Mtech Thesis

Experiments to Understand Selection of Departure Time Behavior of Indian Trip Makers
by
S.P.Sarvani
to the
Department of Civil Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

August, 2010
Experiments to Understand Selection of Departure Time Behavior of Indian Trip Makers

A Thesis Submitted In Partial Fullment of the Requirements for the Degree of
MASTER OF TECHNOLOGY
by
S.P.Sarvani
to the
Department of Civil Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

August, 2010
Certicate
This is to certify that the work contained in the thesis entitled Experiments to understand selection of departure time behavior of Indian trip makers, by S.P.Sarvani (Roll No: Y8103031), has been carried out under my supervision and that this work has not been submitted elsewhere for a degree.
Dr. Partha Chakroborty Professor Department of Civil Engineering I.I.T.Kanpur
Date:
August, 2010
ii
Acknowledgements
I am deeply indebted to my thesis supervisor, Professor Partha Chakroborty for his unwavering support, guidance and encouragement without which completion of my M.Tech program would not have been possible. His innovative ideas provided the foundation of this work and his encouragement and pursuit for perfection greatly enhanced its quality. I also express my sincere thanks for his eorts in going through the manuscript carefully and making it more readable. It has been a great learning and life-changing experience working with him. I would like to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Animesh Das who has always provided me constant encouragement and enriching my knowledge of Pavement engineering. I would also like to thank Dr. Sanjay Kumar Singh of IIM Lucknow for helping me design the questionnaire used in this thesis. I would also like to thank Mr.Surender Yadav of Campus taxi Service for helping me with collection of data for this thesis. I express my sincere thanks to the Transportation group for making my stay at IIT Kanpur a richer experience. I thank my seniors Arpan, Prateek, Pradeep and Raja for always being there to lend a helping hand and constantly egging me to do better, My classmates Avinash, Priyanka, Islaq and Heena for their unwavering support and for making all those stressful times joyful moments and juniors Sudhir, Subrata and Devendra for making my stay at IIT Kanpur a memorable experience. I would like to thank my friends Payal, Divya, Priyanka, Amrapalli, Rana, Kiran, Manash, Nareen and Pavani for their support and varied point of views which helped me see the positive side of many dicult situation. I would like to thank Mausumi Di for her constant support and timely advice. I would also like to thank my friend Kaustubh for his support and making dicult times bearable. This acknowledgement would be incomplete without a mention of my brother PVRT, without whom I would not be the person I am. Lastly I would like to thank my parents iii
iv for their constant support and faith in me.
S.P.Sarvani
Dedicated To My Family
ABSTRACT
Very little eort has been made to understand departure time choices of trip makers, especially Indian trip makers, although it has been identied that departure time decisions along with route choices and mode choices are indications of trip makers response to any changes in the transportation system. In this thesis eort has been made to understand departure time decisions of Indian trip makers. Departure time has been studied in terms of gap times and buer times in this thesis. It was found that time of day of making the trip and the purpose of making the trip have an eect on the choice of gap times and buer times. Keywords: Departure time choice, Factors aecting, Gap time, Buer time.
vi
List of Tables
4.1 Break-up of respondents by age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
5.1
Comparison of gap times for dierent times of day of ocial trips to airport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
5.2
Comparison of gap times for dierent times of day of personal trips (alone) to airport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
5.3
Comparison of gap times for dierent times of day of personal trips (group) to airport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5.4
Comparison of gap times for dierent times of day of trips made to airport to receive guest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5.5
Comparison of gap times for dierent times of day of ocial trips to station . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
5.6
Comparison of gap times for dierent times of day of personal trips (alone) to station . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
5.7
Comparison of gap times for dierent times of day of personal trips (group) to station . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.8
Comparison of gap times for dierent times of day of trips made to station to receive guest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
vii
viii 5.9 Comparison of gap times for ocial trip and personal trip alone to airport for dierent ight times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.10 Comparison of gap times for personal trip alone and personal trip made in group to airport for dierent ight times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.11 Comparison of gap times for personal trip made alone to airport and to receive guest at airport for dierent ight times . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.12 Comparison of gap times for ocial trip and personal trip(alone)for trains at dierent times of day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 36 35 34
5.13 Comparison of gap times for personal trip(alone) and personal trip(group)for trains at dierent times of day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.14 Comparison of gap times for personal trip(alone) and trips to receive guests for trains at dierent times of day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.15 Comparison of means of buer times for dierent times of day for ocial trip to the airport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.16 Comparison of means of buer times for dierent times of day for ocial trip to the airport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.17 Comparison of means of buer times for dierent times of day for ocial trip to the airport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.18 Comparison of means of buer times for dierent times of day for ocial trip to the airport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.19 Comparison of means of buer times for dierent times of day for ocial trip to the station . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.20 Comparison of means of buer times for dierent times of day for personal trip (alone) to the station . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 45 44 43 42 41 39 38
ix 5.21 Comparison of means of buer times for dierent times of day for personal trip (group) to the airport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.22 Comparison of means of buer times for dierent times of day for ocial trip to the airport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.23 Comparison of means of buer times for dierent trip purposes for trips to catch 9:00 am ight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.24 Comparison of means of buer times for dierent trip purposes for trips to catch Noon ight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 50 48 47
5.25 Comparison of means of buer times for dierent trip purposes for trips to catch 3:00 pm ight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.26 Comparison of means of buer times for dierent trip purposes for trips to catch 6:00 pm ight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.27 Comparison of means of buer times for dierent trip purposes for trips to catch 8:00 pm ight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.28 Comparison of means of buer times for dierent trip purposes for trips to catch 4:00 am train . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.29 Comparison of means of buer times for dierent trip purposes for trips to catch 10:00 am train . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.30 Comparison of means of buer times for dierent trip purposes for trips to catch Noon train . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.31 Comparison of means of buer times for dierent trip purposes for trips to catch 6:00 pm train . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.32 Comparison of means of buer times for dierent trip purposes for trips to catch 9:00 pm train . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 58 57 56 55 54 53 52
x 5.33 Comparison of means of buer times for dierent trip purposes for trips to catch Midnight train . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
List of Figures
4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 Sample of travel time questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Plot of travel time and departure time to airport from IITK . . . . . . Plot of average travel time and departure time to airport from IITK . . Plot of travel time and departure time to station from IITK . . . . . . Plot of average travel time and departure time to station from IITK . . Social information of the participant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Plot of Gap time against departure time of ights for ocial trips . . . 15 15 16 17 18 18 22
Plot of Gap time against departure time of ights for personal trip (alone) 23 Plot of Gap time against departure time of ights for personal trip (family) 24 24 25
4.10 Plot of Gap time against arrival time of ights for guest trip . . . . . . 4.11 Plot of gap time against departure time of train for ocial trip . . . . .
4.12 Plot of gap time against departure time of train for personal trip (alone) 25 4.13 Plot of gap time against departure time of train for personal trip (family) 26 4.14 Plot of gap time against arrival time of train for guest trip . . . . . . . 26
xi
Contents
Certicate
ii
Acknowledgements
iii
Abstract
vi
List of Tables
vi
List of Figures
xi
List of Contents
xii
1 Introduction
2 Problem Statement, Literature Review and Motivation 2.1 2.2 2.3 Problem Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Literature review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Motivation and Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3 3 4 6
xii
xiii 3 Discussion on departure time selection 3.1 3.2 Selection of Departure Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Eect of various factors on Departure Time Choice . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.1 3.2.2 3.2.3 3.2.4 3.3 Eect of Trip Purpose on departure time selection . . . . . . . . Eect of time of day on departure time selection . . . . . . . . . Eect of perception of travel time on departure time selection . Eect of certain other factors upon departure time selection . . 7 8 8 9 10 10 11 12
Proposed data collection method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4 Data Collection 4.1 Collection of actual travel time data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.1 Data on trip time to Amausi Airport,Lucknow at dierent times of day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.2 Data on trip time to Kanpur Central Railway Station at dierent times of day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2 Design of Stated Preference Experiment for obtaining Departure time data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.1 4.2.2 Gap time data for Amausi Airport,Lucknow . . . . . . . . . . . Gap time data for Kanpur Central Railway Station . . . . . . .
13 14
15
16
17 21 22
5 Results and discussion 5.1 Eect of time of day on Gap time selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
27 28
xiv 5.2 5.3 5.4 Eect of trip purpose on Gap time selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Eect of other factors on gap time selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Comparison of perceived travel time and gap time selection . . . . . . . 5.4.1 5.4.2 Buer time comparison for dierent times of day . . . . . . . . Buer time comparison for dierent trip purposes . . . . . . . . 32 36 38 40 40
6 Conclusion and future scope
61
A Example Questionnaire
66
Chapter 1 Introduction
It has been observed that any changes in a transport system are reected by changes in departure times or route changes or changes in mode by the commuters. Though lot of research has been carried out to understand changes in the route choice and the mode choice decisions but very little eort has been dedicated to understand changes in departure time decisions. Departure time modications can be used as a tool to spread peak hour trac over a longer period of time, which in turn will help diuse concentration of peak period demand and thus will help in smoother functioning of transportation system. This can be done only by understanding users choice of departure time and the factors that aect it. Though some eort has been made to understand the same, major amount of work has been done to understand and model trip makers choice of departure time for work trips. Very little work has been done to understand the eect of trip purpose upon a commuters choice of departure time. Also no research has been carried out in an Indian context to understand how Indian trip makers choose departure times. Indian trip makers decisions might be a little dierent from those made by trip makers in other nations primarily because of trac conditions that are unique to Indian roads; these conditions often lead to large variances in travel time. This thesis aims at understanding the eect of various factors such as time of day during 1
2 which a trip is made (as a surrogate for expected travel times), purpose of making the trip, factors such as age, frequency of travel etc on choice of departure times by an Indian trip maker. In order to understand the behavior, a stated preference survey was carried out on departure time decisions to Choudhary Charan Singh Airport, Lucknow and Kanpur Central Railway Station. Forty respondents were interviewed for this purpose. Eort has been made to understand the eect of various factors upon departure time choices of these respondents. Also values of perceived travel times of some of the respondents to the previous survey have been collected and study has been conducted to understand how perceived travel time compares to the selected departure time of that individual as well as the actual travel time. Actual travel time data has been collected for trips made to Choudhary Charan Singh Airport, Lucknow and Kanpur Central Railway Station to understand how actual travel time varies on these routes. The thesis is divided into six chapters including this. In Chapter 2 problem statement, review of past literature related to the problem at hand and the motivation for and scope of this work have been discussed. Chapter 3 discusses the departure time decisions of trip makers and how dierent factors might aect it. In Chapter 4 the experiment methodology for the work and the data obtained from the experiments are presented. Chapter 5 discusses the results obtained from analyzing the data. The last Chapter concludes the thesis by highlighting the contributions of this thesis and identifying areas for future work.
Chapter 2 Problem Statement, Literature Review and Motivation

