Travel behaviour in the developing world: challenges and opportunities

Over the years, travel behaviour research has provided several rational underpinnings for improving the user experiences of transportation services and enhancing the quality of life and subjective well-being of people. Prior research in this area has largely focused on travel behaviour dimensions such as travel attitudes, mode choice, purpose, and satisfaction. Many of these dimensions are, however, observed to have radically different patterns across the developed and developing countries, especially due to the gender disparities in travel safety perceptions and experiences. This chapter provides an overview of the unique determinants and patterns of travel behaviour in developing countries. To this effect, this chapter provides a critical review of the past research and consolidates the empirical evidence available in the state-of-the-art literature. The data collection challenges, sample representativeness issues, and methodological approaches are examined in detail for producing a set of recommendations that will help in selecting the most appropriate research design for measurement and analysis of travel behaviour in developing countries. In the concluding part of the chapter, a set of research gaps and directions are provided to guide the future research agenda towards quantifying and addressing the unmet needs of transportation users in the Global south.