Comparing uncertainties in travel mode choice decisions for various trip chains

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to compare the mode choice decisions between commuting and non-commuting trip chains and evaluate the uncertainties in the mode choice process. According to household survey data from a medium-sized city in China, the whole day of travel is divided into several types of travel chains. We used the multinomial logit model to estimate the impacts of factors on the choices of trip modes, which included walk, bike, public transit, and car. The entropy theory was introduced to evaluate the uncertainty of each traveler’s mode choice decision. The results indicate that there are great differences in mode choice between commuting and non-commuting trip chains. It is found that the causes and effects of different chains are different. The results help to understand the decision-making process of mode.