Are the preferences of travelers same across cities? A tale of two Indian cities

The paper reports an investigation on the preferences of travelers in two Indian cities. The importance of travelers was collected from Kolkata and Kollam cities using 5-point Likert-type importance scale, and RIDIT analysis was carried out to obtain the priority rankings of travelers. A three-level analysis was carried for travelers, captive riders (travelers without car), and choice riders (travelers with car) of the two cities. The priority ranking obtained for the travelers of two cities were then compared using Spearman's rank correlation test. It was shown that there is a substantial difference in the perception of travelers from two cities. This was instrumental in establishing the fact that preferences of travelers are not transferable across the cities. Therefore, the selection of attributes for WTP studies require a separate investigation to understand the preference of travelers of the city under consideration. On-board safety was identified as a major concern for the travelers of Kolkata and Kollam cities, which clearly shows the importance of addressing safety issues for enhancing the quality of public transport. The results obtained from the present work is city specific. However, the derived insights are expected to encourage researchers and policymakers to carry out separate investigations in various cities for identifying important attributes prior to behavioural studies.