Exploring the Self-Reported Importance of Various Factors on Travel Mode Choices

This study explores the factors affecting travel mode choices and the relative importance of those factors. Based on two consumer surveys, the objective of this study is to measure and explain heterogeneity in the self-reported importance ratings of eight specific types of factors—time, cost, convenience, safety, health, emotions, environment, and social—in travel mode choice decisions. To help investigate the relative importance people attributed to the factors, respondents were clustered into groups using a K-means clustering algorithm based on their modality styles (mode use frequencies). Next, we fit 16 linear regression models: one for each of the eight importance factors as the dependent variables, separately for the two datasets. The independent variables consisted of respondents’ personal and household characteristics. The results reveal interesting similarities between the two datasets. For instance, women and non-white respondents assigned greater importance to safety considerations in their mode choice than did men or white respondents. Also, people from higher-income households cared more about the convenience of their trip when selecting a mode. Individuals who drive almost every day but rarely use public transit placed lower importance on factors related to health, emotions, the environment, and social relationships; other factors like convenience, travel time, and cost were more important to them. These findings suggest that greater attention needs to be paid to measuring and including more subjective factors in mode choice analyses.