Authors: Pelayo Arbués, José F. Baños, Matías Mayor
Abstract
In transport economics, modeling modal choice is a fundamental key for policy makers try-ing to improve the sustainability of transportation systems. However, existing empiricalliterature has focused on short-distance travel within urban systems. This paper con-tributes to the limited number of investigations on mode choice in medium- andlong-distance travel. The main objective of this research is to study the impacts ofsocio-demographic and economic variables, land-use features and trip attributes onlong-distance travel mode choice. Using data from 2007 Spanish National MobilitySurvey we apply a multilevel multinomial logit model that accounts for the potential prob-lem of spatial heterogeneity in order to explain long-distance travel mode choice. Thisapproach permits us to compute how the probability of choosing among private car, busand train varies depending on the traveler spatial location at regional level. Results indicatethat travelers characteristics, trip features, cost of usage of transport modes and geograph-ical variables have significant impacts on long-distance mode choice.