TY - GEN
T1 - Temporal Discounting in Travel Distance Perception
T2 - International Conference on Transportation and Development 2025: Transportation Planning and Operations, ICTD 2025
AU - Pan, Meiyu (Melrose)
AU - Isham, Eve
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© ASCE.
PY - 2025
Y1 - 2025
N2 - This study investigates how modes of transportation and temporal discounting tendencies influence travel distance perceptions. Using a controlled experiment with university students and hierarchical regression, we found that travel distance judgments were similar for all modes at shorter distances but diverged significantly at longer distances. Public transportation was perceived as requiring longer travel distances compared to personal vehicles. When temporal discounting tendencies were controlled for, the main effects of distance and mode remained, but the interaction between actual distance and mode weakened. These results suggest that while both transportation mode and veridical distance impact perceived travel distance, individual differences in temporal discounting tendency also influence how we perceive distance, rendering an overestimation of distance when using public transportation on longer trips. This highlights the role of psychological factors in shaping transportation perceptions.
AB - This study investigates how modes of transportation and temporal discounting tendencies influence travel distance perceptions. Using a controlled experiment with university students and hierarchical regression, we found that travel distance judgments were similar for all modes at shorter distances but diverged significantly at longer distances. Public transportation was perceived as requiring longer travel distances compared to personal vehicles. When temporal discounting tendencies were controlled for, the main effects of distance and mode remained, but the interaction between actual distance and mode weakened. These results suggest that while both transportation mode and veridical distance impact perceived travel distance, individual differences in temporal discounting tendency also influence how we perceive distance, rendering an overestimation of distance when using public transportation on longer trips. This highlights the role of psychological factors in shaping transportation perceptions.
KW - Psychological factors
KW - Public transportation
KW - Temporal discounting
KW - Travel distance
KW - Within-subjects design
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105010198399
U2 - 10.1061/9780784486207.072
DO - 10.1061/9780784486207.072
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:105010198399
T3 - International Conference on Transportation and Development 2025: Transportation Planning and Operations - Selected Papers from the International Conference on Transportation and Development 2025
SP - 830
EP - 841
BT - International Conference on Transportation and Development 2025
A2 - Wei, Heng
PB - American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
Y2 - 8 June 2025 through 11 June 2025
ER -