Investigating the influential factors in the metro choice behavior: Evidences from Beijing, China

In recent years, increasing concerns over climate change, and transportation energy consumption have sparked research into the travel behavior, especially metro use. The aim of this research is to investigate the influences of objective factors (e.g. demographics, socioeconomics and daily travel features) and subjective factors (e.g. metro dependence and intention to reduce metro use) on metro mode choice behavior. A Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) framework was applied accounting for the mediating effect from car ownership in this study. Meanwhile, a comparison with the traditional model that ignores mediating role of car ownership and the proposed model was conducted. Using the travel survey data collected from Beijing, the metro use of 527 respondents was analyzed. Based on the model results, the influences of objective factors and the interaction effects between subjective factors and actual metro use were discussed. As for the objective factors, only the variables of high income and household size were found to have significant impacts on subjective metro dependence, intention to reduce metro use and actual metro use. Meanwhile, the results show that higher dependence on metro system enhances the actual metro use but decreases the intention of reducing metro use, and there is negative relationship between actual metro use and intention of reducing metro use. The results are expected to give transport policy makers a better understanding on how the influential factors impact metro mode choice, and consequently develop more effective and targeted countermeasures.