The problem of selection of departure time by Indian trip maker is presented rst, followed by review of previous literature related to this topic and nally the motivation for this thesis is presented.
2.1
Problem Statement
Route choice, mode choice and departure time choice are the most important responses to any changes in a transportation system. Transport planners are increasingly trying to diuse the peak hour trac for which changes in departure times has been suggested as a potential solution. This calls for better understanding of departure time decisions by the users for various trips made to dierent trips. Departure time choice of individuals depends upon various factors such as frequency of travel, perceived travel time or as a surrogate the the time of day during which the trip is made, and purpose of trip. So while selecting a departure time a trip maker usually considers the time of day during which s/he has to make the trip as this gives him/her
4 an idea of the trac condition at that time, after this s/he factors in their perceived travel time which is based on learning from their past experiences in that route and lastly the purpose of making the trip which gives a measure of the importance of trip. All these factors and the trip makers social and economic background contribute to their departure time choice for a particular trip. The eect of all these factors upon an individuals choice of departure time is discussed in Chapter 5. The next section describes the existing literature on understanding departure time choice.
2.2
Literature review
Departure time choice, along with route choice and mode choice has been recognized as an important response to any changes made in the system, as mentioned earlier. Mode choice and route choice have received substantial attention in travel demand modelling but little attention has been paid to departure time choice. Over the past years researchers (Abkowitz, 1981, Small, 1982, Hendrickson and Plank, 1984, Mannering 1989, Chin, 1990, Mahmassani and Jou, 1996 and Bhat, 1998) have tried to understand departure time behavior of the user. Most of the research but for Bhat (1998) were carried out to understand departure time choice process for work trips and all these studies have noted how departure times can be controlled as a solution for mitigation of congestion during peak times. Study of factors aecting departure time has not been conducted till date, it has always been secondary. Bhat (1998) tried to jointly model mode choice and departure time choice for shopping trips in urban areas. Mannering [7] (1989) shows the impact of trac system characteristics and socioeconomic conditions on frequency of changes in routes and departure time choices. Chin [5] (1990) employs multinomial logit and simultaneous nested logit analysis to model the choice of departure time (using household data collected in Singapore in 1983). It was shown that schedule delay, travel cost, and journey time aect commuters choice of
5 trip departure time to work. Small [9] (1982) worked on scheduling of work trips and can be considered in some senses to have started understanding of departure time choices. It was found that urban commuters shifted their schedule to save travel time and this shift was largely governed by family status, occupation, transportation mode and employers policy toward work time exibility. Abkowitz [2] (1981) has developed a choice model for departure time using UTDFP data set. This data set consisted of choices of 991 commuters in San Francisco Bay area under 1972 conditions. Work schedule exibility, mode, occupation, income, age and level of service were found to inuence the departure time decision. A departure time model was also developed for transit commuters, single occupant automobile and carpool work travellers. Batley et al. [3] (2001) have simulated departure time choices and generated a data set of 10,000 observations for trips made in morning from 6:30 am up to 10:00 am to understand behavior during morning peak hours. The authors assume that travellers choice of departure time is such that the utility of chosen departure time is maximum. This utility is assumed to be dependent on travel time for a chosen departure time, travellers preferred arrival time and a penalty term for perceived loss due to late arrival (i.e., arrival later than the preferred arrival time). Bhat [4] (1998) has used data obtained from the San Francisco Bay Area Household Travel Survey conducted by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) in spring and fall of 1990 to formulate a joint model of mode and departure time choice for non-work trips specially shopping trips in urban areas. The joint model was formulated using a nesting structure with mode selection at higher level of hierarchy and departure time selection at lower level. Departure time was found to be dependent upon the mode choice. It was found that employment status, age, sex and trip destination aect the choice of departure time. Employed individuals were found to shop in the evening and were more prone to travel alone for shopping as compared to unemployed individuals.
6 Older individuals and women were found to prefer shopping during the day as compared to evening shopping trends of younger individuals. People were also found to avoid main shopping districts during the evenings. Perception of travel time was also found to inuence departure time choices by Chang et al. [9] (1988). They say that an urban commuter adjusts his/her departure time choice according to how they predict travel time, which is inuenced by commuters own experience such as travel time. As can be seen in the above cited literature almost entire bulk of work was carried out for understanding and modelling departure time choices for work trips. Only Bhat (1998) modelled departure time choice for shopping trips in urban areas. However no work has been carried out for understanding departure time choices for Indian conditions and for dierent trip purposes.
2.3
Motivation and Scope
The motivation of the present work comes from the lack of work on understanding departure time choice in Indian context and from lack of work dedicated to understanding various factors that aect departure time choices. This thesis concentrates on understanding:
1. Eect of trip purpose on departure time selection. 2. Eect of time of day during which trip is made on departure time selection. 3. Eect of perception of travel time on departure time selection. 4. Eect of social factors on departure time selection, and 5. Eect of actual travel time on perception of travel time as actual travel time inuences a persons perception of travel time.
Chapter 3 Discussion on departure time selection

