Behavioural findings from observed transit route choice strategies in the farecard data of Brisbane

This paper contributes to the behavioural understanding of transit passengers' route choice decisions in dense transit networks. We explore the route choice boarding strategies of passengers in the Brisbane area (QLD) by studying the farecard transactions in the Brisbane network. In strategy-based transit demand forecasting models, public transit passengers are assumed to plan their travel based on a travel strategy that contains one set of attractive routes per boarding stop. Among these attractive routes, the passenger will board the route that arrives first to their location. For regular passengers of several high demand origin-destination (OD) pairs in the Brisbane area, we have inferred the actual attractive sets through a longitudinal analysis of the farecard transactions. In this paper, we present empirical findings related to these observed attractive sets. We explore variability of these sets among the passengers, and develop models to predict the attractiveness of a route. Based on these model outcomes, important attributes that can explain the passengers boarding behaviours are presented and discussed, and new behavioural aspects are uncovered.