Exploring the Role of Psychological Factors in Mode Choice Models by a Latent Variables Approach

Abstract

The literature has suggested that explicit consideration of psychological factors might help in understanding the transport decision-making process by individuals. Nevertheless, few attempts have been made to measure these psychological factors explicitly. Fortunately, social psychology provides an appropriate theoretical framework by which to consider the effects of psychological and contextual aspects on the individual decision-making process. This work studies the role of psychological factors in the mode choice process. Measurement of these factors was made with psychometric tools, which were fit into discrete choice models through a latent variables approach by use of path analysis. Triandis's theory of interpersonal behavior was used as the theoretical framework: observed behavior corresponds to an intention that is mediated by habit and facilitating conditions, with intention depending on three factors: attitude, affect, and social aspects. The data used were collected from a survey that was conducted in 2007 and 2008. The respondents were university lecturers, researchers, and clerical officers who were contacted and interviewed at their workplace about their morning trip to work. The levels of service and cost attributes of the travel modes and socioeconomic and psychometric data for the users were gathered as well. A sample of 409 records was initially available for the estimation process. Inclusion of psychological factors through a latent variables approach helped to improve the fitness level of revealed preference models and to provide an understanding of the role of level-of-service and cost attributes in the decision-making process.