Characteristics of Intercity Travellers in Saudi Arabia 3 Characteristics of Intercity Travellers in Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT. Saudi Arabia has become a very affluent society in the last few decades and as a result of this affluence, demand for intercity travel has increased dramatically. The main goal of this study is to in-vestigate the characteristics of intercity passenger travel and its pro-portion within the context of intercity travel mode choice in Saudi Arabia. The characteristics of intercity travel and its proportion were ana-lyzed via published statistics and data collected for this purpose. The data was collected from self-response questionnaire forms distributed and collected to/from travellers throughout the Kingdom while they were travelling. A total sample size of 3557 was obtained. The trends in local intercity passenger travel seem to follow closely the developments in the total revenues of the country. A high propor-tion of automobile and air travellers, 21.63 percent and 23.8 percent respectively, were found to be captive riders. Intercity mode choice decisions seem to be affected by household income, travel distance, number of family automobiles, nationality and family size