Route choice behavior by time of day and user familiarity

The following study aims at examining the route choice behaviours of patrons that derive from their experience of perception of the network. It considers behaviours in relation to the time of day, focusing on peak and non-peak periods, and a patron’s transit use frequency. It is intended that this paper form a preliminary investigation for further route choice modelling. This paper will seek to answer the question is whether transit users are more strategic when it comes to route choice and whether they are flexible depending on the time of day when travelling. It is done so through the investigation of patron behaviours with regards to boarding and alighting stops as well as their tendencies for inbound and outbound travel. There were three significant concepts found. Firstly, the variability of stop location dependent on travel direction was modelled to conclude that location appeared to be a greater influencer on a patron’s route choice than the direction of travel. Secondly, a nearest neighbour index concept was introduced to quantify the utilisation of stops of frequent transit users. From this, it was found that patrons were appearing to value travel time over comfort. Further to this finding, confidence appeared to also be a key attribute to a patron’s perception and strategy to travel. Lastly, a correlation analysis was utilised to confirm the findings mentioned. The findings of the paper provide reaffirm concepts presented in previous research as well as contesting some, like the factor of comfort, to present new concepts that will attribute towards the design of future public transport networks