Household travel behavior in developing countries - Nested Logit model of vehicle ownership, mode choice, and trip chaining

A nested logit (NL) model is proposed to analyze household travel behavior in developing countries. There has been an increase in vehicle ownership and chronic congestion in urban areas of such countries. The investigation is focused mainly on household travel behavior variations relating to vehicle ownership, mode choice, and trip-chaining considerations; an NL approach is used. The nest structure consists of two levels: the upper level represents car ownership, motorcycle ownership, and no-vehicle ownership choices, and the lower level shows household-based mode choices. Because the sharing of a vehicle by family members for multiple destinations is very popular in developing countries, trip chaining by primary and secondary household members is one of the mode choice options considered in the proposed model. The developed NL, model is also applied for analyzing congestion-reduction policy using a "push and pull" strategy, in which a road-pricing scheme is considered for car and motorcycle travel in the central business district together with fare reduction in public transportation. The model and the policies are verified using the Bangkok metropolitan region as a case study.