By Md. Bashirul Haque, Md. Mahmudul Huque Chayan, Masud Rana
Keywords: School trip, discrete choice, multinomial logit, stated preference, attributes
Choice of travel modes for school trip are modeled in this paper using discrete choice analysis to identify the most influential factors that induces people to use school bus. A Multinomial Logit (MNL) mode choice model was developed in this regard using Stated Preference (SP) surveys. Model was generalized using two case studies; Blue Bird School & College and Scholarshome. Both of the schools are located in Sylhet City Corporation (SCC) area, one of the major city of Bangladesh located north east part of the country. Attributes and their levels for SP survey were taken from preliminary survey conducted on the guardians. From model output, travel time, travel cost, teacher as supervising person and separate bus service for each school were found more influential factors for guardians to consider school bus for their children. Socio economic characteristics of guardians were also found significant to travel mode choice for school trip of their children. The results of the study can help the Sylhet city authority to formulate school bus related policies to reduce the number of vehicles on the roadway. The findings can also be useful for other cities of Bangladesh as well as for other developing countries, particularly those in Asia, which share similar socio-economic characteristics.