CHOICE BETWEEN PRIVATE CAR AND PUBLIC TRANSPORT

This article deals with the choice between private car and public transport for trip lengths over 15 km. The most important hypothesis is that everybody chooses the best transportation mode for his given personal and external circumstances. Under the objectively same circumstances different choices are made as a result of differences in evaluation of these circumstances and incorrect evaluation of the trip with the alternative transportation mode. With the aid of this hypothesis a mathematical model is developed, which is verified by two different valuation methods. The first method offers advantages in that it gives more insight into the reliability of the coefficients. The second model is more help in applying prognoses. Both methods give results from which the same conclusions can be drawn. Car ownership as expected influences the choice of transportation mode to a considerable extent. Influence of income cannot be proved. The share of public transport in the total number of trips of households with a car is about 15-17% when there is no railway station within 2 km of origin and destination. The share of public transport increases to 7-23% when origin and destination are situated within 2 km of a railway station. The share of public transport is even higher (30-38%) when origin and destination are situated in the city. /TRRL/