Impact of Areal Factors on Students’ Travel Mode Choices: A Bayesian Spatial Analysis

Amin Azimian and Alireza Azimian ()
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Amin Azimian: School of Architecture, The University of Texas at Austin, 310 Inner Campus Drive, Austin, TX 78712-1009, USA
Alireza Azimian: Odette School of Business, University of Windsor, 401 Sunset Ave, Windsor, ON N9B 3P4, Canada

Econometrics, 2024, vol. 12, issue 4, 1-19

Abstract: A preliminary analysis of the 2018/2019 Austin Travel Survey indicated that most off-campus students in Travis County, TX, tend to use cars rather than more sustainable transportation modes, significantly contributing to traffic congestion and environmental impact. This study aims to analyze the impacts of areal factors, including environmental and transportation factors, on students’ choices of travel mode in order to promote more sustainable transport behaviors. Additionally, we investigate the presence of spatial correlation and unobserved heterogeneity in travel data and their effects on students’ travel mode choices. We have proposed two Bayesian models—a basic model and a spatial model—with structured and unstructured random-effect terms to perform the analysis. The results indicate that the inclusion of spatial random effects considerably improves model performance, suggesting that students’ choices of mode are likely influenced by areal factors often ‘unobserved’ in many individual travel mode choice surveys. Furthermore, we found that the average slope, sidewalk density, and bus-stop density significantly affect students’ travel mode choices. These findings provide insights into promoting sustainable transport systems by addressing environmental and infrastructural factors in an effort to reduce car dependency among students, thereby supporting sustainable urban development.

Keywords: spatial factors; Bayesian; students; travelling mode; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B23 C C00 C01 C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C8 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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