As mentioned in the previous chapter the aim of this thesis is to understand how departure time choice is aected by
1. time of day, 2. trip purpose, 3. travel time perception of the user, and 4. social factors such as age, frequency of travel etc.
This chapter is divided in to three sections. The rst section discusses selection of departure time, second the eect of the factors mentioned above in selection of departure time and nally the third section introduces the proposed data collection procedure.
3.1
Selection of Departure Time
Decision to travel involves choosing a destination, route and mode of travel. Finally a persons decision to travel to a particular destination through a chosen route using a chosen mode of transport also involves choosing a departure time. A persons choice of departure time is such that s/he prefers to reach their destination at the same time as that of the start of their activity, not early nor late. Therefore, departure time choice of a commuter depends upon his/her perception of travel time, frequency of travel to the destination, purpose of making the trip and various other social factors such as age etc. For the purpose of studying this, departure time decisions of a study population have to be collected. A stated preference study was conducted to obtain departure time selection of the selected population. The faculty of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur was the survey population. Departure time choices of the surveyed population for travel to Choudhary Charan Singh Airport (also known as Amausi Airport), Lucknow and to Kanpur Central railway station were collected for this study. These choices of departure time were collected for trips made to catch ights or trains leaving at dierent times of the day and for dierent trip purposes such as travelling for an ocial purpose, or travelling alone or in a group (family or friends) for personal purpose, and nally, travelling to receive a guest arriving at the station or airport. Details of design of the stated preference survey are provided in the next chapter on data collection.
3.2
Eect of various factors on Departure Time Choice
As mentioned in the previous section factors such as perceived travel time, trip purpose, time of day during which the trip is made and social factors such as age, sex and
9 frequency of travel aect the choice of departure time of a commuter. This section deals with understanding how these factors could possibly aect choice of departure time.
3.2.1
Eect of Trip Purpose on departure time selection
Purpose of making a trip determines the time of departure for that trip. For example if a person is starting on an important ocial trip s/he might start a little earlier than is their wont so that they can reach their destination on time or a little before the start time. Similarly if the same person is leaving for shopping trip then they would start leisurely as they are no hurry to reach their destination. In the rst case the person may suer a great loss or might get a professional set back by being late for their ocial work whereas in the second case there is no such penalty. In the study described in previous section departure time selections for four dierent trip purposes have been collected. The trip categories (for trips made to airport or station) studied here are:
1. Ocial trip, 2. Personal trip made alone, 3. Personal trips made in a group and 4. Trips made to receive a guest.
From the trip purposes mentioned above it can be said that a person travelling for an ocial trip will start earlier than or at the same time as a person travelling alone on a personal trip, as it can be generally assumed that a person usually travels alone for an ocial trip. A person travelling in a group for a personal purpose will start earlier than a person travelling alone on a personal purpose. In depth analysis of the eect of trip purpose is provided in Chapter 5.
10
3.2.2
Eect of time of day on departure time selection
Time of day during which trip is made to a large extent aects the selection of departure time irrespective of trip purpose. Time of making the trip determines the time a person will have to travel to reach his/her destination. Trac conditions change as the day progresses. In a typical urban scenario, trac conditions worsen during oce start times or school start times because during this period of the day almost the entire work force of the region travels to reach their respective destination, namely work place or schools. At this time the time taken to travel to any destination is the maximum and also the trac congestion during this time is the greatest lending uncertainty to the travel time. This in turn leads to people choosing their departure time such that they reach their destination by factoring the greater travel time and uncertainty in estimating travel time. In the study, mentioned in the previous section, departure time selection of dierent ights and trains leaving at dierent times of the day from Amausi Airport or Kanpur central railway station was collected. For this questions were asked on preference of departure time choice for ights or trains leaving at dierent times of the day.
3.2.3
Eect of perception of travel time on departure time selection
Perception of what the travel time might be depends upon the past experiences of a person, i.e., the time user experiences while travelling on a route previously. This perception of time of a person colors his/her choice of time they think will take them to reach a particular destination. Hence, this to a large extent aects the choice of departure time of a person. For example, a person whose past experience on a particular route was of long travel times will start earlier than a person travelling by the same route whose experience was of shorter travel times. It is expected that this perception of travel time will change with the number of times a person travels on a particular
11 route and also on varied experiences of that person on that route. To nd the eect of perception of travel time upon selection of travel time, perceptions of travel time of the surveyed population of the study described above are to be collected. This is described in detail in Chapter 5. As mentioned above perception of travel time is to a large extent based upon the actual travel times experienced by the commuter in his/her travels along a particular route. Actual travel times for routes to Amausi airport and Kanpur Central Railway station are also to be collected. How this data has been collected is described in the next chapter, i.e Chapter 4.
3.2.4
Eect of certain other factors upon departure time selection
Demographic factors such as age of the commuter and sex of the commuter aect the choice of departure time of a person. Age of a commuter has an eect on departure time choice of a person. Older people are generally considered to be more risk averse as compared to younger people, i.e. they will start earlier for a journey than a younger person. Sex of the commuter also plays an important role in the selection of departure time of a commuter. Female commuters are generally assumed to start earlier than male commuters. They are generally considered to be more sensitive to any changes in travel times. Frequency of travel of a commuter on various routes also determines the choice of departure time of that person. Frequent travellers will start later than infrequent travellers as they have better knowledge of routes and travel times on these routes. Also an infrequent traveller will not have any idea of potential disturbances in a particular route which a frequent traveller is well aware of. This makes frequency of travel an important factor in selection of departure time.
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3.3
Proposed data collection method
To understand the eect of all the above described factors upon departure time selection data as described above is to be collected. A stated preference experiment has been designed to collect departure time choices for trips made to Amausi airport and Kanpur Central Railway Station at dierent times of the day and for dierent trip purposes of faculty of Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and another experiment was designed and executed to nd the actual travel times on routes to Amausi airport and Kanpur Central Railway station. Detailed explanation of design and execution of these experiments is provided in Chapter 4.
Chapter 4 Data Collection

