Study on willingness to use Non-motorized modes in a tier 3 city: A case study in India

Abstract

Urbanization and population escalated Motorized Vehicles (MVs) use and caused serious environmental, health and traffic issues. These can be tackled by increasing Non-Motorized Vehicles (NMVs, walk and Bicycle) share and decreasing the MV usage. The purpose of this paper is to study the potential of NMVs usage in Rewa city (Tier 3), India. Many studies have been conducted in Tier 1 and 2 cities of India to get an insight on willingness to use NMVs but Tier 3 cities are seldom studied. This study is an attempt to explore the factors that influence NMV usage. Are these factors different from those of Tier 1 and 2 cities? Revealed Preference (RP) and Stated Preference (SP) data was collected using a paper questionnaire and both mandatory and non-mandatory trips were studied and certain MV restrictive and NMV oriented policies were asked. It was found that 27 and 11 percent of the respondents of mandatory and non-mandatory trips were currently using NMVs. It was also observed that as the age, occupation level, income level, vehicle occupancy increases the willingness to use NMVs increases and it decreases rapidly after 3kms in both types of trips. Logistic regression models were developed, to estimate the probability of willingness to use NMVs which showed an accuracy of 80 percent in the prediction of willingness level. The study gives an insight on factors influencing the NMV usage and are compared with large cities, moreover, it helps in understanding various infrastructural and policy provisions that can encourage NMV usage.