Effect of Crowding in Metro Carriages on Travelers’ Disutility: An Evidence from Guangzhou Metro

Overcrowding has become a non negligible issue for metros in China.This paper analyzes the impact of crowding in metro carriages on people’s travel behaviors based on the stated preference survey data from college students and full time workers in Guangzhou.The data were analyzed by using the constant value per trip model and the travel time multiplier model with the multinomial logit modeling technique.Results show that there is a significant impact of crowding in metro carriages on passengers’welfare.The relationship between the disutility of crowding and the standee density is not linear.Commuters do not care much about crowding in the metro,whereas non commuters and college students pay special attention to crowding in metro carriages,especially when the carriage is crowded.This paper presents new findings of the impact of demographic characteristics on the evaluation of crowding in metro carriages in developing countries.