Combined transit mode choice patterns for commuters from transit card data in Korea

In 2022, Korea introduced the MTC card to promote public transportation. The MTC card offers up to 30% savings on transportation costs by accumulating mileage based on walking or cycling distances and records data on first- and last-mile trips. A case study at Gangnam Station in Seoul, Korea analyzed combined transit transfer patterns during morning peak and evening peak hours at Gangnam Station by constructing multinomial logit model. The models focused on between two transit modes since the MTC data reported that the average transfer frequency of 1.32 for public transportation users in the Seoul metropolitan area. The four-transit mode combinations such as ‘Metro to Bus’, ‘Metro to Metro’, ‘Bus to Bus’, and ’ Bus to Metro’ were set as choice variables. The results show that during the morning peak hours, ‘Bus to Metro (BtoM)’ combination is mostly preferred, while the ‘Metro to Bus (MtoB)’ combination is favored in the evening. Morning commuters are more sensitive to time and costs than evening commuters. By identifying preferred transportation combinations for each time period, policymakers develop appropriate planning for public transportation services.