Exploring the role of social capital influence variables on travel behaviour

• Explores the potential role of social capital network variables in the choice of transport mode.
• Incorporates two social capital network variables (i.e. Voluntary and Helped) directly into a Mixed Logit (ML) model.
• Characterizes preferences and social environment of people regarding the use of public transport, walking and car.
• Policy makers could enlarge their criteria including social capital influence for deciding on transport policy.

This paper explores the potential role of individual trip characteristics and social capital network variables in the choice of transport mode. A sample of around 100 individuals living or working in one suburb of Madrid (i.e. Las Rosas district of Madrid) participated in a smartphone short panel survey, entering travel data for an entire working week. A Mixed Logit model was estimated with this data to analyze shifts to metro as a consequence of the opening of two new stations in the area. Apart from classical explanatory variables, such as travel time and cost, gender, license and car ownership, the model incorporated two “social capital network” variables: participation in voluntary activities and receiving help for various tasks (i.e. child care, housekeeping, etc.). Both variables improved the capacity of the model to explain transport mode shifts. Further, our results confirm that the shift towards metro was higher in the case of people “helped” and lower for those participating in some voluntary activities.