DISCRETE CHOICE WITH AN ODDBALL ALTERNATIVE

W W. Recker

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

1995

Subject Area

ridership - mode choice

Keywords

Transportation models, Transportation industry, Transportation, Transport, Trade off analysis, Multinomial logits, Mode choice, Modal choice, Mathematical models, Logits, Logit models, Comparison studies, Choice of transportation, Alternatives analysis

Abstract

A discrete choice model is presented that explicitly recognizes differences in the error structure associated with a single "oddball" alternative within the choice set that has properties not common to the other alternatives. The model purportedly resolves questions related to the use of alternative-specific variables in transportation choice models to capture the effects of attributes unique to a single travel alternative, such as "schedule frequency" in the case of modal choice between personal auto and public transit. The model, which shares the general error structure of multinomial logit, is shown to be a modification of a multinomial logit subchoice by terms involving the exponential integral. The model is shown to yield different results from those produced by an equivalent multinomial logit specification.Comparisons to multinomial probit and nested logit formulations are also made.

Comments

Transportation Research Part B Home Page: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01912615

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