Travel Mode Choice: Effects of Previous Experience on Choice Behaviour and Valuation

Abstract

This paper investigates how past experience influences choice behaviour and valuation in a hypothetical travel mode choice situation. Using a stated choice question asked of visitors to a major ski resort in Sweden, the author explores whether an individual's choice behaviour, when he or she is offered a comfort improvement to train travel, can be explained with reference to the individual and to the circumstances of his or her previous journey. The analysis models and compares the response behaviour of travellers who used a car and travellers who used the train on their original trip. It is found that past experience influences travellers' choice behaviour. Twenty per cent of former car users choose the train, while most train users again choose the train. As reasons for choosing car travel once again, car users mention a preference for shorter travel time and/or a preference for flexibility, while environmental concerns and long travel distance favour the use of the train. Concerning comfort improvement, as expected, willingness-to-pay estimates for the former train users are lower and more precise than those for the former car users.

Keywords

stated choice travel mode choice habit comfort

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ben-Akiva

Lerman

S.R.

(1985), Discrete Choice Analysis, Theory and Application to Travel Demand, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

Becker

(1965), ‘A theory of the allocation of time’, Economic Journal, Vol 75, pp 493–517.

Cameron

T.A.

Englin

(1997), ‘Respondents experience and contingent valuation of environmental goods’, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Vol 33, pp 296–313.

Cameron

T.A.

James

M.D.

(1987a), ‘Estimating willingness to pay from survey data: An alternative pre-test market evaluation procedure’, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol 24, pp 389–395.

Cameron

T.A.

James

M.D.

(1987b), Efficient estimation methods for ‘closed-ended' contingent valuation surveys’, Review of Economic Statistics, Vol 69, No 2, pp 269–276.

Commission of the European Communities (1998), Fair Payment for Infrastructure Use: A Phased Approach to a Common Transport Infrastructure Charging Framework in the EU, White Paper, COM(1998), 466 final.

Daly

Rohr

(1998), ‘Forecasting demand for new travel alternatives’, in Gärling

Laitila

Westin

, eds, Theoretical Foundations of Travel Choice Modeling, Pergamon, Oxford.

Eriksson

(1998), Transportation Demand Management – TDM – i svensk tappning?, KFB-Rapport 1998:7, KFB, Stockholm.

Eriksson

(1997), To Choose or Not to Choose: Choice Set and Choice Set Models, thesis, Umeå Economic Studies No 443, Umeå University, Umeå.

10.

Frändberg

(1998), Distance Matters: An Inquiry into the Relation Between Transport and Environmental Sustainability in Tourism, thesis, Humanekologiska skrifter 15, Section of Human Ecology, Göteborg University, Göteborg.

11.

Greene

W.H.

(1993), Econometric Analysis, Second Edition, Macmillan, New York.

12.

Greene

W.H.

(1995), Limdep version 7.0. User's Manual, Econometrics Software Inc, New York.

13.

Gärling

Laitila

Westin

(1998), ‘Theoretical foundations of travel choice modeling: An introduction’, in Gärling

Laitila

Westin

, eds, Theoretical Foundations of Travel Choice Modeling, Pergamon, Oxford.

14.

Heckman

J.J.

(1979), ‘Sample selection bias as a specification error’, Econometrica, Vol 47, No 1, pp 153–161.

15.

Jara-Diaz

S.R.

(1998), ‘Time and income in travel choice: Towards a microeconomic activity-based theoretical framework’, in Gärling

Laitila

Westin

, eds, Theoretical Foundations of Travel Choice Modeling, Elsevier Science, Oxford, pp 51–74.

16.

Lancaster

(1966), ‘A new approach to consumer theory’, Journal of Political Economy, Vol 74, pp 132–157.

17.

Lindberg

Nilsson

J-E.

(1998), Mot ett nytt system för vägtrafikbeskattning, Working paper 1998:8, School of Transportation and Society, Dalarna University, Borlänge.

18.

List

J.A.

Shogren

J.F.

(1998), ‘Calibration of the difference between actual and hypothetical valuations in a field experiment’, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Vol 37, pp 193–205.

19.

Lundgren

(1996), Transportation Demand Management – TDM-konceptets möjligheter i Sverige, FMS 46, rapport, December, FMS, Stockholm.

20.

McFadden

(1981), ‘Econometric models of probabilistic choice’, in Manski

C.F.

McFadden

D.L.

, eds, Structural Analysis of Discrete Data, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

21.

Mortazavi

Nerhagen

(2001), ‘Multiple Determinants of Modal Choice and the Value of Time for Recreational Travel’, Dalarna University, Borlänge.

22.

Nerhagen

(1997), Faktorer som påverkar färdmedelsvalet vid längre skidresor, Working paper 1997:11, School of Transportation and Society, Dalarna University, Borlänge.

23.

Smith

V.K.

Mansfield

(1998), ‘Buying time: Real and hypothetical offers’, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Vol 36, pp 209–224.

24.

Verplanken

Aarts

Van Knippenberg

(1994), ‘Attitude versus general habit: Antecedents of travel mode choice’, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Vol 24, No 4, pp 285–300.

25.

Verhoef

Nijkamp

Rietveld

(1996), ‘The trade-off between efficiency, effectiveness, and social feasibility of regulating road transport externalities’, Transportation Planning and Technology, Vol 19, pp 247–263.