Random Regret Minimization Model of Carpool Travel Choice for Urban Residents Considering Perceived Heterogeneity and Psychological Distance

Carpooling is a sustainable, economical, and environmentally friendly solution to reduce air pollution and ease traffic congestion in urban areas. However, existing regret theories lack consideration of the heterogeneity of attribute perception in different ways and the psychological factors that affect regret, so they cannot accurately portray urban residents’ carpool travel decisions and cannot provide a correct explanation of the actual carpool choice behavior. In this paper, based on the analysis of classical random regret minimization models and random regret minimization models considering heterogeneity, the concept of psychological distance is introduced to address shortcomings of the existing models and construct an improved random regret minimization model considering heterogeneity and psychological distance. The results show that the fit and explanatory effect of the improved model proposed in this paper is better than that of the other two models. The psychological distance of travel residents during the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) affects the anticipated regret value and the willingness to carpool. The model can better describe the carpool travel choice mechanism of travelers and effectively explain the carpool travel choice behavior of travelers.