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Values, attitudes and travel behavior: a hierarchical latent variable mixed logit model of travel mode choice

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Abstract

Values lie at the heart of an individual’s belief system, serving as prototypes from which attitudes and behaviors are subsequently manufactured. Attitudes and behaviors may evolve over time, but values represent a set of more enduring beliefs. This study examines the influence of values on travel mode choice behavior. It is argued that personal values influence individual attitudes towards different alternative attributes, which in turn impact modal choices. Using data from a sample of 519 German commuters drawn from a consumer panel, the study estimates an integrated choice and latent variable model of travel mode choice that allows for hierarchical relationships between the latent variables and flexible substitution patterns across the modal alternatives. Results from the empirical application support the value-attitude-behavior hierarchical model of cognition, and provide insights to planners and policy-makers on how better to sell public transit as a means of travel.

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Notes

  1. Throughout the paper, the word ‘hierarchical’ is not used in the Bayesian sense of the word.

  2. The scale of the latent variable could alternatively be fixed by constraining the diagonal elements of \({\varvec{\Upsigma}}_{{\varvec{\eta}}}\) and \({\varvec{\Upsigma}}_{\varvec\sigma }\), as mentioned in Daziano and Bolduc (2013). However, the two ways are statistically equivalent, and it is usually left to the analyst to choose whichever form is more convenient.

  3. Since latent variables can be both negative and positive, a 10 % improvement in the latent variable is simulated by adding 10 % of the absolute value to the same. In other words, if \({\text{x}}\) and \({\text{x}}^{'}\) denote the original and the new value of the latent variable, respectively, then \({\text{x}}^{'} = {\text{x}} + 0.1\left| {\text{x}} \right|\).

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Patricia Mokhtarian and three anonymous referees for their constructive comments and criticism that greatly helped us improve the presentation of our work. We would also like to thank the National Science Foundation for providing funding support for the research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. HEC Hautes Etudes Commerciales, Université de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland

    Marcel Paulssen

  2. Schumpeter School of Business and Economics, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany

    Dirk Temme

  3. University of California at Berkeley, 116 McLaughlin Hall, Berkeley, CA, 94720-1720, USA

    Akshay Vij

  4. University of California at Berkeley, 111 McLaughlin Hall, Berkeley, CA, 94720-1720, USA

    Joan L. Walker

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  1. Marcel Paulssen
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  2. Dirk Temme
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Correspondence to Marcel Paulssen.

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Paulssen, M., Temme, D., Vij, A. et al. Values, attitudes and travel behavior: a hierarchical latent variable mixed logit model of travel mode choice. Transportation 41, 873–888 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-013-9504-3

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