Is first mile behaviour similar to last mile behaviour? A case study on a rapid rail system in South Africa

Daniel Watts, Christoffel Venter and Gary Hayes

Transportation Planning and Technology, 2026, vol. 49, issue 2, 166-191

Abstract: First and last mile behaviours to and from public transport are rarely studied together, limiting insights into preference differences between access and egress trips. This paper addresses this gap through a case study of an urban rapid rail system in South Africa. Data are from an online stated preference survey conducted amongst train passengers, in which mode choices for the access and egress trips during the morning peak are captured. Nested logit choice models for access and egress trips differ both in nesting structure and the relative size of coefficients. Values of travel and walk time are three times larger for the egress than for the access trip, suggesting that time-saving strategies are more important on the last mile than the first mile part of a commute trip. We explore the impacts of these differences by modelling hypothetical improvement scenarios to access and egress conditions.

Date: 2026
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DOI: 10.1080/03081060.2024.2445647

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