THE ECONOMICS OF ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORTATION MODES: MEASURING THE VALUE OF TRANSPORTATION CHARACTERISTICS THAT AFFECT THE DEMAND FOR TRANSPORTATION MODES

Transportation congestion is worsening in most U.S. cities. In addition, to the opportunity costs of time associated with traffic congestion, there are environmental costs associated with automobile use: greenhouse gas emissions, air and noise pollution, and increased land use. Yet people are increasingly unwilling to use alternative modes of transportation, such as public transit, carpooling, or bicycling, which might impose lower environmental and time costs on society. Nationally, the automobile occupancy rate during commute hours was 1.1 in 1990. Although the Twin Cities does not face the severe congestion and pollution problems faced by cities such as Los Angeles and New York, it is nevertheless important to begin addressing this issue in terms of medium-sized cities. Trends show the situation will worsen over time. We must begin searching for ways to reverse these trends. The ultimate goal of this research is to better understand the transportation needs and desires of the people in the Twin Cities area so that we will be able to design transportation alternatives (public transit, semi-private or private commuter services, bicycle or pedestrian systems) that better accommodate the public demand. The objective of the present research project is to assess the values that the public places on particular transportation amenities or characteristics. By measuring these values, we can define the public's priorities in choosing transportation modes, and we can attempt to design transportation alternatives that address these priorities. In this paper a mode-choice model incorporating several (nested) decisions made by households is estimated. People jointly decide such things as what mode to use, how many cars to own, and how many trips to take. This model takes these decisions as dependent variables and uses as independent variables household characteristics (income, age, number in household, number under 5 years old, use day care - yes/no, hours worked per week, occupation, region of residence, and region of work) and mode characteristics (proximity of bus line to home, distance to trip, trip time, and trip cost). The data used are from the 1990 Travel Behavior Inventory, collected by the Metropolitan Council for the Twin Cities. These data have 9,746 household observations and contain some sociodemographic information and a one-day trip diary of all members in each household, including origin, destination, time and purpose.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper appears in Volume I of the 4th National Conference on Transportation Planning Methods Applications, Session 2c: Evaluation Tools.
• Corporate Authors:

  Faris (Jerry M)

  1704 Thomasville Road, Suite 186
  Tallahassee, FL  United States  32303
• Authors:
  • Kanninen, B J
  • Mohn, C
• Conference:
  • 4th National Conference on Transportation Planning Methods Applications, Volumes I and II. A Compendium of Papers
  • Location: Daytona Beach, Florida
  • Date: 1993-5-3 to 1993-5-7
• Publication Date: 1993-9

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 233-260

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Conferences; Economics; Environmental impacts; Governments; Medium sized cities; Mode choice; Present value; Strategic planning; Traffic congestion; Variables
• Uncontrolled Terms: Values
• Geographic Terms: Minneapolis (Minnesota); Saint Paul (Minnesota)
• Old TRIS Terms: Public
• Subject Areas: Economics; Environment; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00639928
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Dec 8 1993 12:00AM