Accessibility and time valuation in commuter mode choices

This paper examines how first- and last-mile access conditions influence commuter transport mode choice across four European urban contexts using a harmonised stated-preference experiment and Bayesian analysis. While access and egress conditions are widely recognised as important in mode choice, directly comparable cross-country evidence based on a common experimental design remains limited. We therefore focus on a deliberately controlled short-distance commuting setting to isolate and compare the role of access distance, access time, travel time, and cost.The results show that access conditions materially affect stated mode choice, but their importance varies across modes and countries. In particular, improved access to public transport appears especially relevant in the Czech Republic and Poland, while the relative valuation of time and access differs across contexts. At the same time, some willingness-to-pay-based indicators could not be robustly derived for all cases, which limits full cross-country comparability.The contribution of the paper is threefold: it provides a cross-country comparison under a harmonised stated-preference design, offers explicit valuation of access-related attributes, and identifies where comparative inference remains more or less stable across contexts. The findings support the inclusion of first- and last-mile conditions in sustainable transport planning, while also indicating that access improvements must be assessed together with broader network and operational trade-offs.