The first-and-last-mile of public transportation: A study of access and egress travel characteristics of Dhaka’s suburban commuters

A growing body of research has addressed the multimodality of public transport, but relatively few studies have investigated the first-and-last-mile travel behavior—especially in the context of developing countries. In this study, we surveyed public transport commuters who live in Dhaka’s suburban areas and regularly commute to the main city. We find that the majority of the respondents use non-motorized modes of transportation (NMTs); however, the shares of motorized forms of transportation (MTs) such as human-haulers and buses are higher for egress compared to access. The choice of modes, both for the access and egress stages, are examined using multinomial logit (MNL) and nested logit (NL) models. The results show that rail travelers are more likely to choose MTs for egress compared to bus travelers. This is mainly because of longer distances between rail stations and trip destinations at the activity end. Among other factors, travelers’ income, and gender, as well as mode-specific attributes such as waiting time, travel time, travel cost, degree of seating comfort, and availability of the modes are found significant. Female commuters are more likely to choose rickshaw over other modes, while lower-income commuters show a higher tendency to choose paratransit and bus transportation when other variables are controlled. Finally, the paper discusses the implications of the findings for the improvement of first-and-last-mile connectivity of Dhaka’s public transportation system.