Modelling travellers' choice of information sources and of mode

Abstract

This study investigates the travellers' choice of information sources and their subsequent mode choice decisions. The goal of this study is to develop a comprehensive choice model that can capture the information acquisition process by predicting the choice of information sources together with its effects on modal choices of the travellers. A decision making framework for travel information acquisition is developed and the abstract terms, necessary to be tested in the models, are identified. A Stated Preference experiment is developed based on the complicated decision making process and an interactive CATI questionnaire is designed to cope with it. Utility functions are formulated by expanding travellers' choice set to include different combinations of the viable sources of information and with the inclusion of policy sensitive variables. The research employs a wide range of modelling methodologies and examines a range of traditional and newly developed calibration and estimation procedures including Mixed Logit models with individual specific parameters and the newly developed Random Regret Minimisation framework. The study also analyses the effects of travel planning websites on travel decisions and establishes a link between content, design, advertisements, and presentation of information on overall modal shift. The results indicate that travellers give credence to government owned sources and give more importance to their own previous experiences followed by multimodal websites, train websites, friends and coach websites respectively. A website with less search time, specific infonnation on users' own criteria, and real time information is regarded as most attractive by the travellers. The study also found that the market share of the modes increases when information sources show decreased travel time and cost values and the maximum results are achieved when different information sources give the same information to the travellers. These results show that information sources could be used to influence the mode choice of the travellers