Examining the relationship between Built Environment and the Mode Choice of Travelers: A Case study of Colombo, Sri Lanka

Abstract

The transportation system is an integral component of a modern urban environment. It’s drawbacks cause numerous transport - related issues in a majority of cities around the world. Increasing traffic congestion is one of them. Traffic congession in major roads accounts for an annual loss of approximately 40 billion rupees in Sri Lanka. This system has significantly caused the unbalance of the built environment parameters and the choice of transportation modes, while disrupting the road infrastructure management owing to the growing demand of automobiles. Therefore, it is essential to study the coherence between built environment factors and the transport mode choices and understand their relationship with different mode choices regardless of other critical parameters of mode choice such as income, travel time differential, quality of service. The study was carried out in the Colombo Metropolitan Area. Secondary data was utilized to analyze the mode choice characteristics of the study area. Density, design, and diversity parameters were considered the built-form factors; and centrality measures were utilized to capture the road network parameters. Relationship analysis and Multi-Layer Perceptron analysis were utilized to identify the relationship between the built environment and the choice of mode in transportation. The result revealed that there is a relationship between built environment factors and the choice of mode at origin, destination, and route - wise. The findings of the study would be essential for transport and urban planners to develop more inclusive landuse plans and for better transport management.