Willingness to use demand responsive transit: a case study of Karachi city

The goal of this study is to investigate traveler’s willingness to use demand responsive transit (DRT) to address transportation challenges in Karachi, a city of Sindh province in Pakistan. DRT is a shared mobility option where vehicles can alter routes according to destinations of passenger. This research is conducted on a questionnaire that is based on a stated preference (SP) survey with well-designed choice experiments. DRT was taken as a hypothetical alternative along with other existing alternatives such as carpooling, minibus, and private car. This research mainly focused on choice experiments of working class and students. It established multinomial logit (MNL) model and nested logit (NL) model for analytical results. Carpooling was taken as reference level in this study. Hypothetical approach was also used for advanced assumptions. The modelling results reveals that working class is more likely to use DRT than students. The socio demographic variables such as gender, age, monthly income and employment were also found to be significant. Service attributes including travel time, travel cost, waiting time, and cancellation fees were also significant. The study concluded with a policy framework that suggest public private participation to initiate this project. Moreover, it also proposed that DRT should be initiated by existing business giants of ridesharing services as they are well aware of the business model of shared mobility. This study can be beneficial to policy makers and government to extend DRT network in developing countries.