The current study aims at studying the eect of various factors such as trip purpose, time of day of the proposed trip, actual travel time and social factors such as age, sex and frequency of travel on departure time choices of a trip maker. For this purpose, a study on human travel behavior is proposed and conducted with faculty of Indian Institute of Technology,Kanpur as the surveyed population. In particular, their behavior when they travel to Kanpur Central Railway Station and to Choudhary Charan Singh Airport (also known as Amausi Airport),Lucknow are studied. The benets of studying this population is that the population is relatively homogenous and travels frequently to both the said destinations at dierent times of the day. Moreover, most faculty use taxis to travel to these destinations and drivers are all professionals who have a good knowledge of roads and their characteristics at dierent time of the day. The study has been conducted in a two simultaneous directions.
1. The rst part of study is to collect data on actual travel time on routes to Kanpur Central Railway Station and Amausi Airport,Lucknow. 2. Second part of study is to collect data on departure time choices of trip makers, who in this case are from the faculty of Indian Institute of Technology,Kanpur. This is a stated preference study in which data on age,sex,frequency of travel 13
14 and departure time choices to catch ight or train at dierent time of day are collected.
This chapter describes data collection methods used in this study.
4.1
Collection of actual travel time data
Actual travel time data has been collected for dierent routes at dierent time of day to Kanpur Central Railway Station and Amausi Airport,Lucknow. Of several data collection methods which exist in practice to obtain data on travel time,of which Test Vehicle Technique was found to be best suited for the proposed purpose. Test Vehicle Technique or Floating car is the most common travel time data collection technique in which a vehicle is specically sent out into the trac stream to collect data on travel time for that route. Data collection is done by personnel in the vehicle. All data is collected manually using pen and paper. Drivers of Campus Taxi Services were requested to collect this data as they are primary supplier of taxis to the faculty for trips to airport and railway station. They were provided with a questionnaire in which they had to note their departure time from IITK and arrival time at the trip destination. They have been requested to give their names, route taken to reach the destination and description of any major disturbance they might have encountered along the route. Provision has been made for passengers signature to be sure of the data quality.Data has been noted in the form shown in Figure 4.1: Questionnaires of dierent colors were provided to drivers to do away with any confusion in collection of data.Pink colored sheets were provided to collect data for airport and green colored sheets were provided to collect data for railway station.
15
Figure 4.1: Sample of travel time questionnaire
4.1.1
Data on trip time to Amausi Airport,Lucknow at dierent times of day
Data for 86 trips between IIT Kanpur and Amausi Airport,Lucknow was collected.This data was collected over a period of six months starting from August 2009 to January 2010 for trips made at dierent times of the day.Figure 4.2 shows the travel time values with respect to the departure times from IIT Kanpur for dierent times of the day:
Figure 4.2: Plot of travel time and departure time to airport from IITK
16 As it can be observed in Figure 4.2 trips start from around 3:45 AM and the last trip is around 7:30 PM which is consistent with the ight schedule from Amausi Airport.It can also be seen that any trip to Amausi Airport takes about 1:30 hours minimum to about 3:15 hours maximum with most trips taking about 2 to 2:30 hours on an average.Mean travel time was found to be 2:08 hours with standard deviation 6.46 minutes. To observe changes in actual travel time with respect to the time of day during which the trip is made, average travel times for 2 hour intervals were calculated. Figure 4.3 shows the average travel time values with respect to average departure times to airport from IIT Kanpur. As can be observed from Figure 4.3 the average travel times of trips made to airport vary with the time of day during which trip is made.
Figure 4.3: Plot of average travel time and departure time to airport from IITK
4.1.2
Data on trip time to Kanpur Central Railway Station at dierent times of day
Data for 50 trips between IIT Kanpur and Amausi Airport,Lucknow was collected.This data was collected over a period of four months starting from January 2010 to April 2010 for trips made at dierent times of the day.Figure 4.4 shows the travel time values with respect to the departure times from IIT Kanpur for dierent times of the day:
17
Figure 4.4: Plot of travel time and departure time to station from IITK
As it can be observed in Figure 4.4 trips start from around 3:00 AM and the last trip is around 11:30 PM which is consistent with the train schedule from Kanpur Central Railway Station. It can also be seen that any trip to Kanpur Central Railway Station takes about 30 minutes minimum to about 1:45 hours maximum with most trips taking about 30 minutes to 1:30 hours on an average. Mean travel time was found to be 52 minutes with standard deviation 3.5 minutes. Figure 4.5 shows the average travel time values with respect to average departure times to station from IIT Kanpur. As can be observed from Figure 4.5 the average travel times of trips made to station vary with the time of day during which trip is made.
4.2
Design of Stated Preference Experiment for obtaining Departure time data
As mentioned earlier the second part of survey is to nd the actual departure time choices of surveyed population which in this case is the faculty of Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.A questionnaire was designed to obtain behavioral information of the surveyed population.In this questionnaire information about the respondent,such
18
Figure 4.5: Plot of average travel time and departure time to station from IITK
as frequency of travel to Lucknow airport and Kanpur Central Railway Station, sex of the respondent and age of the person, is rst obtained.This information is collected in the following format(Figure 4.6):
Figure 4.6: Social information of the participant
Age group of the person and frequency of travel is also obtained. Respondents were asked to give their frequency of travel in terms of number of trips in a month or bimonthly or half yearly etc as they nd it convienient and this frequency is then scaled to frequency of travel in a year.
19 Subsequent questions of the questionnaire aim at obtaining the departure time choices of the respondent at various times of the day to Lucknow airport and Kanpur Central Railway Station.This section is divided into two subsections, each of which aims at nding out what respondents preference would be for dierent trips to the airport and railway station;for dierent trip purposes such as receiving guests or self-travel. In the rst subsection departure time choices are obtained from the respondent for ights leaving at 7:00 am, 9:00 am, Noon,3:00 pm, 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm from Lucknow airport for dierent trip purposes such as when the person is travelling for ocial purpose or personal purpose (either alone or with a group such as family or friends) and to receive guest arriving at the airport at the said timings. These timings were chosen such that they are as close as possible to the actual ight departure times from Lucknow airport. This id done so that respondents can identify with the ights and give as realistic answer as possible in this stated preference experiment. The timings are spread across the day to study how respondents behavior changes with any change in travel time over the course of the day. In the second subsection departure time choices for trains leaving at 4:00 am, 10:00 am, Noon, 6:00 pm, 9:00 pm and Midnight from Kanpur Central Railway Station for same trip purposes as described above (ocial trip, personal trip when travelling alone or with a group and trip to receive guest coming at that time). As mentioned earlier these departure times of trains from the station are chosen such that they closely relate to actual departure time from Kanpur Central Railway Station. These timings are spread over the day such that they cover all trac conditions and we obtain departure time decisions when respondent considers various factors that aect travel time such as peak hour trac etc. An example questionnaire is given in Appendix A. Here some of the questions are discussed. For example: A.1: Preferred departure time for Lucknow airport. 1.(a)You are on an ocial trip and have to catch a ight from Lucknow departing at
20 7:00 am, when would you prefer to start from IITK?
(b) Will you change your departure time if you are travelling on a personal trip alone? If yes, then what will your departure time be in this situation.
(c) If you are travelling with family or friends on a personal trip will your departure time change? If so, then when will you start?
(d) If you have to receive a guest arriving at 7:00 am at Lucknow airport, when would you prefer leaving IIT?
Stated preference for departure time for the above described questions were obtained by interviewing the respondents. A total of 40 respondents were used. Frequency of travel to airport ranged from 0.25 to 48 trips per year,whereas frequency of travel to station ranged from 3 to 78 times per year.
21
Most of the respondents were of the age group 40-45 years. 13 respondents of the 40 who were interviewed belonged to this age group.Break-up of respondents by age is shown in the following table(Table 4.1): Table 4.1: Break-up of respondents by age Age group 25-30 30-35 35-40 40-45 45-50 50-55 55-60 60-65 Number of respondents 2 8 5 13 5 4 2 1 Percentage 5 20 12.5 32.5 12.5 10 5 2.5
In the following, the data on departure times obtained from the survey are presented. The data is presented in terms of Gap time. Gap time is dened as the dierence between ight departure time or train departure time and the selected departure time of the respondent.
4.2.1
Gap time data for Amausi Airport,Lucknow
Departure time choices of respondents for dierent ights at dierent times of day were collected.Figure 4.7 shows the distribution of gap time with respect to dierent departure times of ights for an ocial trip. Figure 4.8 shows the distribution of gap time with respect to dierent departure times of ights for personal trip which is made
22
Figure 4.7: Plot of Gap time against departure time of ights for ocial trips
alone. Figure 4.9 shows the distribution of gap time with respect to dierent departure times of ights for personal trip made with a group(might be friends or family). Figure 4.10 shows the distribution of gap time with respect to dierent departure times of ights for trip to receive guest arriving at the airport at the given time. Detailed analysis with this data is given later.
4.2.2
Gap time data for Kanpur Central Railway Station
Departure time choices of respondents for dierent trains at dierent times of day were collected.Figure 4.11 shows the distribution of gap time with respect to dierent departure times of trains for an ocial trip. Figure 4.12 shows the distribution of gap time with respect to dierent departure times of trains for personal trips which are made alone. Figure 4.13 shows the distribution of gap time with respect to dierent departure times of trains for personal trips made in a group(might be friends or family). Figure 4.14 shows the distribution of gap time with respect to dierent departure times of trains for trip to receive guest arriving at the station at a given time.
23
Figure 4.8: Plot of Gap time against departure time of ights for personal trip (alone)
Detailed analysis with this data is given later.
24
Figure 4.9: Plot of Gap time against departure time of ights for personal trip (family)
Figure 4.10: Plot of Gap time against arrival time of ights for guest trip
25
Figure 4.11: Plot of gap time against departure time of train for ocial trip
Figure 4.12: Plot of gap time against departure time of train for personal trip (alone)
26
Figure 4.13: Plot of gap time against departure time of train for personal trip (family)
Figure 4.14: Plot of gap time against arrival time of train for guest trip
Chapter 5 Results and discussion

