Social influences on trip mode-choices in non-daily trips

Abstract

Classical choice models in transportation assume that individuals are 100% rational and indifferent to choices of other individuals. Behavioral economics try to relax these assumptions and try to uncover the unobserved factors which affect the decision-making process of individuals. In this study, social influences on trip mode choices in non-daily trips are focused in order to reveal if there is any significant peer influence on decision-makers while choosing a mean of transport. An information cascade experiment is designed to test the hypothesis. 243 people between 18 years old and 30 years old were reached through an Internet survey and they were asked to choose a mode among three alternatives for each three different non-daily trip scenarios. A conditional logit model is calibrated using the data and it is shown that individuals are affected by their peers’ choices in the non-daily trip mode choice context. It is also found that females are more affected from their peers than males. Interestingly, a significant difference in the model is found between the subjects who have smartphones and the ones who have not. Subjects without a smartphone only consider their peers’ choices and the factors cost and travel time reliability to some extent while choosing a mode of transportation. On the other hand, smartphone users consider every aspect of the trip. Value of time in a vehicle and value of time spend in walking and waiting is calculated as 19.917 TL/hr and 20.314 TL/hr respectively and it is observed that they are in the reasonable limits when they are compared with the previous value of time studies in Turkey.