Does implicit attitude affect travel mode choice behaviors? A study of customized bus attraction to urban railway riders

Urban railway (UR) systems in densely populated cities face oversaturation during peak hours, yet bus ridership keeps declining. Shifting some UR riders to buses is crucial. Customized bus (CB), a demand-responsive transit mode, could attract riders from congested rail systems. This study investigates mode choice behaviors between CB and UR, focusing on implicit and explicit attitudes. An online survey combining revealed and stated preference scenarios is designed, incorporating the implicit association tests and Likert-scale questions to measure the implicit and explicit attitudes. Multinomial logit models are adopted to analyze responses from 1,500 commuters. Then, investment strategies to enhance the attractiveness of CB are designed and simulated. Results show: (1) incorporating implicit and/or explicit attitudes significantly influenced choice behavior but does not improve the goodness-of-fit; (2) female and high-income individuals hold the most positive implicit attitudes toward CB; (3) equity-based resource allocation proves more effective than other strategies in enhancing attitudes.