Socio-economic and Trip Characteristics Influencing the Travel Time Perception of Cyclists: A Case Study of a Residential Academic Campus

The perceived travel time is one of the important trip characteristics used in the field of travel behavior research. This study analyses the socio-economic and the trip characteristics influencing the travel time perception of the cyclists in a residential academic campus. Two approaches were used to gather the relevant information from the daily commuting cyclists. First, the actual travel time was collected by manually noting down the starting and ending times of the trip as well as using the smartphone sensors. Second, a questionnaire survey was administered to obtain the perceived travel time, other travel parameters, socio-economic, and behavioral characteristics of the trip maker. Using the actual and the revealed data, the present study has evaluated the perception error ratio (PER) and the difference in the perceived and actual travel times, and classified the over and under perceived trip makers. Then the factors influencing the perception error of cyclists were identified. Model results revealed that the use of PER misclassifies the over and under perceived trip makers. Actual travel time and the income level were found to influence the perception error corresponding to both the under and over perceptions. It was also found that the activities of the trip maker, during the trip have a significant influence on the trip makers' perception.