01473500

Component

As median household incomes rise in India, discretionary spending in the consumption basket is going up, along with increases in transportation budgets. Middle-class households are investing in private vehicles such as motorized two-wheelers (TWs) and cars. This is further adding to negative externalities such as congestion, emissions, higher accident rates, noise pollution, etc. This paper explores the drivers of TW and car ownership in middle-class Indian households. The analysis is conducted using a household travel survey from the Greater Mumbai Region (GMR), where the unit of analysis is the household (N=38,346). Using a discrete choice modeling framework, where the choice set is households having (i) no vehicles, (ii) only TW/s, or (iii) at least one car, the results indicate that utility from vehicle ownership increases with – • Life cycle variables: kids in the household, married status of primary wage earner. • Socio-demographic variables: housing unit characteristics (number of rooms, apartment/independent housing type), primary wage earner’s characteristics (college education, employment status, male), persons in the household. • Other variables: per capita household income, distance from a railway station, primary wage earner’s urban periphery work location, population density at primary wage earner’s work location. These findings illustrate the sensitivity of vehicle ownership not only to life cycle and socio-demographic variables, but also to land use variables such as density, proximity to transit, and jobs-housing locations in the city-region. Policies that encourage both in-city and urban periphery node development, with strategic higher development densities, along with provision of public transportation options are indicated from this research.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABE90 Transportation in the Developing Countries.

01470560

13-3249

English

14p

2013

Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; Maps; References; Tables

Automobile ownership; Choice models; Demographics; Land use; Marital status; Middle income groups; Mobility; Policy making; Socioeconomic factors; Travel surveys; Two wheeled vehicles

Discrete choice models; Sociodemographics

Mumbai (India)

Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Policy; Society; Vehicles and Equipment; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning; I90: Vehicles

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2013 Paper #13-3249

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Feb 5 2013 12:39PM