Research On Characteristics And Mechanism Of Urban Car Users For Short Trips

The rapid increase of car use has resulted in a series of negative issues such as traffic congestion and air pollution.Short-distance trips,which take less travel time and have diverse travel modes account for a large proportion of urban residents’ trips.Compared with medium and long distance trips,short-distance trips by car are more likely to be replaced by riding or walking.Therefore,exploring the mechanism of car users’ mode choice in short trips,conducting effective guidance and demand management to reduce car use for short trips,has become the focus of urban transportation researchers and managers.Using the data collected from a travel survey in Kunming,this paper explores the characteristics and influencing mechanism of car users’ mode choice in short trips.First of all,this paper gives a preliminary overview of the research from three aspects,the car use of urban residents,the short-distance trips of urban residents and the application of attitudinal latent variables in studying travel mode choice.Then the descriptive statistical analysis are employed to analyze the characteristics of car owners’ shortdistance trips and attitudes toward different modes.The deficiencies in current research are summarized.Secondly,the profile of the survey area is introduced and a descriptive statistical analysis of individual and household attributes,short-distance travel information and attitudes toward different travel modes is conducted based on the survey data.The proportion of travel modes under different travel purposes,travel distance,individual and household attributes is also analyzed.Thirdly,the structural equation model are established to explore the influencing mechanism of car users’ attitudes toward cars and alternative travel modes,individual and household attributes,and the built environment on the percentage of car use for short trips.Finally,the hybrid choice model,which improved by inducing attitudes and perceptions of car users as latent variables into discrete choice model is established to analyze the impact of trip purpose,trip distance,car users’ attitudes toward cars and alternative travel modes,and individual and household attributes on travel mode choice for short trips.The results of this paper show that car users’ attitudes toward different travel modes,individual and household attributes,travel attributes and built environment have significant effects on their short-distance travel behavior.At the same time,attitudes toward different travel modes also have interaction effects on each other.Increasing the environmental awareness and improving attitudes toward cycling and walking of car users could help reduce the car use for short-distance trips.Our results can provide theoretical and empirical support for relevant traffic policy formation in reducing short car trips and promoting green travel.