Abstract:
With the rapid growth of cities, an increasing number of trips are being generated from
the suburban areas. Unlike the developed countries with high auto-ownership,
commuters of the developing countries have to rely mainly on public transportation.
Dhaka, being one of the fastest growing megacities in the world attracts a large number
of commuters every day from its outskirts. The trip makers have to commute long
distance during the peak period and choice of mode is very crucial for them. Although
some researches have been carried out in various levels of scope exploring the intraurban
mode choice behavior of the travelers of Dhaka, no studies have been conducted
yet analyzing the mode choice behavior of the commuters where the trips are originated
from suburban areas. In this backdrop, to fill the existing knowledge gap, this study
attempts to analyze the mode choice behavior of the commuters who regularly travel to
Dhaka from its suburban areas using public transportation.
In this study, Dhaka-Narayanganj and Dhaka-Gazipur these two routes have been
selected. Narayanganj and Gazipur are two major suburban areas located near to Dhaka,
and commuters living in these cities have the both alternatives of bus and rail. A sample
of 271 commutershave been surveyed. Socio-economic characteristics of the travelers
and their travel related information which are likely to affect their mode choice have
been incorporated in the questionnaire. To model the mode choice behavior of the
commuters, Discrete Choice Analysis technique has been applied under the theory of
utility maximization. Commuters’ mode choice usually involves a combination of
multiple modes. Therefore, to draw a comprehensive scenario the main mode, access
mode and egress mode choice models have been developed. For the main mode choice
binary logistic regression and for the access and egress modes Multinomial Logistic
Regression (MNL) have been applied in this study.
The study has drawn some important findings which have not been addressed so far in
conventional intra-urban mode choice studies. It has been found that suburban
commuters spend a substantial amount of time for access and egress. Unlike intra-urban
travel where most of the people get access to the main mode by walking or NMT (Nonmotorized
Transport), for suburban travelers, MT (Motorized Transport) modes play
an important role both in access and egress. Rail travelers usually travel longer distance
and egress end and they are more likely to choose MT as egress mode than bus travelers.
Different socio-economic characteristics of the travelers also affect their mode choice.
The study found that higher-income commuters are more likely to choose the bus. A
considerable number of commuters travelling from the suburban area to the main city
are students. The model estimation suggests that students are more likely to choose train
for their travel. Although the rail service is not satisfactory, a significant number of the
commuters choose rail. Longer waiting time, additional transfer, unavailability of seats,
lack of reliability contributes significant disutility to the rail travelers. It has been found
that if the frequency of train can be increased and travel time can be reduced, then a
significant number of commuters can be attracted towards commuter rail service.
