STUDY ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF MODE CHOICE BETWEEN PRIVATE VEHICLES AND PUBLIC BUS: CASE STUDY ON THIRUVANANTHAPURAM CITY CIRCULAR BUSES

Abstract

The private transportation system constitutes the major share of the world. As the population increases the demand for vehicles increases day by day. This makes the existing road inadequate, resulting in increased vehicle congestion and emission, ultimately leading to air pollution, especially in cities. In India, two-wheeler constitutes the major transportation mode among private vehicle. In order to reduce emissions and to provide sustainable transport movement, public transport systems are provided. Mode shift to public transport particularly to buses or walking inside or within the city could reduce the traffic congestion to a level. So, to increase the mode shift or make the public choose public transport, quality attributes related to public transport must be improved. The service attributes must be such that it should satisfy the needs of the customers who commute i.e., customer satisfaction is of utmost importance. Different types of public transport are available in Kerala, among that KSRTC launched City Circulars in Thiruvananthapuram city, which is limited within the city. The present study was focused on improvement required in the service attribute of the City Circular bus, and also to predict mode choice with individual characteristics. The study also focused on finding measures to promote these city circular buses so that further mode shift is encouraged which could help in reducing traffic congestion in the city. To classify different attributes, factor analysis was performed in the study. The study used the Ordinal logit model to obtain a relation between service attributes and user characteristics, along with that to identify the user’s mode choice behaviour Multinomial logit model was also used. Findings revealed that service frequency, information provision, waiting time, and interchange are the important attributes to be improved. An increase in age and trip distance causes commuters to use the city circle bus. Occupation and gender also influence the user’s mode choice.