Capturing Travelers' Stated Mode Choice Preferences Under Influence of Income in Yangon City, Myanmar

Focusing on the role of a new transit system (NTS) in mitigating current and future potential traffic issues in Yangon City of Myanmar, this paper attempts to analyze the mode choice behavior based on a stated preference (SP) survey. In comparison with developed countries, developing countries are characterized by rapidly changing socio-economic environments (especially, income). It is required to reflect the influence of such decision context in both survey method and modeling framework. Therefore, SP survey is first designed to incorporate the influence of future income, as well as other level-of-service attributes, whereas a revealed preference (RP) survey is also prepared. Second, a RP/SP combined mode choice model is estimated in which the parameters of travel time and cost are defined as a function of future income, respectively. A SP survey was conducted at a residential area of Yangon City in March 2003. This is the first SP survey done in Myanmar. Respondents show the highest preference of NTS among travel modes. The effectiveness of the proposed model structure was empirically confirmed. Furthermore, simulation analysis suggests that future income will bring about a potentially large increase in car usage and consequently reduction in transit systems.