Predicting Motorized Mode Choices

With an increasing diversification in transportation options, it is important to understand who uses certain transportation modes, and why they select that mode. By being able to determine what method of transportation certain groups of people choose, and for what reason, cities can begin to understand what factors would need to change in order to incentivize different behaviors and alter existing transportation habits. Such changes in travel behavior are of increasing interest with the environmental issues posed by transportation and automobile use, awareness of a lack of equity in transportation availability, and the concern over land use in urban areas. For this study, I focus on non-motorized transportation such as walking, biking and I consider several demographic and socio-economic characteristics to understand how a person chooses non-motorized modes in their daily travel. Characteristics that may influence whether a user selects a motorized or a non-motorized form of transportation mode choice include the educational attainment, gender, age, employment status, student status, and disability status of the traveler, the distance, duration, purpose, and day of the trip, and the number of people, the number of kids, the income, and whether there is a vehicle in the household. This study uses data collected from a household travel survey of the Twin Cities region in Minnesota to identify which specific characteristics may be useful in predicting the motorization of an individual’s mode choice.Bachelor of Scienc