To Decide to Ride and Bide: Information Processing Among Bus Riders

This paper develops a model and uses data from a natural setting to test the hypothesis that a traveler is more likely to wait at the bus stop the more people she sees already waiting at the bus stop. We model a traveler, who arrives at a bus stop and is faced with the choice of walking to her destination, or waiting for and then riding the bus. We show that optimal decision making implies that the traveler is more likely to wait at the bus stop the more people she sees already waiting at the bus stop. Our work differs from previous work by developing a formal game theoretic model and relatively simple testable implications. Data taken from observing travelers' behavior on The Ohio State University's Columbus campus then support the model.