In this chapter eect of
1. Time of day, 2. Trip purpose, 3. Social factors such as age and frequency of travel and 4. Actual travel time on departure time selection by the trip maker.
As has been discussed earlier the above mentioned factors aect departure time decisions and any changes in these reects on gap time selection or departure time decision. The eect of each individual factor on gap time selection has been discussed in the following sections of this chapter. A point to be noted is that all means, variances and other test statistics described in this chapter are represented as fractions of hour, unless specically mentioned. For example, 30 minutes is represented as 0.5 as it is hour.
1 2
of an
27
28
5.1
Eect of time of day on Gap time selection
Time of day is the time when the trip maker makes the trip. Gap time selection is aected by the time of day during which the user has to make his trip. Gap time is dened as the dierence of selected departure time of the user for a ight or train and the ight or train departure time (as given in the question). Trac conditions worsen as the day progresses resulting in increase of travel time which in turn inuences the selection of gap time. Gap time can be assumed to increase as the day progresses reaching its maximum at peak hours and then decrease as the day come to end. Another point of interest in the trac situation of Kanpur city is that trucks are not allowed into the city during the day and are allowed to move in the city only after 9:00 pm. At this time trac situation in the city worsens resulting in increase of travel time and gap time selection is expected to reect this. Hence gap times can be expected to show trends similar to travel times. So during peak periods when travelling takes longer, large gap times are selected and during lean periods smaller gap times are selected. As mentioned in the previous chapter on data collection, questions were asked for trips made to Choudhary Charan Singh airport, Lucknow (henceforth, referred to as airport) and Kanpur Central Railway Station (henceforth, referred to as station) for ights and trains leaving at dierent times of the day respectively. Thus, gap time selection data was collected for dierent times of the day. To nd if there is any eect of time of day during which the trip is made on the selection of gap time and consequently on the departure time, hypothesis testing was done to see if gap time selection for ight or train leaving at a particular time diers to that for a ight or train at dierent time. For example, hypothesis testing was done for gap times selected for a ight leaving at 7:00 am and 9:00 am when the user has to travel for ocial purpose. For this dierence in gap times for each individual is calculated. If the mean of this dierence is not signicantly dierent from zero then that means that statistically there is no dierence in selected gap times for ights leaving at either
29 of the times. Hence the null hypothesis and alternate hypothesis are: H0 : = 0 H1 : = 0 (5.1) where is the mean of dierence in gap times of the two dierent times observed. As mentioned in the earlier chapter, responses of 40 respondents have been collected. This being a large data set, the hypothesis can be tested using the t-test. The t-value can be dened as t0 = X 0 n S (5.2) where t0 is the test statistic. n is the size of sample(the total number of respondents). X is the mean of the dierence in gap times of each individual. S is the standard deviation of the dierence in gap times.
In the current example, which is testing of dierence in gap times of ights leaving at 7:00 am and 9:00 am, X = 0.27 S 2 = 0.07 t0 = 23.69 (5.3)
For a 95 signicance level obtained from standard table for distribution of t-statistic available in all standard books. tn1,/2 = 2.021 (5.4)
As |t0 | > tn1,/2 in this case, the null hypothesis H0 is rejected. Thus it can be seen that to catch ights leaving at 7:00 am and 9:00 am dierence in gap time selection
30 of respondents is statistically signicant. Similarly, it has be shown that gap time selections for ocial trips to catch ights departing at Noon, 3:00 pm, 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm dier from each other. Similar tests were done for the other cases, when the respondents were asked questions about their gap time choice for personal trips (alone or in group) and to receive a guest and it was found that gap time choices dier in all the cases. Results of the hypothesis tests performed on data collected for these cases are shown in Table 5.1 for ocial trips, Table 5.2 for personal trips made alone, Table 5.3 for personal trips made in a group to the airport, Table 5.4 for trips made to receive guest from the airport. Table 5.1: Comparison of gap times for dierent times of day of ocial trips to airport Flight departure times t0 = n X tn1,/2 Accept or S which are compared 7:00 am and 9:00 am 9:00 am and Noon Noon and 3:00 pm 3:00 pm and 6:00 pm 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm 23.69 16.48 15.83 13.33 16.09 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 reject H0 reject reject reject reject reject
Table 5.2: Comparison of gap times for dierent times of day of personal trips (alone) to airport Flight departure times which are compared 7:00 am and 9:00 am 9:00 am and Noon Noon and 3:00 pm 3:00 pm and 6:00 pm 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm 25.01 25.01 15.09 13.33 16.37 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 t0 = nX S tn1,/2 Accept or reject H0 reject reject reject reject reject
Similar tests were performed on responses obtained for trains leaving Kanpur Central
31 Table 5.3: Comparison of gap times for dierent times of day of personal trips (group) to airport Flight departure times which are compared 7:00 am and 9:00 am 9:00 am and Noon Noon and 3:00 pm 3:00 pm and 6:00 pm 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm 19.96 22.09 17.43 15.09 16.72 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 t0 = nX S tn1,/2 Accept or reject H0 reject reject reject reject reject
Table 5.4: Comparison of gap times for dierent times of day of trips made to airport to receive guest Flight arrival times which are compared 7:00 am and 9:00 am 9:00 am and Noon Noon and 3:00 pm 3:00 pm and 6:00 pm 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm 17.1 26.11 16.72 15.09 15.42 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 t0 = nX S tn1,/2 Accept or reject H0 reject reject reject reject reject
Railway Station at dierent times of the day, i.e at 4:00 am, 10:00 am, Noon, 6:00 pm, 9:00 pm and Midnight, for dierent trip purposes such as ocial trip, personal trip (alone or in group) and trip to receive guest. In all these cases it was found that dierence in gap time selection was statistically signicant. Results of the hypothesis tests performed on data collected for these cases are shown in Table 5.5 for ocial trips, Table 5.6 for personal trips made alone, Table 5.7 for personal trips made in a group to the railway station, Table 5.8 for trips made to receive guest from the railway station. In this section it can be observed that gap time selection is aected by the time of day during which the trip is made.
32 Table 5.5: Comparison of gap times for dierent times of day of ocial trips to station Train departure times t0 = n X tn1,/2 Accept or S which are compared Midnight and 4:00 am 4:00 am and 10:00 am 10:00 am and Noon Noon and 6:00 pm 6:00 pm and 9:00 pm 27.65 61.66 18.05 18.08 20.19 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 reject H0 reject reject reject reject reject
Table 5.6: Comparison of gap times for dierent times of day of personal trips (alone) to station Train departure times which are compared Midnight and 4:00 am 4:00 am and 10:00 am 10:00 am and Noon Noon and 6:00 pm 6:00 pm and 9:00 pm 25.34 43.53 16.98 18.27 21.20 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 t0 = nX S tn1,/2 Accept or reject H0 reject reject reject reject reject
5.2
Eect of trip purpose on Gap time selection
Trip purpose is assumed to play an important role in selection of gap time. In this study respondents were asked for responses on dierent trip purposes which in this study are:
1. Trip made for ocial purposes 2. Trip made for alone for personal purposes 3. Trip made with a group(family or friends) on personal purposes 4. Trip made to receive guest arriving at a particular time
33 Table 5.7: Comparison of gap times for dierent times of day of personal trips (group) to station Train departure times which are compared Midnight and 4:00 am 4:00 am and 10:00 am 10:00 am and Noon Noon and 6:00 pm 6:00 pm and 9:00 pm 23.73 49.56 19.1 18.05 19.10 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 t0 = nX S tn1,/2 Accept or reject H0 reject reject reject reject reject
Table 5.8: Comparison of gap times for dierent times of day of trips made to station to receive guest Train arrival times t0 = nX S tn1,/2 Accept or reject H0 22.88 36.22 18.27 16.09 21.45 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 reject reject reject reject reject
which are compared Midnight and 4:00 am 4:00 am and 10:00 am 10:00 am and Noon Noon and 6:00 pm 6:00 pm and 9:00 pm
A person travelling on ocial purpose or travelling alone on a personal purpose will start later than a person travelling on a personal purpose with family or with a group of friends, as they do not have to deal with more luggage and people with dierent habits. Also, it generally takes a group longer to move around. They have to factor all this into their gap time selection. Similar is the case of a person travelling to receive guest, s/he will start later than in the other cases as they do not wish to wait for the guests train or ight. They would in this case prefer to reach the station or airport, receive their guest and return back. A person travelling for ocial purpose or personal purposes(alone or in group) has to catch a train or ight for which s/he will need some time which they factor into their
34 gap time selection. To test whether trip purpose makes a dierence in selection of gap times hypothesis testing was done for various trip purposes by comparing one with other. This was done by testing for for possible dierence in gap time selections for dierent times of day for dierent trip purposes. Hypothesis testing was done in the same manner as described in section 1.1. This test was conducted for responses obtained for dierent ight departure times for dierent trip purposes, to check for any dierence in gap time selections for dierent ights leaving at dierent times. The test results for test comparing the gap times of ocial trips and personal trips made alone for ights departing at dierent times are shown in Table 5.9 From Table 5.9 it can be observed that dierence in gap time Table 5.9: Comparison of gap times for ocial trip and personal trip alone to airport for dierent ight times Flight departure time 7:00 am 9:00 am Noon 3:00 pm 6:00 pm 8:00 pm 12.98 25.96 12.98 12.98 12.98 25.96 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 Reject Reject Reject Reject Reject Reject t0 = nX S tn1,/2 Accept or reject H0
selection for ights leaving at 7:00 am, 9:00 am, Noon, 3:00 pm, 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm for ocial trips and personal trips made alone are statistically signicant. Similar test was performed to compare gap time selections when the respondent is travelling alone for personal purpose and travelling in a group on a personal purpose for dierent ights departing at dierent times of the day. The dierence in gap time selection is statistically signicant for these trip purposes,i.e personal trips made alone
35 and personal trips made in a group. The test statistics are shown in Table 5.10 for this case: Table 5.10: Comparison of gap times for personal trip alone and personal trip made in group to airport for dierent ight times Flight t0 = n X S departure time 7:00 am 9:00 am Noon 3:00 pm 6:00 pm 8:00 pm 18.52 17.14 17.08 15.44 13.70 18.05 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 Reject Reject Reject Reject Reject Reject
tn1,/2
Accept or reject H0
Similar test was performed to compare gap time selections when the respondent is travelling alone for personal purpose and travelling to receive a guest for dierent ights departing or arriving at dierent times of the day. The dierence in gap time selection is statistically signicant for these trip purposes,i.e personal trips made alone and trips made to receive guest. The test statistics are shown in Table 5.11 for this case: Similar test was conducted for trips made to the station, test statistics were compared for dierent trip purposes with respect to time of day during which trip is made and it was found that the dierence of gap time selection for dierent trip purposes is statistically dierent. Table 5.12 shows the test statistics for test to compare gap time selection of ocial trips and personal trips(alone). As can be seen in Table 5.12 dierence in gap time choice with the trip purpose irrespective of the time of making the trip is statistically signicant.
