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Ceder, Chowdhury 2 1. INTRODUCTION Environmental concerns such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emission have been a continuous global battle which is evident by environmental acts such as the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Environmental experts are suggesting more sustainable means of transport for commuters such as cycling, carpooling and public transport to reduce the amount of CO2 emission generated from the road [1, 2]. When commuting, individuals may choose between public (e.g. bus, train, or ferry) and private modes of transport (e.g. automobile, bicycle or walking). There are many factors that may influence the choice of travel mode, including infrastructure (e.g. availability of public transport options), financial status and psychological factors (e.g. perceptions of safety) [3]. Of all travel options, the private car, has dominated commuters’ choice in New Zealand and many other countries [3]. Car users consider cars to be a symbol of status, to be convenient, dependable, flexible, and safe and do not think environmental factors are a reason to shift to public transport. They over-estimate the positive attributes of private cars and underplay the negative attributes of owning a car [4]. Literature has shown that public transportation users had the least positive attitude towards their selection of mode choice. Cognitive effort of public transportation users was the highest compared to other mode users due to daily public transport commutes being perceived as being stressful and boring [5]. This poor image of public transport perceived by users and non-users has led to the mode share of public transport to be persistently low globally. Commuters’ heavy reliance on private cars has been linked with increases in travel time due to roadway congestion. Successful public transportation has the potential to help mitigate the congestion problem. Provisions such as bus priorities have the potential to reduce peak hour congestion by increasing bus patronage [6]. However, with the fast pace of modern lifestyle, commuters require a higher level of services from public transportation. Due to nature of how origins and destinations are dispersed, it is not feasible for public transportation operators to provide direct route services between each and every origin/destination pairs. Thus passengers are required to make transfers between vehicles. However, when passengers need to transfer, they must perform additional cognitive effort which reduces the attractiveness of public transportation [7]. Literature has shown that travellers place severe penalties on routes with interchange [8]. Missing a connection while making a transfer can often substantially negatively affect quantitative attributes such as travel time, waiting time as well as qualitative attributes such as anxiety, comfort and safety. Understanding user requirements is essential to planning routes with transfers. In order to increase the attractiveness of public transportation especially in regards to routes involving interchange, it is necessary to understand how travellers evaluate the interchange attributes and how this evaluation process can be positively influenced. 1.1 Research Objective This research has two objectives. First, to determine the interchange attributes which have the greatest influence on traveller’s intention to use routes with interchanges. Second, to produce a conceptual framework of traveller’s intention to use routes with interchanges which is to be later developed into a detail model. Following this introductory section are section 2 which outlines the literature review conducted for this study, section 3 which outlines the data collection process, section 4 provides the discussion of the results, section 5 outlines the need and plan for future research and lastly section 6, is the conclusion. TRB 2012 Annual Meeting Paper revised from original submittal.
