Individual Mobility Attributes and Their Impact on Modality Style

Abstract

Mobility attributes such as driver's license, car ownership, reserved parking at work, and transit pass have a very strong impact on travel choices, in particular, mode choice. Mobility attributes are not acquired for a particular trip but rather are driven by the entire set of individual travel needs (commuting being the most basic of them). Some mobility attributes, for example, car ownership and transit pass, are substitutable; others, for example, car ownership and reserved parking at work, are complementary. For this reason, mobility attributes have to be analyzed and modeled jointly. The purpose of the current research is to analyze a wide set of mobility attributes and incorporate them in an operational activity-based model as a set of midterm choices. The approach suggested in this paper is based on an iterative application of three interlinked choice submodels: (a) joint choice of person driver's license, usual driver role (priority in using one of the household cars), car type choice, reserved or reimbursed parking at work, and transit pass; (b) household car ownership choice by type; and (c) intrahousehold car allocation by type. Model estimation results confirmed strong cross- attribute effects as well as revealed many impacts of person, household, and travel accessibility variables. In particular, historical and cultural differences between three population sectors in Jerusalem—secular Jewish, Orthodox Jewish, and Arab—manifested themselves quite strongly. Application of these models for future scenarios is discussed.