Md Bashirul Haque^1,, Md. Aminul Islam¹, Md. Meheraj Uddin¹, Md. Shariful Islam¹, Noushin Afroz¹, Md Sojibur Rahman¹, Md Mahmudul Huque Chayan²

Sylhet is one of the rapidly growing cities of Bangladesh with a population density of more than 20,000 people per square kilometer. However, no sustainable public transport is available in the city resulting in the worsening of traffic conditions day by day. In this situation, the implementation of a suitable public transport system like BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) can improve the situation. Before implementing a new transport mode in the city, a proper understanding of the people's preferences and perceptions is needed. Therefore, this study aimed to estimate the mode choice model based on Stated Preference (SP) data to understand the driving factors of BRT uptake in Sylhet city. In addition, the driving factors of choice may have nonlinear relation with the change in preferences. Therefore, this study is focused to capture the behavioral nonlinearity (changes in the BRT preferences due to changes in the attributes level) in the mode choice preferences of Sylhet city dwellers. From the model, it is observed that people's preference is not shifting linearly in response to the changes in the attributes level (travel time, travel cost, frequency, stoppage distance, and stoppage facilities) of the new travel mode. This study's findings can be useful in policy formulating for implementing BRT in Sylhet or any other similar cities.

BRT uptake, multinomial logit model, stated preference survey, Sylhet city, traffic congestion