Effect of safety perception of mode choice on first and last mile connectivity

Abstract

All around the world, 1.3 million people die each year due to the cause of road accidents in which the most vulnerable are pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists. In 2019, India itself counted 4.4 lakh injuries and 1.8 lakhs deaths due to road accidents only. As transportation is an essential part of our day-today lives for which we may use different types of modes like walking, auto, etc. all these accidents do make us think of our safety while travelling in these modes of transport. For each trip, we may use different modes of transport. So, for safe and efficient travel different transport modes should be integrated. A metro system proposes a stop service in place of a more convenient end-to-end services. This makes first- and last-mile an integral part of it which is also the core of many connectivity issues. The use of mass transit systems like the metro depends on its first and last-mile connectivity. It is essential to understand the factors affecting a person’s choice of mode in transportations of initial and final part of the trip. The choice of mode of transport for traveling initial and final part of the travel is influenced by many factors like trip time, frequency, cost of the trip, the overall quality of service provided on the trip, safety, etc. while all the variables have been dealt with in many kinds of research, the soft factors like attitude and perception of user are still not explored. After reading through different kinds of literature there was a sufficient research gap found in the research area of safety perception and its impact on choosing different transportation modes. So, this research intends to identify the influence of safety perception on mode choice for first and last-mile connectivity.The study is to examine whether perception of the traffic safety of the commuters impacts the mode choice for the first and last-mile connectivity for the mass transit system of Lucknow. The methodology will start with the selection of the topic followed by a literature study. This will help in identifying the research gap and establishing the topic. This is followed by site selection, which is the operational stretch of the Lucknow metro of 22.84km which consists of 17 elevated and four underground stations. After a thorough literature study and site selection, an aim, objectives, and scope for the study will be formulated. The objectives of this study are to understand the role of safety perception on mode choice for first and last mile connectivity, factors affecting a commuter’s safety perception while analyzing if it affects the mode choice of the commuter. The study narrows down five broad factors that can provide a person’s perception of safety like vehicle condition, safety precaution, driver characteristics, supporting infrastructure and other factors like weather, etc. The analysis is done in three stages starting with descriptive analysis followed by correlation between the factors of safety perception and ending with a multinomial logit regression model . This will help in comprehending the relation between safety perception and mode choice of a commuter which will eventually benefit in forming a more sustainable feeder system for the mass transit system by promoting and improving factors affecting people from choosing public transportation.