36 Table 5.11: Comparison of gap times for personal trip made alone to airport and to receive guest at airport for dierent ight times tn1,/2 Flight time t0 = n X S
Accept or reject H0
7:00 am 9:00 am Noon 3:00 pm 6:00 pm 8:00 pm
8.03 9.66 8.66 7.35 8.20 7.35
2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021
Reject Reject Reject Reject Reject Reject
Table 5.13 shows the test statistics for test to compare gap time selection of personal trips(alone) and personal trips(group). As can be seen in Table 5.13 dierence in gap time choice with the trip purpose irrespective of the time of making the trip is statistically signicant. Table 5.14 shows the test statistics for test to compare gap time selection of personal trips(alone) to station and trips to the station to receive guest. As can be seen in Table 5.14 dierence in gap time choice with the trip purpose irrespective of the time of making the trip is statistically signicant. In this section it is observed that gap time selection is aected by trip purpose irrespective of time of day during which the trip is made.
5.3
Eect of other factors on gap time selection
Some other factors such as age, sex and frequency of travel of a person are assumed to aect the selection of gap time. Age can play an important role in selection of gap times. It can be proposed that older people will choose larger gap times as compared to younger people when they have to catch a train or ight. This behavior can be explained as older people in general are
37 Table 5.12: Comparison of gap times for ocial trip and personal trip(alone)for trains at dierent times of day Train time t0 = nX S tn1,/2 Accept or reject H0 Midnight 4:00 am 10:00 am Noon 6:00 pm 9:00 pm 17.62 25.96 27.41 15.50 25.30 12.65 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 Reject Reject Reject Reject Reject Reject
considered to be more risk averse. To test this, gap time selection of respondents was compared to the age of respondents (as described in the previous chapter respondents were asked to selected their age group). Several scatter plots were plotted between age group and gap time selections for dierent times of day and for dierent trip purposes for trips made to airport and railway station, but no pattern was observed in any of these plots. Ideally these plots should show a downward trend, i.e decreasing Y values (gap time selection) as X (age) increases. Sex is another factor that is assumed to play a major role in gap time selection. It usually assumed that women are more risk averse as compared to men. Women generally are assumed to start earlier than men to catch the same train or ight. Eect of sex on gap time selection could not be studied because there were very few women as compared to men who responded to the survey. Frequency of travel is the most important factor which aects the selection of gap times. Frequent travellers generally start later than infrequent travellers as they have a better idea of trac conditions on the road at any point of time. To see this frequency and gap time selections were plotted but no pattern was observed in these plots. This could be because the surveyed population which is the faculty of IIT Kanpur lives in a closed community and the routes (to airport and railway station) for which their
38 Table 5.13: Comparison of gap times for personal trip(alone) and personal
trip(group)for trains at dierent times of day tn1,/2 Train time t0 = n X S
Accept or reject H0
Midnight 4:00 am 10:00 am Noon 6:00 pm 9:00 pm
20.56 19.42 16.26 18.27 20.84 23.49
2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021
Reject Reject Reject Reject Reject Reject
responses are asked are well travelled and usually reliable. Therefore, frequent and infrequent travellers through information transfer have an idea about the travel time in these routes and this is reected here.
5.4
Comparison of perceived travel time and gap time selection
Perceived travel time is one of the most important factors aecting gap time selection. A person selects departure time or gap time based on how much time s/he thinks will take him/her to reach their desired destination. This section deals with understanding how perceived travel time and gap time of an individual compare. In the survey described in the previous chapter, a second part was also designed to nd the perception of travel time of the respondents. This part of survey could not carried out for all the respondents of the survey but responses of sixteen respondents were obtained. A person when choosing their departure time or gap time will choose a time greater
39 Table 5.14: Comparison of gap times for personal trip(alone) and trips to receive guests for trains at dierent times of day Train time t0 = nX S tn1,/2 Accept or reject H0 Midnight 4:00 am 10:00 am Noon 6:00 pm 9:00 pm 16.18 22.39 37.95 20.14 22.10 26.18 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 Reject Reject Reject Reject Reject Reject
than the time they think will take them to travel to their desired destination. Gap time can be expressed as sum of perceived travel time and buer time, . This can be written as Gap Time = Perceived Travel Time + (5.5)
Hence buer time can be expressed as the dierence in perceived travel time and gap time selection of an individual for a particular trip. An individual chooses his/her gap time to include any variations in travel times along the route and also (in this particular study) to account for the time they need to spend at the airport or station before they catch their ight or train. Hence, buer time can be understood as an indicator of a trip makers perception of variation in travel time on a route. To understand how buer time varies with time of day during which trip is made, for a particular trip purpose and for dierent trip purposes at a particular time of day, statistical test, as described in the rst section, are performed. This section is divided into two subsections, rst subsection describes how buer time varies for trips made at dierent times of the day and second describes the variation of buer time for trips made at a particular time of the day for dierent trip purposes.
40
5.4.1
Buer time comparison for dierent times of day
This section deals with the comparison of buer times for dierent times of the day for trips made for a particular trip purpose. Test statistics for ocial trips to airport for dierent times of day are shown in Table 5.15. Test statistics for personal trips made alone to airport for dierent times of day are shown in Table 5.16. Test statistics for personal trips made in a group to airport for dierent times of day are shown in Table 5.17. Test statistics for trips made to receive guest to airport for dierent times of day are shown in Table 5.18. Test statistics for trips made to the station for ocial purposes for dierent times of the day are shown in Table 5.19. Test statistics for trips made alone to the station for personal purposes for dierent times of the day are shown in Table 5.20. Test statistics for trips made in a group to the station for personal purposes for dierent times of the day are shown in Table 5.21. Test statistics for trips made to the station to receive guests for dierent times of the day are shown in Table 5.22. It is to be noted that mean of dierence indicates the mean dierence between buer times kept at dierent times compared. For example, in Table 5.15. The results show that there exists a statistically signicant dierence between buer times even for trips made to catch ights separated by three hours or trains separated by six hours. This indicates that travel time and its variance (as represented by the time of day when the trip is made) has an impact on how people choose their buer times.
5.4.2
Buer time comparison for dierent trip purposes
This section deals with the comparison of buer times for trips made for dierent purposes at around the same time of day. Test statistics for trips to airport to catch a ight at 7:00 am for dierent trip purposes are shown in Table ??. Test statistics for trips to airport to catch a ight at 9:00 am for dierent trip purposes are shown in
41 Table 5.15: Comparison of means of buer times for dierent times of day for ocial trip to the airport Flight compared times Mean of Variance of dierence of buer |t0 | tm+n2,/2 Accept or reject H0
dierence of buer
times (Hours) 7:00 am and 9:00 am 9:00 Noon Noon and 3:00 pm 3:00 pm and 6:00 pm 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm
1
times (Hours) 0.08 20.67 2.12 reject
0.391
am
and
0.31
0.12
10.34
2.12
reject
0.22
0.11
8.29
2.12
reject
0.20
0.09
8.49
2.12
reject
0.61
0.16
15.60
2.12
reject
This implies that the mean dierence between the buer time kept at 7:00 am and
9:00 am is 0.39 hours Table 5.23. Test statistics for trips to airport to catch a ight at Noon for dierent trip purposes are shown in Table 5.24. Test statistics for trips to airport to catch a ight at 3:00 pm for dierent trip purposes are shown in Table 5.25. Test statistics for trips to airport to catch a ight at 6:00 pm for dierent trip purposes are shown in Table 5.26. Test statistics for trips to airport to catch a ight at 8:00 pm for dierent trip purposes are shown in Table 5.27. Test statistics for trips to station to catch a train at 4:00 am for dierent trip purposes are shown in Table 5.28. Test statistics for trips to station to catch a train at 10:00 am for dierent trip purposes are shown in Table 5.29. Test statistics for trips to station to catch a train at Noon for dierent trip purposes are shown in Table 5.30. Test statistics for trips to station to catch a train at 6:00 pm
42
Table 5.16: Comparison of means of buer times for dierent times of day for ocial trip to the airport Flight compared times Mean of Variance of dierence of buer |t0 | tm+n2,/2 Accept or reject H0
dierence of buer
1
0.391
am
and
0.31
0.12
10.34
2.12
reject
0.22
0.11
8.29
2.12
reject
0.20
0.09
8.49
2.12
reject
0.61
0.16
15.60
2.12
reject
This implies that the mean dierence between the buer time kept at 7:00 am
and 9:00 am is 0.39 hours.
43
dierence of buer
1
0.471
am
and
0.28
0.09
12.41
2.12
reject
0.21
0.11
7.96
2.12
reject
0.20
0.09
8.49
2.12
reject
0.58
0.15
15.85
2.12
reject
9:00 am is 0.47 hours.
44
dierence of buer
1
0.411
am
and
0.24
0.09
10.60
2.12
reject
0.19
0.09
8.69
2.12
reject
0.23
0.10
9.58
2.12
reject
0.44
0.12
14.66
2.12
reject
9:00 am is 0.41 hours.
45
Table 5.19: Comparison of means of buer times for dierent times of day for ocial trip to the station Flight compared times Mean of Variance of dierence of buer |t0 | tm+n2,/2 Accept or reject H0
dierence of buer
times (Hours) 4:00 am and 0.261
10:00 am 10:00 am and Noon Noon and 6:00 pm 6:00 pm and 9:00 pm 9:00 pm and 0.24 0.07 16.67 2.12 reject 0.13 0.02 34.19 2.12 reject 0.19 0.05 16.05 2.12 reject 0.15 0.02 28.96 2.12 reject
Midnight
1
10:00 am is 0.26 hours.
46
Table 5.20: Comparison of means of buer times for dierent times of day for personal trip (alone) to the station Flight compared times Mean of Variance of dierence of buer |t0 | tm+n2,/2 Accept or reject H0
dierence of buer
Midnight
1
10:00 am is 0.29 hours.
47
Table 5.21: Comparison of means of buer times for dierent times of day for personal trip (group) to the airport Flight compared times Mean of Variance of dierence of buer |t0 | tm+n2,/2 Accept or reject H0
dierence of buer
Midnight
1
indicates that the mean dierence between the buer time kept at 4:00 am and
10:00 am is 0.32 hours.
48
dierence of buer
Midnight
1
10:00 am is 0.25 hours.
49 for dierent trip purposes are shown in Table 5.31. Test statistics for trips to station to catch a train at 9:00 pm for dierent trip purposes are shown in Table 5.32. Test statistics for trips to station to catch a train at Midnight for dierent trip purposes are shown in Table 5.33. The results show that there exists a statistically signicant dierence in buer time selection for trips made for dierent purposes around the same time of day, both to the airport and station. Buer times, therefore are aected by the purpose of making a trip. Though there seems to be very little dierence in the buer times selected for ocial trips and personal trips made alone to both airport and station, statistically it has been seen that the dierence that exists is statistically signicant.
50
Table 5.23: Comparison of means of buer times for dierent trip purposes for trips to catch 9:00 am ight Trip purposes compared Mean of Variance of dierence of buer |t0 | tm+n2,/2 Accept or reject H0
dierence of buer
times (Hours) Ocial trip 0.031
and Personal trip (alone) Personal trip (alone) and 0.16 0.06 10.91 2.12 reject
Personal trip (group) Personal trip (alone) 0.12 0.16 10.27 2.12 reject
and Trip to receive guest

