Influential Factors Affecting Travelers’ Mode Choice Behavior on Mass Transit in Bangkok, Thailand

Abstract

Increasing use of single or fewer occupant vehicles has increased traffic congestion and transport-related emissions. Public transport as mass transit options are increasingly being encouraged amongst travelers to use, as this is an influential strategy to improve the transport network performance. This paper presents a study based on a revealed preference survey conducted on a random sample of 4467 respondents to understand the influential factors affecting the users’ choice of mass transit in Bangkok, Thailand. This study identified an inversely proportional relationship of socio-economic and spatial attributes on public transport mode choice. The binary logit model was employed to compare the utility of private vehicles and mass transit modes. The results showed that gender, age, average income, auto ownership, total travel cost in private transport, total travel time in public transport and distance range from home to mass transit station were the factors that influenced travelers’ mode choice behavior. Moreover, to ascertain the effects of explanatory variables which influence the likelihood of Thai travelers, another binary logit model analysis was utilized by the four distance ranges condition. The studied results showed that there were few significant differences in the propensity to use mass transit. Due to the longer distance of the station, total travel time in public transport was not affected by the Thai travelers mode choice. This research will aid transport authorities and planners to gain knowledge on the impact of socio-economic and spatial behavior of public transport users on their mode choice, resulting in the development in sustainable transport in Bangkok, Thailand.