In metropolitan areas, transit is very commonly used and travelers often need to transfer up to three or four times to complete a trip. However, some transfers are not realistic and not all transfers would be probable for travelers. Moreover, most fare systems of transit are district based or origin-destination based, but not proportion to the travel distance. This research proposes a novel network structure designated as a State Augmented Multi-modal (SAM) network to automatically capture the transfers that would be adopted by travelers by introducing a "probable state transition rule", and to model the non-linear fare structure of transits by the "direct links" of the network. Two nested logit models are employed to model the demand of heterogeneous classes of travelers on multi-modal...[ Read more ]

In metropolitan areas, transit is very commonly used and travelers often need to transfer up to three or four times to complete a trip. However, some transfers are not realistic and not all transfers would be probable for travelers. Moreover, most fare systems of transit are district based or origin-destination based, but not proportion to the travel distance. This research proposes a novel network structure designated as a State Augmented Multi-modal (SAM) network to automatically capture the transfers that would be adopted by travelers by introducing a "probable state transition rule", and to model the non-linear fare structure of transits by the "direct links" of the network. Two nested logit models are employed to model the demand of heterogeneous classes of travelers on multi-modal network; and the calibration of parameters of the nested logit models will be discussed.

In Hong Kong, transit services are provided by private sector whose primary objective is to maximize profit. Analyses on how to create an environment such that the private sector can be relied upon to provide for the services while maintaining the public welfare are of significant interest. As the framework of modeling multi-modal network is developed, we can study the market responses by any change of condition of transit services. A fare competition of the ground transportation system connecting the Hong Kong International Airport and downtown is studied.