Travel Mode Choice and Transit Route Choice Behavior in Montreal: Insights ghts from McGill University Members Commute Patterns

摘要

In developed countries such as Canada and United States, a significant number of individualsdepend on the automobile as the main mode of transportation. The high auto dependency, in turn,results in high auto travel demand on highways. There has been a stronger push towardsanalyzing traveler behavior at the individual level so that transportation agencies can formulateappropriate strategies to reduce auto dependency. Towards this pursuit of enhancing ourunderstanding on travel behavior, we examine individual home to work or school commutepatterns in Montreal, Canada with an emphasis on the transit mode of travel. The overarchingtheme within the research effort is to provide affordable and efficient alternatives to automobileuse in Montreal. We investigate two specific aspects of commute mode choice: (1) the factorsthat dissuade individuals from commuting by transit i.e. use the automobile to commute and (2)for individuals commuting by transit we analyze their transit route choice decision. This researchstudy employs a unique survey conducted by researchers as part of the McGill UniversitySustainability project. The survey collected information on commuting patterns of students,faculty and staff from McGill University along with residential and socio-demographicinformation. The analysis is undertaken using classical multinomial logit model for both travelmode choice component and transit route choice component. The estimation results areemployed to undertake policy sensitivity analysis that allows us to provide recommendations topublic transportation and metropolitan agencies.