Travel Mode Choice Behaivor On Rail Transit Extension Line Area

Nowadays, many single-center cities are suffering from various kinds of traffic problems. Correspondently, more and more cities start to change their urban form into the multi-center group. With the movement of the large population from the main urban area to the satellite cities, the connection between these areas becomes closer and closer. How to keep the transportation on those corridors fast and efficient is very important to transport planning and management.In China, extension lines (the metro lines which are extended from the urban area to the satellite cities) are regarded as a major way of connecting the main urban area and its satellite cities. Due to the different characteristics on passengers’travel behavior using extension line, the planning and operation methods of the extension line will be quite different from the urban rail transit. In order to better serve the traffic demand of residents along the extension lines, their travel characteristics on using rail transit extension line are specifically discussed in four aspects. Furthermore, this thesis looks into the travel mode choice behavior of the residents living along the extension lines in the perspective of individual choice. The disaggregated model is also used as the major tool for further analysis. Then, the sensitive analysis on key factors is performed, and elastic analysis is used on those most important key factors. This study on travel mode choice behavior under the change of the traffic environment will provide decision support for developing planning and operation policy on future extension lines.The residents’travel mode choice data along Metro Line 2 west extended line in Chengdu is collected as the data for analysis. The model calibration result shows that factors such as cost, travel time, arrival time, gender and car ownership can significantly affect the travel mode choice on choosing extended line. In addition, among these factors, cost is inelastic while travel time and arrival time are elastic.At last, considering the residents’travel characteristics along extension lines, the key factors of travel mode choice behavior and the elastic analysis result, this thesis provides eight recommendations of policy adjustment on Metro Line 2 west extension line and the development on other rail transit extension lines. It includes using the funds rationally and improve service levels, implementing the long and short routing according to the passenger flow distribution, properly lowering the departure frequency to save operation cost, supporting transit access at the stations and shortening the arrival time, encouraging the use of public transit and establishing environmental-friendly consciousness, responding the seamless exchange and improving the fare system, increasing travel speed to shorten travel time, developing appropriate multi-model of rail transit extension line based on the passenger flow characteristics.