Predicting transit mode choice behavior from parents’ perspectives: A case study in Lahore, Pakistan

In the recent decade, an emerging trend is escalating in developing countries named as ‘Ridesharing Services’ or ‘Transportation Network Companies (TNCs)’ and in Pakistan, TNCs are recently introduced. In this study, an online questionnaire survey included a stated preference experiment for three different transport alternatives: own vehicle, TNCs (i.e., Uber and Careem) and public transport. A total of 317 parents (149 females and 168 males) reported their preferences to use given alternatives based on their personal and trip characteristics. A multinomial logit model was used to describe the mode choice mechanism. The impacts of travel cost, privacy and safety concerns and travel time were identified based on household income, gender and type of profession. Results manifested that parents with middle-income and employees prefer TNCs, while high-income, female and business parents prefer personal vehicles considering trip characteristics. The extracted findings would provide a clear understanding of mode choice factors for the selected travel alternatives.