate rideshare as their alternative to driving alone. Having a rural workplace corresponded to more ridesharing and being willing to use rideshare services, but less likely to indicate rideshare in place of driving alone. Many attitudinal variables were examined in the models; but interestingly most were not useful in explaining potential ridesharers or potential rideshare program participants. This analysis indicates that potential rideshare commuters may be demographically similar to existing rideshare commuters but live and work in more rural areas. Those who would participate in rideshare programs are a different set and should be further defined and targeted separately.Item To e-bike or not to e-bike? A study of the impact of the built environment on commute mode choice in a small Chinese city(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2021) Hu, Yang; Sobhani, Anae; Ettema, DickThe use of electric bikes (e-bikes) is attracting increasing attention from researchers and policymakers as a way to promote sustainable transportation. However, knowledge about the built environment factors that influence e-bike use is lacking. In China, most evidence on e-bikes and travel behavior stems from big cities; there is much less evidence concerning small cities and their adjacent rural areas. Using travel data collected in a small Chinese city (Ganyu), the present research explores the impact of the built environment around residential and work locations on individuals’ commute mode choice, with a particular focus on e-bike use. Consistent with the few previous studies on travel behavior in small Chinese cities, we find that most residents of Ganyu commute only short distances and that the e-bike is the primary mode for their daily commutes. The results of a nested logit model show that e-bike use is more popular among females and low-income groups, and that certain built environment characteristics at the work location promote e-bike use. Moreover, the built environment in different geographical contexts has different influences on commute mode choice. In particular, the presence of city/town roads without bike lanes at work locations promotes e-bike use among rural residents but much less so among urban residents.Item Understanding Transportation Impacts of Transitways: Demographic and Behavioral Differences between Transitway Riders and Other Transit Riders(University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies, 2009-07) Cao, Xinyu (Jason); Jordan, RachelTo improve mobility, Metropolitan Council has proposed a network of dedicated transitways in the 2030 Transportation Policy Plan. This project studied the profile of transit riders in the Twin Cities and explored environmental factors that influence mode choice of access to transitways, using the 2005 Metropolitan Council Transit Rider Survey. We found the Hiawatha Light Rail Transit (LRT) balances efficiency by serving choice riders and equity through promoting reverse commute and serving captive riders. The LRT has also facilitated the formation of a multi-modal transportation system by promoting mode mixing and encouraging transfers. More importantly, travel shed analysis of several transit routes showed the LRT has a much broader influence on the regional transportation network than local buses and express services. Multinomial Logit models for access mode of the LRT confirmed that riders’ demographics, trip characteristics, built environment and social environment factors around LRT stations affect their access modes. Among them, the distance from trip origin to LRT stations is the dominant factor; the impacts of built environment elements were equivalent to those of riders’ demographics and trip characteristics, whereas the effects of social environment factors were the weakest. The results suggest if the goal is to maximize the number accessing transitways from existing bus services, we should increase the coverage of feeder services, increase street connectivity and promote mixed-use development. If the goal is to attract choice riders in areas where walking and local transit are not options, more park and ride facilities should be provided.Item What the heck is a choice rider? A theoretical framework and empirical model(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2022) Guerra, ErickAs local, state, and federal agencies began investing substantial resources into subsidizing transit in the 1960s and ‘70s, public documents argued that transit agencies should focus on attracting choice riders instead of dependent riders, who have no alternatives and use transit regardless of service quality. After six decades, the definitions, uses, and implications of the terms choice and dependent rider have remained consistent in the academic and professional literature. These definitions, however, lack a strong theoretical grounding or empirical evidence to support them. Using travel diary data from the Philadelphia region, I estimate discrete choice models to identify choice riders, who I define as those who have close to a 50% probability of choosing between a car or transit for a given trip. The Philadelphia region, which has a diverse range of transit users and transit services, is an ideal place to develop and fit an empirical model of choice ridership. Attributes assumed to be associated with dependent riders, such as lack of a car, low income, and being a racial or ethnic minority, are much more prevalent among choice riders than the general metropolitan population. Choice riders are also diverse, with a mix of racial backgrounds, income levels, educational attainment, and access to private cars. Transit dependency, by contrast, is rare. The lowest and highest income residents generally only choose transit when service quality is high, and transit is cost and time competitive with the car.Item Why people use their cars while the built environment imposes cycling(Journal of Transport and Land Use, 2013) Van Acker, Veronique; Derudder, Ben; Witlox, FrankResiding in a high-density, diverse, and accessible neighborhood tends to be associated with less car use, more public transport, and more cycling and walking. However, this does not hold for all people because of differences in personal perceptions and preferences. This paper, therefore, analyzes spatial (mis)match, or the correspondence between perceptions of someone’s residence and the objectively measured spatial characteristics of that residence. Based on a sample for Flanders, Belgium, we found that people tend to overrate the urbanized character of their residence. Among urbanites, (mis)matched spatial perceptions do not influence mode choice. Mode choices remain mainly influenced by urban characteristics and not by personal perceptions as such. However, the influence of spatial (mis)match becomes more important among rural dwellers and, especially, suburbanites. The travel consequences of (mis)matched spatial perceptions thus clearly depend on the residential neighborhood type.