Understanding the Effects of Improving Transportation on Pilgrim Travel Behavior: Evidence from the Lhasa, Tibet, China

Gang Cheng, Shuzhi Zhao and Di Huang
Additional contact information
Gang Cheng: College of Transportation, Jilin University, Changchun 130000, China
Shuzhi Zhao: College of Transportation, Jilin University, Changchun 130000, China
Di Huang: Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Urban ITS, Jiangsu Province Collaborative Innovation Center of Modern Urban Traffic Technologies, School of Transportation, Southeast University, Nanjing 210000, China

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 10, 1-13

Abstract: Effective travel demand management measures provide the opportunity to fully utilize limited transportation resources, especially in underdeveloped areas. It is increasingly recognized that the improvement in existing transportation infrastructure and the optimization of traffic demand management method would result in a complicated urban transportation system with multiple travel modes. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between transportation improvements (e.g., pedestrian flow, free bus for the elderly, and parking space planning) and the mode choice behavior of pilgrimages in the Lhasa of Tibet, China. This study employed a distinctive survey conducted among pilgrims in Lhasa, including both individual questionnaires and interviews from 2010 to 2016. The analysis was undertaken using a multinomial logit model to identify the extent to which transportation improvements could affect the pilgrim’s travel mode choice behavior. The results show that transportation improvements, as an operational method in underdeveloped areas, play an important role in motivating the pilgrimage to travel that can increase the attractiveness of private car use, and make pedestrian traffic more prominent. However, improvements in the public transport need to be conducted to attract more travelers. These results confirm that increasing the attractiveness of low-carbon transportation (e.g., buses, walking, and cycling) to the public can reduce the usage on private vehicles and maintain the development of sustainable transportation in underdeveloped areas with limited transportation resources.

Keywords: transportation improvement; transportation mode; travel behavior; travel demand management; pilgrimage trips (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/10/3528/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/10/3528/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:10:p:3528-:d:173106

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().