An Analysis of Traveler’s Evaluation Frame Toward Public Transport Focusing on Dynamic Nature of Reference Point

The internal reference point of traveler’s decision-making is dynamic in nature. Public transport ridership considers a decision based on the utility value of gains and losses which can be modeled by using mental accounting theory. This study aims to analyze the dynamic of internal reference points for public transport ridership after implementing transport policies. It describes the decision of travelers’ behavior when facing the dynamic value of the utility, whether it is increasing, decreases or stable. This study developed a travelers’ behavior model based on mental accounting theory. The result showed that the public transport ridership’s are more likely to change their reference point when realizing gains than losses for transport policies. Furthermore, the way of public transport ridership combines the decrease and increase of the utility value showed that travelers tend to consider which gains and losses occurred simultaneously. Therefore, the integration outcome is more desirable than segregation outcomes, and revealed that mental accounting theory plays a major role in public transport ridership. This survey was conducted for the short-term distance trip, particularly in shopping trip from the residential area (origin) to Community Business District (destination) in Matsuyama city, Japan.