Exploring the effects of university campus decentralization to students' mode choice

Abstract

Mobility patterns and travel behavior aspects of students traveling to universities, are gaining attention, as the completion of such every day trips are rather complicated. University students form a social group, essentially autonomous in terms of mode choice decision making. Understanding the mode choice decision process, may reveal the most appropriate interventions for achieving sustainable transport goals. The current study aims to examine various aspects of university students' travel bahaviour such as travel distance, travel time, comfort and safety in the city of Xanthi, Greece. Moving a step forward, the paper provides a better understanding of students' travel patterns in two different environments due to the University relocation from an urban environment to a more isolated one. For this purpose, a questionnaire survey is conducted where students describe their travel habits before and after the relocation. In addition, students are given a choice set comprised of eight different factors hypothesized to internalize the effect of the relocation on mode choice for the trips to and from the University and they are asked to prioritize them ranking them from the most significant one to the least important. For the analysis two Multinomial Logit models are developed. The results verify initial considerations; distance and time are the most important factors for both cases while the use of public transport instead of walking increases the importance of economy and safety.