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Abstract: This paper investigates the prevalence of observed and unobserved taste heterogeneity influencing shippers’ mode choice behaviour. The study is based on stated preference data collected in Java, Indonesia. The data were analysed using a mixed logit model, capable of accommodating random taste heterogeneity and panel effects associated with stated preference replications. The results indicate the presence of significant levels of taste heterogeneity, only some of which can be accounted for by conventional commodity-type based segmentations. The analysis goes on to apply latent class methods to identify behaviourally homogeneous segments, which also turn out to not depend on commodity types. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The analysis of air-passengers’ choices of departure airport in multi-airport regions is a crucial component of transportation planning in many large metropolitan areas, and has been the topic of an increasing number of studies over recent years. In this paper, we advance the state of the art of modelling in this area of research by making use of a Cross-Nested Logit (CNL) structure that allows for the joint representation of inter-alternative correlation along the three choice dimensions of airport, airline and access-mode. The analysis uses data collected in the Greater London area, which arguably has the highest levels of inter-airport competition of any multi-airport region; the authors of this paper are not aware of any previous effort to jointly analyse the choice of airport, airline and access-mode in this area. The results of the analysis reveal significant influences on passenger behaviour by access-time, access-cost, flight-frequency and flight-time. A structural comparison of the different models shows that the cross-nested structure offers significant improvements over simple Nested Logit (NL) models, which in turn outperform the Multinomial Logit (MNL) model used as the base model. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Deals with a study which examined the progress made towards a general theory of the traveler's valuation of travel time reliability. Data and methodology used; Key theoretical results; Indications of the results to future studies.

Abstract: The majority of studies of air travel choice behavior make use of revealed preference (RP) data, generally in the form of survey data collected from departing passengers. While the use of RP data has certain methodological advantages over the use of stated preference (SP) data, major issues arise because of the often low quality of the data relating to the un-chosen alternatives, in terms of explanatory variables as well as availability. As such, studies using RP survey data often fail to recover a meaningful fare coefficient, and are generally not able to offer a treatment of the effects of airline allegiance. In this paper, we make use of SP data for airport and airline choice collected in the US in 2001. The analysis retrieves significant effects relating to factors such as airfare, access time, flight time and airline and airport allegiance, illustrating the advantages of SP data in this context. Additionally, the analysis explores the use of non-linear transforms of the explanatory variables, as well as the treatment of continuous variations in choice behavior across respondents. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]