01590239

Component

This paper investigates how social influence in transportation mode choice is impacted by external factors such as commute characteristics. Differences in how individuals are affected by social influences may be explained in part by characteristics of their commute environments. In particular the authors investigate the impact of commute distance on the effect of social influence for a sample of students at University of California, Davis. Students within Davis travel up to four or five miles to get to campus from their homes and primarily commute by bike, bus or driving alone. Through an online survey, they collected information about students’ transportation patterns and their social networks. For each participant as an ego, they gathered information about their ego-network including up to five alters or contacts. They estimate a set of two-stage residual inclusion models (an instrumental variables approach), on the full sample, and on sample segments based on distance to campus. Multinomial logistic regression including an interaction term for distance and their measure of social influence (the proportion of an ego-network that chooses bike is also estimated) is also presented. In both approaches the authors find that the effect of social influence on the decision to commute by bike is impacted by distance. In general, as distance increases the effect of social influence decreases; however, those with very short commute distances are also less affected by social influence towards biking. As social influence and other social processes are evaluated as potential policy instruments, these heterogeneous effects should be taken into account.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADB10 Standing Committee on Traveler Behavior and Values.

01584066

16-2744

English

0000-0001-6558-3479

17p

2016

Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References; Tables

College students; Commuting; Distance; Mode choice; Social factors; Trip length

University of California, Davis

Davis (California)

Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2016 Paper #16-2744

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 12 2016 5:13PM