1
This implies that the mean dierence between the buer time kept for ocial trip
and personal trip (alone) is 0.03 hours
51
Table 5.24: Comparison of means of buer times for dierent trip purposes for trips to catch Noon ight Trip purposes compared Mean of Variance of dierence of buer |t0 | tm+n2,/2 Accept or reject H0
dierence of buer

1
52
Table 5.25: Comparison of means of buer times for dierent trip purposes for trips to catch 3:00 pm ight Trip purposes compared Mean of Variance of dierence of buer |t0 | tm+n2,/2 Accept or reject H0
dierence of buer

1
53
dierence of buer

1
54
dierence of buer

1
55
Table 5.28: Comparison of means of buer times for dierent trip purposes for trips to catch 4:00 am train Trip purposes compared Mean of Variance of dierence of buer |t0 | tm+n2,/2 Accept or reject H0 dierence of buer

1
56
Table 5.29: Comparison of means of buer times for dierent trip purposes for trips to catch 10:00 am train Trip purposes compared Mean of Variance of dierence of buer |t0 | tm+n2,/2 Accept or reject H0 dierence of buer

1
57
Table 5.30: Comparison of means of buer times for dierent trip purposes for trips to catch Noon train Trip purposes compared Mean of Variance of dierence of buer |t0 | tm+n2,/2 Accept or reject H0 dierence of buer

1
58
Table 5.31: Comparison of means of buer times for dierent trip purposes for trips to catch 6:00 pm train Trip purposes compared Mean of Variance of dierence of buer |t0 | tm+n2,/2 Accept or reject H0
dierence of buer

1
59
Table 5.32: Comparison of means of buer times for dierent trip purposes for trips to catch 9:00 pm train Trip purposes compared Mean of Variance of dierence of buer |t0 | tm+n2,/2 Accept or reject H0
dierence of buer

1
60
Table 5.33: Comparison of means of buer times for dierent trip purposes for trips to catch Midnight train Trip purposes compared Mean of Variance of dierence of buer |t0 | tm+n2,/2 Accept or reject H0
dierence of buer

