Exploring trip chain behaviour of the working population in Dhaka

Abstract

The urban life has become so involved that people have much less time to accomplish regular tasks. So to save time, they try to chain several trips with their work trips which increase their convenience. Trip chains might also arise when there is a dependent in the family like school going children and elderly who need a travelling companion. When both parents are working, one of them takes the responsibility of taking their children to school or their elderly to the desired location. Although the issue is taken seriously and there are a number of studies in various levels of scope and modal complexities, those exploring the trip chaining behaviour in developing countries are still deficient. Dhaka, in particular, experienced a substantial (7.3%) increase in automobile ownership despite the uncontrolled expansion of buses and human haulers. The rise in automobile dependency can be attributed to the necessity of forming and maintaining regular trip chains which the existing system of bus service cannot provide. The mode choice, thereby public transport ridership, is affected by the trip chaining propensities which should be addressed to ensure the desired effect of a transport policy. This study thus aims to fill this knowledge gap by exploring the trip chaining behaviour of the working population of Dhaka city. In order to carry out the study, primary data on household and travel characteristics were collected from trip makers through a household questionnaire survey. A descriptive analysis was first attempted to elicit characteristics of each variable with respect to the choice of trip chain level. After that the data was modeled using multinomial logit model to have a clear understanding of the significance of the variables and their relative influence on the choice of trip chaining level. Results from the final model indicate that female working population is more inclined to making complex trip chains than males. Complex trip chains are found to be positively related with car and other vehicle ownerships and use of cars, which are associated with households having children below 18 years and elder above 65 years.