Sustainable Urban Policies for Developing Countries by Integrating Center-based Telecommuting with Transit and Road Pricing: A Case Study of Bangkok Metropolitan Region

This study investigates the suitability of integrating telecommuting with transit and road pricing for reducing traffic congestion and air pollution for developing countries. Application of disaggregate modeling to estimate the impacts of transport policies, for instance the reduction of vehicle kilometers of travel (VKT) and air pollution levels, is the principal motivation of this study. Firstly, a nested logit (NL) model is developed to investigate household travel behavior linked to vehicle ownership, mode choice, and trip sharing attributes. The nest structure consists of two levels; the upper level characterizes car owning, motorcycle owning, and no vehicle owning choices while the lower level represents the household related mode choices. Secondly, the estimated NL model is applied for the purpose of policy analysis considering center-based telecommuting, transit, and road pricing. Several hypothetical satellite offices are considered outside the central business district (CBD) to analyze travel behavior associated with telecommuting. The new locations for the satellite offices are chosen based on travel convenience and compatibility with the current road network. Having center-based telecommuting as a base policy, several policies are investigated by combining the base policy with transit and road pricing. The policy impacts including the reduction of vehicle kilometers of travel and air pollution are estimated using the Bangkok Metropolitan Region as a case study