Travel Decisions and Experiences of Bus Passengers During Extreme Rainfall Conditions

Abstract

The public transit system becomes unreliable during extreme weather conditions due to demand fluctuations caused by changes in the travel decision of people. To develop a sustainable public transit system, there is a need to understand the perception of people towards it during extreme weather conditions. The present study aims to study the influence of rainfall on the travel decision, waiting time and travel time of Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) bus passengers. Responses of people are collected by carrying out a questionnaire survey in Bengaluru City, and analysis is done using the multinominal logistic regression model. From the analysis, it is observed that 60% of people want to prepone or postpone or cancel the trip which may result in demand fluctuations. It is also observed that the waiting time of people at bus stops has got increased by 45% and also 70% of people encountered increased travel time during extreme rainfall. This study edifies the transport policy-makers regarding the travel behaviour of people during extreme weather conditions which can assist them to carry out managerial changes in operational strategies of the public transit system to make it more reliable. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.