1
Chapter 6 Conclusion and future scope

The main objective of this study is to understand the eect of
1. Time of day during which the trip is made, 2. Purpose of making the trip, 3. Commuters perception of travel time and 4. Various other factors such as age, frequency of travel etc.
on a commuters choice of departure time in Indian conditions. For this purpose an experiment was conducted to nd the departure time choices and perception of travel time among the faculty of Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur,(Surveyed population) for trips made to Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport and Kanpur Central Railway Station for ights and trains at dierent times of the day. As actual travel time inuences a commuters perception of travel time, the eect of actual travel time on perception of travel time has also been studied in this thesis. Departure time selection by respondents was studied using Gap time which is dened as the dierence in ight or train departure time from airport or railway station and the departure time selected by the respondent for a journey to the airport or station for 61
62 that ight or train. Eect of various factors upon gap time selection have been studied by hypothesizing that the mean of dierences of gap times selected for journeys at dierent times of the day or for dierent trip purposes at same time of the day or for perception of travel time and gap time selection for same trip purpose at dierent times of the day of the same respondent is equal to zero. The alternate hypothesis was that the mean is not equal to zero. It was found that time of day during which a trip is made is aects choice of gap time. It has also been found that gap time choice of an individual varies with the purpose of making the trip. However, no eect of frequency of travel and age has been found in this study. Eect of sex on gap time choices could not be studied because of insucient number of responses from women in the surveyed population. Gap time selection also diers from an individuals perception of travel time. This was studied by comparing the dierence of perceived travel times and gap time selections for dierent individuals, dened as buer time. It was found that the buer time varies with time of day during which trip is made and also with the purpose of making a trip for trips made around the same time. Shortcomings of the present study and future scope for such studies can be identied as: 1. In the current study eect of variation of travel time on departure time choices of users has not been identied. A future study must be conducted to understand this eect as variation of travel time will have greater impact upon departure time decisions than perception of travel time. 2. A larger study should be conducted to understand and model the departure time behavior of commuters under varied circumstances and for dierent trac conditions which maybe unique for dierent places. 3. A more heterogenous study should be carried out to understand departure time decisions of dierent types of users. 4. In the present study perceived travel time data has been collected for a small
63 sample of the population. However to fully understand the eect of variation of travel time on buer times a larger study must be conducted.
Bibliography
[1] Abkowitz, M.D., An analysis of commuter departure time decision, Transportation 10, Elsevier Scientic Publishing company, Amsterdam, pp. 283-297, 1981. [2] Batley, R., Fowkes, T., Whelan, G., Models for choice of departure time, European Transport Conference 2001, Association for European Transport, 2001. [3] Bhat, C.R., Analysis of travel mode and departure time choice for urban shopping trips, Transportation research part B:Methodological, Elsevier Scientic Publishing company, pp. 361-371, August, 1998. [4] Chang, G-L., Mahmassani, H.S., Travel time prediction and departure time adjustment behaviour dynamics in a congested trac system, Transportation research B, Pergamon Press, Great Britain, pp. 217-232, 1988. [5] Chin, A.T.H., Inuences on commuter trip departure time decisions in Singapore, Transportation research part A:General, Elsevier Scientic Publishing company, pp. 321-333, September, 1990. [6] Henderikson, C., Plank, E., The exibility of departure times for work trips, Transportation Research, pp. 25-36, 1984. [7] Mannering, F.L., Poisson analysis of commuter exibility in changing routes and departure times, Transportation research part B:Methodological, Elsevier Scientic Publishing company, pp. 53-60, Februaury, 1989. [8] Mahmassani, H.S., Jou, R-C., Bounded rationality in commuter decision dynamics: Incorporating trip chaining in departure time and route switching decisions, 64
65 presented at the Conference on Theoritical Foundations of Travel Choice Modeling, Stockholm, 1996. [9] Small, K.A, The scheduling of consumer activities: work trips, The American Economic Review, American Economic Association, pp. 467-479, June, 1982.
Appendix A Example Questionnaire

TRAVEL BEHAVIOR QUESTIONNAIRE This questionnaire is a part of M.Tech thesis of S.P.Sarvani, Y8103031, Civil engineering department. Purpose of this questionnaire is to understand the travel behavior of people, with reference to their departure time. This questionnaire has been divided
into various sections aiming to draw information on departure time, perception of time etc. Departure time information This section contains questions on what your preferred departure times would be at various times of the day to Lucknow airport or Kanpur central Railway Station. This 66
67 section is divided into two subsections, each of which aims at nding out what your preference would be for dierent trips such as to the airport and railway station and also for dierent trip purposes such as receiving guests or self-travel. Please cross a point on the time lines given to show your preference of departure time. A.1: Preferred departure time for Lucknow airport. 1.(a)You are on an ocial trip and have to catch a ight from Lucknow departing at 7:00 am, when would you prefer to start from IITK?
(d) If you have to receive a guest arriving at 7:00 am at Lucknow airport, when would you prefer leaving IIT? 2.(a)You are on an ocial trip and have to catch a ight from Lucknow departing at 9:00 am, when would you prefer to start from IITK?
68
(c) If you are travelling with family or friends on a personal trip will your departure time change? If so, then when will you start? (d) If you have to receive a guest arriving at 9:00 am at Lucknow airport, when would you prefer leaving IIT? 3.(a)You are on an ocial trip and have to catch a ight from Lucknow departing at Noon, when would you prefer to start from IITK? (b) Will you change your departure time if you are travelling on a personal trip alone? If yes, then what will your departure time be in this situation. (c) If you are travelling with family or friends on a personal trip will your departure time change? If so, then when will you start? (d) If you have to receive a guest arriving at Noon at Lucknow airport, when would you prefer leaving IIT?
69
4.(a)You are on an ocial trip and have to catch a ight from Lucknow departing at 3:00 pm, when would you prefer to start from IITK? (b) Will you change your departure time if you are travelling on a personal trip alone? If yes, then what will your departure time be in this situation. (c) If you are travelling with family or friends on a personal trip will your departure time change? If so, then when will you start?
70
(d) If you have to receive a guest arriving at 3:00 pm at Lucknow airport, when would you prefer leaving IIT?
71
5.(a)You are on an ocial trip and have to catch a ight from Lucknow departing at 6:00 pm, when would you prefer to start from IITK?
72
73
74
(d) If you have to receive a guest arriving at 6:00 pm at Lucknow airport, when would you prefer leaving IIT?
75
6.(a)You are on an ocial trip and have to catch a ight from Lucknow departing at 8:00 pm, when would you prefer to start from IITK?
76 (b) Will you change your departure time if you are travelling on a personal trip alone? If yes, then what will your departure time be in this situation.
77
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Experiments to Understand Selection of Departure Time Behavior of Indian Trip Makers

Department of Civil Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Experiments to Understand Selection of Departure Time Behavior of Indian Trip Makers

Department of Civil Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Dr. Partha Chakroborty Professor Department of Civil Engineering I.I.T.Kanpur

iv for their constant support and faith in me.

Proposed data collection method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6 Conclusion and future scope

Chapter 2 Problem Statement, Literature Review and Motivation

Motivation and Scope

Chapter 3 Discussion on departure time selection

Selection of Departure Time

Eect of various factors on Departure Time Choice

Eect of Trip Purpose on departure time selection

Eect of time of day on departure time selection

Eect of perception of travel time on departure time selection

Eect of certain other factors upon departure time selection

Proposed data collection method

Chapter 4 Data Collection

This chapter describes data collection methods used in this study.

Collection of actual travel time data

Figure 4.1: Sample of travel time questionnaire

Data on trip time to Amausi Airport,Lucknow at dierent times of day

Design of Stated Preference Experiment for obtaining Departure time data

Figure 4.6: Social information of the participant

20 7:00 am, when would you prefer to start from IITK?

Gap time data for Amausi Airport,Lucknow

Gap time data for Kanpur Central Railway Station

Detailed analysis with this data is given later.

Chapter 5 Results and discussion

Eect of time of day on Gap time selection

Eect of trip purpose on Gap time selection

7:00 am 9:00 am Noon 3:00 pm 6:00 pm 8:00 pm

8.03 9.66 8.66 7.35 8.20 7.35

2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021

Reject Reject Reject Reject Reject Reject

Eect of other factors on gap time selection

trip(group)for trains at dierent times of day tn1,/2 Train time t0 = n X S

Midnight 4:00 am 10:00 am Noon 6:00 pm 9:00 pm

20.56 19.42 16.26 18.27 20.84 23.49

2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021 2.021

Reject Reject Reject Reject Reject Reject

Comparison of perceived travel time and gap time selection

Buer time comparison for dierent times of day

Buer time comparison for dierent trip purposes

times (Hours) 0.08 20.67 2.12 reject

times (Hours) 0.08 20.67 2.12 reject

and 9:00 am is 0.39 hours.

times (Hours) 0.12 15.69 2.12 reject

9:00 am is 0.47 hours.

times (Hours) 0.07 20.97 2.12 reject

9:00 am is 0.41 hours.

times (Hours) 4:00 am and 0.261

times (Hours) 0.03 36.05 2.12 reject

10:00 am is 0.26 hours.

times (Hours) 4:00 am and 0.291

times (Hours) 0.04 27.98 2.12 reject

10:00 am is 0.29 hours.

times (Hours) 4:00 am and 0.321

times (Hours) 0.02 54.13 2.12 reject

10:00 am is 0.32 hours.

times (Hours) 4:00 am and 0.251

times (Hours) 0.04 24.40 2.12 reject