Exploring the effect of the built environment, weather condition and departure time of travel on mode choice decision for different travel purposes: Evidence from Isfahan, Iran

A growing number of researchers have investigated the role of key factors that affect transport mode choice. Scant studies, however, have tried to incorporate the built environment factors at origin and destination, weather condition, departure time, and different trip purposes into mode choice models. To address these shortcomings, we developed four multinomial logit (MNL) models to analyze travel mode choice decision for different purposes in the context of a developing country, Iran. Travel data drawn from household travel survey conducted by Isfahan Municipality in 2015 and weather parameters were retrieved from five stations located inside the city. The results of models reveal some important insights. While entropy index and average block size strongly influence transport mode decisions, other built environment factors have weak associations with transport modes. Further, low temperature and low relative humidity decrease the probability of transit, motorcycle and bicycle usage over automobile. The impact of weather condition on discretionary trips is stronger than that of work trips. Apart from mentioned variables, socio-demographic characteristics and departure time of travel are other important variables. Findings of this paper indicate that nonphysical strategies in tandem with land use policies should be considered based on local condition.