A Study Of Travel Behavior Under Transit Priority Strategies Considering Traffic State

Ttraffic congestion resulted from the rapid increase of city autos has become a world wide problem.Transit priority,as a strategy which is likely a more easily accepected by public compared to other strategies in travel demand management,can effectively adjust traffic demand.It has become an effective solution to address traffic congestion and guarantee the sustainable development of urban transportation.The influence analysis of transit priority on travel behavior is a prerequisite step of the implementation of transit priority strategies.It provides a theoretical basis for the development and implementation of appropriate strategies for traffic managers.This paper analyzed travel behaviors using discrete model and studied the shift of mode choice after the implementation of transit priority by taking account into the effects of traffic condition.The study and the findings can be summarized as below.1.Conducted a thourough review on the travel behavior analysis and prediction methods.Different travel behavior prediction methods in previous studies were compared.The process of travel mode choice was analyzed,based on which the forms of travel utility were compared and analyzed.2.Regards of the data collection,the two common methods to survey people’s travel behavior,revealed preference(RP)and stated preference(SP),were introduced briefly.Based on the implementation of the data collection,the advantages and disadvantages of the two methods were summarized and compared.Eventually the RP+SP approach was selected for the data collection in this study.The orthogonal design and uniform design in the survey were documented in detail.3.The influence factors of travel mode choice were analyzed and summarized.The influential sensitivity of travel behaviors to these factors was also studied based on the case studies in San Francisco,USA and Suzhou,China.The results showed that waiting time(the start frequency of transit)and walk time(accessability)have a great influence on the choice of transit travel.In addition cluster analysis was employed to devide individuals into groups to better analyze their travel behaviors and to simplify the travel choice model.The results showed that it is feasible to divide all travelers into three clusters.The variance among different groups are mainly from the income and the possess of auto.Based on the analysis on travelers’ individual characteristics,the clutering approach can effectively divide people into different groups.4.The responses of travel behavior to different transit priority strategies were analyzed.Case studies were provided for San Francisco and Suzhou,the elasticities of transit fare and parking fee were calculated to analyze the influences of different transit priority strategies on travel behaviors.On the basis of this,the mode choice model under transit priority starategies was established.Take Nanjing as an example,the influences of single and multiple transit priority strategies on travel behavior were analyzed qualitatively and qualitatively.The results showed that commuters are more sensitive to the change of parking fee,while non-commuters can cut their trvel cost by changing parking time,departure time or even the destination.In addition,it was found that all the reduction in autho travel did not shift to transit travel,depending on the service quality of transit.Therefore,it is necessary to combine other transit priority strategies as well as improve5.the service quality of transit to prompt the shift from auto travel to transit travel.Based on the traffic status identified from the real data collected in Nanjing,the traffic condition was evaluated and the crowdness in transit carriage was analyzed.The equation to calculate the comfort of transit was provided afterward.On the basis of this,taking account into the influence of traffic condition and the crowdness in transit carriages on travel choice behavior,the dynamic travel behavior within a day was analyzed.6.A case study was conducted to analyze travelers’ behavior under different transit priority strategies for the main urban area of Nanjing.The results showed that,traffic condition,crowdness level and the transit priority strategy have a great influence on travel choice behaviors:The distribution of different travel modes alters with the change in traffic condition.The influences of transit priority stratege on travel choice behavior on different groups are different,which is related to individual’s social characteristics.In addition,the influence of multiple transit priority strategies on travel behavior was not a simple summing of several individual strategies.In addition,it was found that the travel mode choices vary from time to time throughout a day.The implementation of transit priority strategy can encourage car users to shift to transit.The findings of this study can provide a strong theoretical foundation for traffic managers in selecting proper management strategies to mitigate urban traffic congestion.