Evaluation of modal-choice rules through ground transportation modeling using subway data

One of the most important issues in transportation and urban planning is an understanding of passenger choice while commuting in existing transport infrastructure. Big modern cities offer a multimodal selection of methods to transfer between the parts of the city, including various types of ground transportation and a subway. On the other hand, passengers’ model choice depends on the available routes, often historically formed without regard to modern passenger needs and fast-changing of cities life. As a result, for the optimization of public transport systems we should understand how the rules are formed, followed by passengers when choosing a specific route. This paper discusses the evaluation of modal-choice rules through ground transportation modeling using historical data collected from turnstiles in the subway and census data. The results should help in identifying the critical places in the existing infrastructure and transportation planning of big cities. The modeling results are shown on the example of St. Petersburg.