Assessing the inertia effects in modal shift of commuters to public transport

Abstract

A growing proportion of privately owned vehicles in major metropolitanareasaggravate a number of issues, including traffic congestion and pollution. Over thepast years, congestion has not only increased but has become more volatileinnature. Vehicular emissions contribute to highest percentage of emissions in thetransport sector and jamming of vehicles during congestion increases the fuel consumptionand emissions. Congestion along with increasing the travel time, decreasesproductivity and affects the economy of the city. To reduce the dependencyonprivate vehicles there is need to promote public transport and improve thepublictransport systems. A shift towards public modes of transportation will helptocurbcongestion but there is an associated inertia effect in shifting to public transport. Despite good accessibility to public transport people don’t prefer to shift toit. Theinertia here refers to the inability to shift to public transport. Several studies havealsofocused on inducing a behavioral change in the modal choice of commutersandconvincing them to shift to public modes of transport. This thesis aims to identify the reasons of reluctance in shifting to public transport among the residents of Chennai. This research answers two questions that are: (i)What are the factors inducing a shift from public to private modes of tr ansport whenthere is high public transport accessibility levels? (ii) What is the effect of inertiaondifferent modes of transport?. The accessibility levels of public transport inthestudyarea was established using the London’s Public Transport Accessibility Level (PTAL)methodology. To identify the reasons of the inertia effect the travel behavior andthefactors affecting the modal choice of commuters were studied. The reasonforreluctance to public transport was identified through the revealed preference(RP)survey. The survey was conducted across five locations in municipal corporationwithhigh public transport accessibility levels. Random sampling survey of 325residentswas collected in the study area across five locations to analyse their travel patterns. Discrete choice modelling was used to study the travel behavior. The Multinomial logistic regression (MNL) analysis was done to identify the most affectingvariablesthat influence the modal choice of commuters and establish the inertia effectsof eachmode. One way - Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was further done to identifythevariation between the most affecting variables across different locations choseninthestudy. 8This research focused to identify the most affecting variables of mode choicealongwith assessing the level of service of public transport. The major finding of thestudywere, the variables such as location of residence, and vehicle ownership, income, triplength were the most influencing variables in modal choice of commuters. Theresultsof ANOVA revealed the variation of travel expense between the core city andthesuburbs. The analysis of the study was further used to develop a demandbasedtransit model to provide doorstep services and enhance the efficiency of publictransport. Along with improving the level of service of conventional public transport systems there is a need to include modern ways to make public transport attractive, reliable, make information readily available and provide a hassle free experience. Policy measures can also be used to induce a behavioral change by encouragingpeople to use public transport and shift from private to public transport.